The Curatorial Trainee role has been a part of Attenborough Arts Centre’s team since 2018, created to offer a unique opportunity within the visual arts sector. Funded by Arts Council England through the Attenborough Arts Centre National Portfolio funding, the scheme was designed to support people who have a strong desire to work in the gallery sector but may have found it difficult to secure experience or training.
Today marks the last day of our current traineeship with our third position holder, Rebecca Wymant, who joined the team in March 2022. Before joining Attenborough Arts Centre, Rebecca earned her degree at the Loughborough University in Fine Art with a focus on photography. From there she volunteered as an Exhibitions & Events Assistant at Modern Painters, New Decorators while completing a Graduate Artist Scheme at Loughborough University, followed by a position at The Hub in Sleaford as a Visitor Experience Assistant.
Rebecca says she was interested in the Curatorial Trainee position due to her interest in communicating and telling narratives through exhibitions by pulling together different elements.
“As a visual learner, I am interested in creating different languages to speak to people and make them feel included.”
Over the past two years Rebecca has worked closely with the Visual Arts team, working with a range of artists to create diverse and inspiring exhibitions. Reflecting back on her experience, Rebecca identified Habib Hajallie’s ‘Black Pen Portraits’ exhibition as one of her stand-out moments, as she was the lead for the exhibition. This included communicating with the artist, developing concepts, curating the space, technical needs and everything in between.
Rebecca has assisted on the research, development and creation of 18 exhibitions including ‘Arcadia for All? Rethinking Landscape Painting Now’, ‘Tony Heaton: altered’ and ‘Letty McHugh: Anchorage’. This role has helped to develop her communication, networking and curation skills, being a vital part of every stage of exhibition production, from concept to organising loan agreements, creating interpretation and installation.
“Rebecca is awesome and has been incredible to work with these past two years. I will be really sad at her leaving but I know she has a bright future ahead of her.” Rachels Graves, Visual Arts Officer
Part-way through her role as the Curatorial Trainee Rebecca also gained a position at Shape Arts as a Production Assistant, working to create an exhibition for the Venice Biennale showcasing the dynamism, wit and grandeur of the Disability Arts Movement – an exhibition that will be coming to Attenborough Arts Centre in the new year. She has also been completing her part-time Masters with Museum Studies at the University of Leicester, due to graduate in July 2024.
All of the staff at Attenborough Arts Centre have thoroughly enjoyed working with Rebecca and wish her the best of luck in her future roles. To learn more about Rebecca’s work, visit her website by clicking here.
We look forward to welcoming the new Curatorial Trainee in the weeks to come, as they develop their own practical skills within the visual arts sector.