A Blast From The Past Through the Eyes of an Intern

Alex Ross is a second year Journalism student at Durham College. He is completing his placement at the RMG as a communications intern.

Over the past two years in my program I have started to narrow down my niche as a reporter for the school newspaper, the Chronicle. I have taken the spot as an arts reporter in the class and even my teachers have gotten in contact with me about artistic events happening around town.

I had never been to the RMG before I started at Durham College because I only moved to Oshawa three years ago. Living in a new city can be difficult because I didn’t know anybody from Oshawa and all of my friends from my old town were away at university in places like Waterloo, Windsor and Kingston. Being a part of the arts scene in Oshawa, and the RMG, helped me make contacts I never had the chance to before.

The RMG is a local treasure that some people don’t even know about. There are so many important connections the Gallery has that help bring people from the community together.

Part of my job here was to schedule some special day posts for May. These special days included a Throwback Thursday for each week of May, as well as a Window Wednesday for each week. For the Throwback Thursday, the gallery has chosen to dig into its extensive collection of the Thomas Bouckley Collection. There is no theme to the Throwback Thursday so all I had to do was go through the collection and pick some of my favourite photos.

After scrolling through the thousands of photos in the Thomas Bouckley Collection, it soon became one of my favourite collections in the gallery. A couple images stood out to me in particular, one of an “amusement device” sitting on the lakefront in Oshawa and another of a plane crash right downtown at King and Simcoe.

“Ocean Wave” At The Lake
Thomas Bouckley, 1912.

These images caught my attention because of their oddness. Ocean Wave is odd because the men on the ride are all wearing suits, despite the leisurely activity. The plane crash is astonishing because of the proximity to the community. If a plane crashed today there is no way it would simply be suspended in the electrical wires running along the street and only knock a few bricks off a building.

Plane Crash on King Street West
Thomas Bouckley, 1918.

The Thomas Bouckley Collection is one of my favourite collections because it gives young people like me a look into the past. Being young makes me feel like I don’t have a connection to the history of the town because as far back as I can remember is the old Famous Players and Zellers that used to be in the Oshawa Centre. Being able to look back at specific events through the Thomas Bouckley Collection gives me a sense of community and connection to the history of my town.

The late Thomas Bouckley donated the Thomas Bouckley Collection to the RMG. He was a collector and history enthusiast of Oshawa and Durham Region. The collection contains more than 3,000 photographs of Oshawa and surrounding communities. The collection is a good source for understanding Oshawa’s past and helping people engage with the history of Durham Region.

The RMG is an integral part of the Oshawa community and it is certainly a great place full of great people, not only staff, but the visitors as well. Being an intern at the RMG is a great experience for anybody that has an interest in arts, in any department of the Gallery.

Jessica Moffitt’s Internship at the RMG

Jessica Moffitt it a Public Relations student at Durham College and is doing her placement in the Communications department at the RMG.

When I walked through the doors of The RMG prepared to interview for a once a week internship, I didn’t feel the usual pre-interview stress that you would expect. Instead I felt excited and confident. The building was bright and full of natural lighting that made everything in the lobby shine. I knew I wouldn’t be able to find a better internship opportunity than this.

I am a second year public relations student at Durham College. As part of my program, I was required to find and secure a non-profit communications placement in the community to experience life in the industry. As soon as I saw the list of available placements I knew right away that the RMG was going to be the perfect fit for me.

For as long as I can remember I have always loved the arts. Whether it was printmaking, painting, drawing or playing around in Photoshop, art has always been part of my life. I visited the gallery quite often in high school (I was part of the O’Neill Visual Arts Program) and through many trips I became familiar with The RMG.

My experience here has been fantastic and I have learned so many things that I know will be an asset to my future endeavors. It is great to come to placement every Monday and be surrounded by so many creative and inspiring individuals who are all working toward a common goal. Taking part in different creative projects such as contributing to the RMG Blog, working with staff members to plan the Volunteer Luncheon and Membership Event, as well as working on the galleries various social media accounts has been a great way to take my education to the next level and gain experience.

I am very grateful for my time spent at the RMG and I would highly recommend applying to anyone that is in need of a position for their education. I guarantee you will go home at the end of the day feeling confident and proud that you were able to contribute to a vital part of the community and be a part of such an amazing organization.

Get to know us! Sam Mogelonsky, Manager of Marketing and Communications

At the RMG, we often get asked about what we do each day, how we got into the crazy museum world and also what skills would be needed to do our jobs. With graduation looming for many college and university students, we will be profiling members of our team to shed some light on what it is we do behind the scenes!

To start, we sat down with Sam Mogelonsky, who is the voice behind the RMG’s digital platforms, to learn more about her day and how she came to the gallery.

The RMG: What’s a typical day like for you?

