Wednesday as an Art Historian

7am

As a first year Curating and Art History undergrad at York, I start my week with lectures on Monday and Tuesday. Wednesdays are my favourite days because I have my curation seminars. More often than not, we’ll be out of the university on an exciting field trip to a gallery or museum.

This particular morning, I’m up early because I am going to the Millennium Gallery with my Curation seminar group. We’re meeting our tutor at York station at 8.45am to start our exciting excursion to Sheffield!

I live in Halifax College. This is a 10-minute walk from Vanbrugh College, where History of Art is based and where we have most of our lectures. This morning, I’m walking to the station because I love listening to music and getting hyped over the day ahead. Sometimes, when I oversleep a little, I walk over to Heslington Road and get the bus to York station instead.

9.20am

I’m on the train with my Curation group and of course, being art historians, we are engaged in a debate from a comment made during a lecture the day before. Because it is important to self study after lectures, it’s great to discuss lectures and work on the Virtual Learning Environment with other students.

10.30am

We are at the Millennium Gallery in Sheffield! My friend Rita and I find the Ruskin display especially interesting. We have a tour and talk by one of the gallery’s curators who is a former York student. This always creates a dialogic space for us because there’s always more to curation than the items displayed in the gallery. During the talk, we discuss the art, its display, public programming by the gallery, future exhibitions, and the various curatorial techniques employed by the gallery and its staff. After the talk, we head to the Graves Library where we coincidentally find some of the Netherlandish art that was featured in our lecture on Tuesday! Rita and I stay a little longer; having a coffee and going between the two gallery spaces, we lose track of time slightly!

1.50pm

I leave Sheffield buoyed, albeit a little late for my next seminar. By my calculations, I’ll be about five minutes late for my French class. I have the option of studying a language as part of my Curation and Art History degree. Learning a language is a challenge but you learn a lot faster when you can spend time with other language students, so after my French class I’ll have a late lunch with my friend Julie, practicing our French.

6pm

I head back to my college, Halifax, to get my notes down and unwind. I’ll make myself a light supper as I’m quite full from my earlier meal with Julie. After supper I’ll climb into my bed, because I’m usually really tired after all the walking and talking all day. I write down my notes and prepare for Thursday.