Projects and Facilitation Team

When will the works arrive? But we need to photograph them at this time, and they're not even being made until that time. And that needs to be up by then, but these exhibitions don't come down until then.These are fairly generic art gallery conversations. We have them all the time. Like most galleries, Christchurch Art Gallery has a regular and fairly constant rotation of exhibitions, displays, publications, marketing materials, events... the list goes on. Each of these areas is handled by extremely competent members of staff with a keen eye on their deadlines. But what's needed is an overview—someone who knows how every deadline affects every other deadline, who realises that a late work here means a missed event there, a missing text here means a missing poster here. If a butterfly flaps its wings in the library, there's a storm in the conservation lab.

The Gallery's Projects and Facilitation Team fills that role. Tracy McCaw and Neil Semple look after the scheduling of the Gallery's exhibition programme, and all that it entails. Neil is projects manager, and has worked in art museums for the past twenty-two years. Prior to working at the Gallery he was exhibitions manager at City Gallery Wellington. Tracy completed a BFA in film at the University of Canterbury before starting work in the Gallery visitor services team in 2003. She began her current role as projects coordinator in 2006. Together they are responsible for helping to steer the Gallery through the myriad obstacles that can derail its smooth running. As Tracy says, 'projecting coordinates and delivering visions on a daily basis'.