Sam Mogelonsky: Firstly, no day is the same for me! My job is a lot like a party mix—part writing, part design, part print, part digital, but very fast paced. The first thing I do each day is open up all of our social media feeds and check in to see if we have had any questions over night on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, etc. Then I’ll typically write a morning post about something happening either later that day or upcoming at the gallery. I also have a master list of every upcoming deadline for advertising materials so I check that daily to make sure I get everything designed and delivered in time.

Once I have my morning postings and general emails taken care of, I will focus on an upcoming project or deadline. It could be designing our upcoming newsletter, writing press releases for exhibitions, updating our website, helping to design signage for the gallery or more long term planning for events such as RMG Fridays or fundraising. At the moment, I have two PR interns from Durham College so I am trying to impart some marketing wisdom on them by showing them hands on tools, like Google Analytics and HootSuite. There’s always something that comes up in a rush that needs some finessing or a design eye. I check in on social media about every few hours and will be posting throughout the day to stay in the conversation.

Sam at Making Methods, 2013

RMG: How did you get into this field?

SM: I started at the RMG about a year and a half ago. I had exhibited at the gallery in Making Methods (2013) and was captivated by the space and also loved working with Senior Curator Linda Jansma. Before that, I was working for a boutique advertising agency, managing the studio and web development. My past clients in the ad world have included car companies, telecom, hotels, tourism destinations, charities, restaurants, and even a dog food company! I was also doing a bunch of design and marketing projects for my friends in the art world—mainly designing websites and running social media campaigns for artists and galleries… and I still do this on the side.

I always had a keen eye for advertising and design, with my first projects being posters for my high school’s musicals. I grew up in a household surrounded by art and was always very interested in how to communicate visually. Since I studied fine art and am now an artist as well, understanding how people communicate and interact is key to my practice.

RMG Exposed 2015, staff and volunteers shot

RMG: What skills or training do you need for your job?

SM: I think the main skills are being able to communicate clearly in words and visual imagery, which I got from my undergrad in fine art and art history at Queen’s University in Kingston, Ontario and my Master’s Degree in sculpture from Central Saint Martin’s College of Art and Design in London, UK. Writing and story telling has always been key to my many roles which writing for art history and critical thinking definitely teaches you!

The more technical skills I have just picked up… in undergrad, I wanted a website for my graduation, so I taught myself how to build a website (note, in 2006 something like Squarespace didn’t exist so you had to code direct with HTML and CSS). For web building now, I use WordPress. The first site I built took quite a while to figure out, but now I’ve made over 30 websites so I can probably whip a small one up pretty quickly.

When I wanted to make projects that required image editing or video, I taught myself how to do it using online tutorials and working with friends. When I first started, I had a hacked copy of Quark Xpress and learned by using dummy books and really thinking about typography. It’s a lot of trial and error and practice… use InDesign a few times and you will forget the features—use it every single day and it becomes second nature.

Social media is a whole new beast! Being the bridge between the digital and analogue generations, (I got Facebook in 2005 and was one of the first among my friends to have it in London when I moved to the UK) I grew up before every moment was digitized. There’s so much out there and I think the way we engage with social platforms will continue to shift and evolve as we build the internet together. As the voice of the gallery online, I do my best to keep up with digital trends and am always looking for the next network we should branch into.

Hootsuite social dashboard for the RMG

RMG: What’s your favourite part of your job?

SM: Meeting the artists, seeing the collection and learning from my team. The most exciting moment of an exhibition is definitely when I get to meet the artist behind the work and learn more about their practice. I have been able to meet so many wonderful artists through working here (Coral Short, Pete Smith, Ron Shuebrook, Holly king, to name a few). They have really shone a light on what’s happening in Canadian art today and been inspiring.

I am also exceptionally proud of the new RMG website we launched in winter 2015 (that houses this article)! It was really fantastic to work with Junction Design on this project and ensure we made a site that worked for the many needs of the gallery, while providing a great user experience.

At the OAAG conference at the Art Gallery of Windsor in 2015, speaking about RMG Fridays and building a community

RMG: What are 5 things you couldn’t live without in your job?

SM: iPhone, MacBook Pro, Google Drive, Adobe CS and Instagram.

At the AGO for #MuseumSelfieDay with the Floor Burger by Claes Oldenburg

RMG: What do you get up to outside of the RMG?

SM: At the moment, my life outside of work is mainly focused on art – making it, seeing it and reading about it. When I’m not at the RMG, I’m probably on a gallery crawl, in the studio or curled up reading articles on Hyperallergic, Canadian Art, Sculpture or Juxtapose. I love good wine and food so that’s my other go-to, a good bottle of VQA and a tasty meal, especially if it involves oysters. Anyone who hangs out with me knows I love anything that sparkles, so I am always on the hunt for awesome vintage pieces with glitter. I am a big dog lover, so I try to spend as much time with my parent’s adopted 120lb Bouvier puppy, Hondo, as I can. I also have a sweet spot for bad ‘80’s and ‘90’s action movies. Die Hard is a masterpiece. Yipee Ki Yay!

