Newcastle University

Background

Iain is a graduate of the International Centre for Cultural and Heritage Studies Gallery Studies course at Newcastle University (2001-2003) and was appointed Programme Leader for the Art Museum & Gallery Education course for the centre during the summer of 2007.

Before returning to the Centre for Cultural and Heritage Studies in October 2003, initially as the course Placement Manager, he worked with the Education and Public Programme Team at BALTIC, the International Centre for Contemporary Art in Gateshead where he helped to set up and deliver the venue’s first year programme of educational activities. He also contributed to the development of BALTIC’s initial primary and secondary teaching resources: The B.CREATIVE and B.INFO books as well as assisting in the development of BALTIC’s newly opened Library and Archive, which is responsible for the documentation of BALTIC’s activities, residencies and arts programme.

Iain then went on to work as Curatorial Assistant at the Hatton Gallery where he worked with both the permanent collection, which comprises of over 3,500 works, including paintings, sculptures, prints and drawings and also a wide range of temporary and touring exhibitions. He was also responsible for administrative duties within the gallery and played a central role in the Hatton's collections management programme as well as assisting in the development of several temporary and touring exhibitions for the gallery.

In 2004 he co-curated the touring exhibition ‘Poems from the Catalan’ which featured the work of key Catalan artists Antoni Tapies & Joan Brossa.

In addition to his post of Placement Manager within the International Centre for Cultural and Heritage Studies, Iain was then appointed as the North East’s administrator for the en-quire gallery research programme, which is a new national action-research programme with the aim of exploring, assessing and articulating the special learning benefits to young people of working with contemporary art and the gallery space.

The eighteen month programme aims to identify key success factors that will build an evidence base to support the provision of more gallery education, contribute to policy, resources and good practice in the gallery sector.

The en-quire programme is funded jointly by the Department of Culture, Media and Sport and the Department of Education and Skills as part of the 2004-6 Strategic Commissioning initiative and started in January 2005. It is being carried out through three clusters or consortia of galleries and higher education institutions across England. The three selected consortia are in the North East, East London and the South Coast.

Led by BALTIC, which has education and public access at the heart of its mission, the North East consortia includes the Laing Art Gallery, Isis Arts, the Hatton Gallery, the Waygood Gallery potentially working in partnership with the Gateshead and Newcastle Teachers networks.

Roles and Responsibilities

Programme Leader: Art Museum & Gallery Education.

Module Leader: Placement Module ICS 815 (Heritage, Education and Interpretation, Museum Studies & Gallery Studies).

Module support for Specialist Option Modules 'Art Curatorship 1' & 'Art Curatorship 2'

School of Arts and Cultures Web Master

Qualifications

MA Gallery Studies (Distinction), International Centre for Cultural and Heritage Studies, University of Newcastle.

BA (Hons) Fine Art (First Class Honours), Department of Fine Art, University of Newcastle.

Previous Positions

(2003-2007) Placement Manager: International Centre for Cultural & Heritage Studies, Newcastle University. Module Leader: Placement Module ICS 815 (Heritage, Education and Interpretation, Heritage Management Museum Studies, Art Museum & Gallery Education & Gallery Studies).

(2005) North East En-quire Project Administrator/ Manager: Based at BALTIC Centre for Contemporary Art, Gateshead, United Kingdom

(2004- 2005) Curatorial Assistant, Hatton Gallery, University of Newcastle, United Kingdom.

(2002 & 2003 -2004) Gallery Assistant, BALTIC Centre for Contemporary Art, Gateshead, United Kingdom.

(2002 -2003) Education and Public Programme Team (Acting Officer), BALTIC Centre for Contemporary Art, Gateshead, United Kingdom.