January Update

It's coming to the end of January now and as I have had a little spare time, I thought I would use today to update all the things I have been meaning to update for a while. My blog being one of them. If you follow me on twitter, or read my blog at all, then you will know at the beginning of January I started a four week internship at National Museums Liverpool in the design department. I have been enjoying it so much and learning such a lot about Auto CAD and the work that goes into designing an exhibition. 

At the moment I have been lucky enough to work on the Living Apart by Ian Berry exhibition. As it is a photography exhibition I have been trying to work out the layout of the moveable walls and the photographs. Its been a great starting project as it has allowed me to get really stuck into learning AutoCAD. Luckily I know the exhibition space pretty well, as it is the space the museum kindly allowed me to use as the location for my final major project at University. It is great to be able to learn how a real exhibition comes together and see how the designers work alongside a large number of other departments and people to make an exhibition come together. After a meeting this week, where I shown the plans I had come up with (very nerve-racking) I was asked if I would like to extend my internship until the beginning of March. I am so happy to be able to stay longer as I feel I am learning so much another four weeks would be brilliant.

Things are definitely looking up for me at the moment, I have been getting really stuck into Halewood Arts Association and I am currently in the process of planning and organising a really exciting project for the Junior Artists Club. It will run over a few weeks and involve the local community and Halewood Park. Fingers crossed the children enjoy it, I will blog more about it when the details become more finalised. Me and Carole are also in the process of applying for lots of funding, so if you are reading and would like to give Halewood Arts Association some money, feel free.

There is a lot to look forward too over the next couple of weeks. I will be graduating (finally) on the 8th February and can't wait, even if I am very nervous about standing up on stage.

I have finished updating my website too and feel happy with how it looks now. If you would like to have a look through that would be great and feel free to give me any feedback... but please be nice.

Museums, Events and Meetings

It has only just occurred to me that I haven’t blogged in 2011. I have been pretty busy lately and keep saying to myself, I will blog tonight and then completely forgetting. So here it is!

I have been up to quite a bit in the first 12 days of the year. Firstly I have been back at Halewood Arts Association. Me and Carole have been trying to work out the years events and what we would like to do within Halewood Arts. One of the first things we are thinking about is getting Halewood Arts online. I have been put in charge of the twitter account. Ever since the Good Food Show in Birmingham, I have become completely addicted to twitter. Not only are all the people on their lovely, supportive and always on hand with advice, it is a really great way of networking and meeting people with similar interests and careers. It seemed the obvious thing to do to get Halewood Arts Association on there. If you are on twitter it would be great if you could follow us. I am trying to get our followers up at the moment.

@halewoodarts

Carole has asked me to take lead with some of the childrens art workshops too, which is great. I am just trying to come up with some exciting things they can do. A lot of the children have been attending for a number of years and it can be hard to think of new things for them to do each week.

I am also having a large input in the events going on with Halewood Arts Association this year and assisting Carole with applying for funding and thinking of interesting things we can do within the community and with the children. I shall keep you posted on anything we come up with.

On Monday I started my internship / work experience within the Liverpool Museum Design department. I have only been there two days but I am loving it already. The design team mostly work with Auto CAD, a program I haven’t used before. Simon, one of the lead 3D designers talked through the program with me for about an hour and I seem to have picked up the basics now. On my first day I recreated some plans they have and managed to get them as close as I could. I am working on a real project now, working on wall plans and photo layout. I am really enjoying it and look forward to the next four weeks. If I come away from this with a new skill of being able to use Auto CAD it will be brilliant.

I also had a great meeting with Rich Pontefract from Another Media based in Liverpool. I got in touch with him to ask for some advice about getting ahead in the Event Management industry and he kindly offered to meet with me to discuss it in person. It was one of the most informative hours I’ve ever had. He gave me pages and pages of advice and also explained to me how he set up his business and what he has done since University. It was extremely helpful and it was nice to have someone reassure me that everything I am doing at the moment is good. Sometimes you need someone who isn’t a parent or friend to tell you that you are doing well. I came away from the meeting very positive and look forward to meeting Rich again in the future.

This weekend I am hoping to go to the Liverpool Wedding Show with my cousin who is due to marry in 2012, should be a great way of meeting people within the event industry also.