For more, follow Sam at @sammogelonsky

Meet Heather Bulman: Communications Student

Heather Bulman is a communication student at Durham College and this winter she completes her placement with the RMG. She sat down with Sam Mogelonsky, our Communications Coordinator to discuss her experience at the RMG.

RMG: How did you get involved with volunteering at the RMG?

Heather: I began volunteering at the RMG in the summer of 2014. I knew I was interested in completing my non-profit placement here and decided volunteering would be a good way to get to know everyone beforehand.

RMG: Why were you interested in working in the museum sector?

Heather: I believe it’s important for people to experience culture in their community. By visiting galleries and museums, people can gain a better understanding of Canada’s rich cultural history.

RMG: What has been the focus of your internship at the gallery?

Heather: My position as the Communications Intern at the RMG has allowed me to expand on my public relations education with real-world experience. I have had the opportunity to work on a variety of tasks but have been focusing my efforts on the upcoming Volunteer Youth Leaders Symposium. I am honoured to help plan and execute an event that highlights the importance of youth volunteerism in Durham Region.

RMG: What is one thing you want to share about the RMG?

Heather: The people. I am blown away by not only the kindness of every individual working in the gallery, but also by their passion for art and culture. They are always eager to share stories about their art experiences, both here at the gallery and abroad. By working alongside the gallery staff, I have become more knowledgeable and invested in Canadian art.

RMG: What is your favourite museum?

Heather: My favourite museum is the Canadian Canoe Museum, located in Peterborough, ON. As an elementary school student in Peterborough, I visited this museum multiple times. This was the first museum that enriched my cultural understanding. I remember hearing the rhythm of the indoor waterfall as I imagined myself portaging across the great Canadian landscape.

RMG: What is your first memory of art?

Heather: Although I remember creating art throughout elementary school, I also remember visiting the Whetung Ojibwa Centre with my mother and grandmother, where I was exposed to Indigenous crafts and fine arts for the first time. I immediately fell in love with the elements of nature and rich colours used in these works. Trips to the Curve Lake Reserve shaped my appreciation of Indigenous art and became a tradition in my family.

The Intern Files: Celebrating Canadian Artists through Wikipedia

This post for the Intern Files is written by Madison Cawker. Madison is an intern this summer with our communications team and is a Candidate for Diploma in Arts Management at the University of Western Ontario.

Painters Eleven are a powerful force in Canadian art history on both a local and national scale. In an era of predominantly landscape art, they helped raise the profile of abstraction and inspire the next generation of modernist artists.

Their influence has directly touched the RMG through our connection with Painters Eleven (P11) member Alexandra Luke. Her significant donations have, in part, given the gallery the largest Painters Eleven collection in Canada and the ability to continue inspiring our community through art.

Alexandra Luke (Canadian, 1901 – 1967)
Symphony 1957
oil on canvas
Gift of Mr. and Mrs. E. R. S. McLaughlin, 1972
This painting is very large – 246.7 x 208.3 cm or 97.126″ x 82.007874″

Painters Eleven are celebrated online through biographical websites, online collections and web encyclopedia entries. Upon examining popular resource Wikipedia, however, we noticed a gap in information. While P11 members such as Jack Bush, Jock McDonald and Kazuo Nakamura had in-depth articles written about them, the women of the group, Alexandra Luke and Hortense Gordon, did not have any published information available.

Inspired by the work of the Canadian Women Artists History Initiative and the Global Women Wikipedia Write-in (#GWWI), I sought to fix this information gap. I wanted to share the lives and works of these important Canadian women artists not only because of their impact on the RMG but also because of their important contributions to the development and reception of abstract art in Canada.

Using a variety of references from our Joan Murray Artists’ Files and the RMG research library, I researched Alexandra and Hortense then put together two Wikipedia articles that reflect the vitality and impact of their arts careers. It was a time consuming process but it was ultimately very interesting work. I also got to learn some fun facts about the women. For example, did you know Hortense Gordon had an intense sibling rivalry with her artist sister Marion?

As of early July, both articles have been published and are available to read on Wikipedia.

Read about Alexandra Luke on Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alexandra_Luke

Read about Hortense Gordon on Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hortense_Gordon

Window Wednesday March 30, 2011 Isabel McLaughlin (Canadian, 1903-2002) Above the Rooftops n.d. oil on canvas Gift of the estate of Isabel McLaughlin, 2003

Isabel McLaughlin (Canadian, 1903-2002)
Above the Rooftops n.d.
oil on canvas
Gift of the estate of Isabel McLaughlin, 2003

I believe that it is important for women to be included in the narrative of Canadian art history. I have now gone on to create and edit several more articles on Wikipedia including entries for Joan Murray (art historian and former director of the RMG), Isabel McLaughlin, and the Canadian Group of Painters. I feel proud to have helped support Canadian art history in a small way.