Georgie Parker has always been drawn to the arts – “Without the arts, what would we have?”
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The Academy Gallery Volunteer Club president said everywhere people looked, they were surrounded by creativity and creations.
She found a new appreciation for the arts after volunteering at Academy Gallery for more than a decade.
Volunteering helped to open her mind to different arts and ideas, Parker said.
She developed an interest in video artistry after initially not believing it would be of any appeal.
“You absorb so much … you’re always learning as you go,” she said.
“I’ve loved to be a part of it.”
As a university gallery, the people she was able to meet were from all walks of life, Parker said.
She said it was a wonderful opportunity to help showcase, and encourage people to engage with the arts.
Part of the joy of volunteering was introducing people to things they might never have seen or experienced before, she said.
The club helped Parker to look behind the scenes at the gallery, meeting artists, curators and people from across the arts industry.
She started volunteering at the Queen Victoria Museum and Art Gallery not long after it shifted to Inveresk.
Initially Parker said she was hesitant to join the gallery’s volunteer club as she thought it was only for university students.
At the time, she was an arts student at TAFE, and had started the Design Centre only a year or two before.
She got involved in 2004, two years after the club was established, and hasn’t regretted the decision.
“Invaluable friendships” have formed while Parker has volunteering.
“I would never have met them if not for the gallery.”
She is responsible for organising volunteers for exhibition openings and gallery sitting as well as meeting with new volunteers.
This was not the limit to her volunteering at the gallery or elsewhere in the Northern Tasmanian arts scene.
Plastering and helping install exhibitions were some of the tasks she found herself doing as part of her role.
Parker has also volunteered at Breath of Fresh Air Festival and Junction Arts Festival in the past.
She moved to Tasmania in 1993 after living in Western Australia.
Parker hoped to encourage more people to volunteer with the club.
- Academy Gallery will open a retrospective exhibition called Embodied Landscapes by former University of Tasmania head of drawing and painting Dr Sue Henderson between April 30 and May 30.
- Contact Academy Gallery Volunteer Club president Georgie Parker at gpa83042@bigpond.net.au for more information about volunteering with at the gallery.
Tess Brunton
I recently returned from across the ditch where I worked at New Zealand Fairfax paper The Timaru Herald and developed a love of mountains. Originally I'm a mainlander from an area known for cheese, the Bega Valley, who also dabbled in radio at ABC RCAFF before finding a place in newspapers. I can often be found hiking, caving or climbing when I'm not cursing at my work computer or technology in general.
I recently returned from across the ditch where I worked at New Zealand Fairfax paper The Timaru Herald and developed a love of mountains. Originally I'm a mainlander from an area known for cheese, the Bega Valley, who also dabbled in radio at ABC RCAFF before finding a place in newspapers. I can often be found hiking, caving or climbing when I'm not cursing at my work computer or technology in general.
