Press Releases

Demystifying Acquisitions - Call out for people aged 18-25

‘Collecting art into national collections has been a behind closed doors practice until now. This project is a chance to make this process open-source and useful to the next generation of artists and creatives in Wales while having real agency and access at every stage of the process!’

- Umulkhayr Mohamed, Youth Facilitator and Curator

‘The first curatorial job I had I made so many mistakes around acquisitions. It requires a very particular set of skills and nobody really teaches you how it works often until you’re in amongst it - the dark arts of the art world.’

- Neil Lebeter, Senior Curator: Modern & Contemporary Art

Amgueddfa Cymru are looking to recruit a core group of 5 people, aged 18-25, to work with our contemporary art curators to demystify the acquisitions process, debate questions on the proposed acquisition of new work and reach joint decisions.

You will:

  • explore existing collections
  • discuss collections policy as a framework
  • critique our collections policies
  • investigate the journey of acquisition, including funding
  • explore conservation, cataloguing and documentation of artworks
  • co-curate a new display, including framing, hanging and interpretation
  • create resources that make the acquisition process transparent to wider audiences

This is an exciting opportunity for creatives, those interested in working in the sector and art students or recent graduates to discover and understand art world processes that are rarely taught or discussed. We are expecting activities to start in May 2021 aiming for an installation date in Spring 2022.

To get involved and learn the ‘dark arts of the art world’ please send a short cover letter or recorded audio or video outlining why you are interested in this opportunity to bloedd.ac@amgueddfacymru.ac.uk  by 05/05/21.

We want the application process to be as equitable as possible and we pledge to make reasonable adjustments to this process in order to achieve this. Please get in touch if there are any adjustments we could make or additional support we could offer in order to help you apply. We will come up with suitable alternative options together.