Jean Tormey and Tate Liverpool
What is your business/ job role? I am Public Programmes Curator at Tate Liverpool. I curate and coordinate the Public Programme which consists of courses, talks, symposia, conferences and performances for adult and academic audiences relating to modern and contemporary art in the Tate Collection and to temporary International Exhibitions at Tate Liverpool. Recently we have focused all of this activity on our 'Late at Tate Liverpool' nights on the last Thursday of every month where we open the Gallery until 9pm and programme an exciting array of talks, tours, screenings, live art, theatre and music performances.
Why do you work there?
I started about two and a half years ago. I was looking for exactly this kind of work and leapt at the chance to apply for the job! I was living in Dublin at the time, where I'm from. I flew over for the interview and flew back a couple of weeks later to start the job!
What did you do before it?
I studied Art History and French at Trinity College Dublin for four years. Immediately after I graduated I went to Rome and taught English there for two years, while working in galleries as a volunteer to get some experience in the visual arts. After two years I decided I wanted to undertake a Masters and enrolled on the Arts Management and Cultural Policy MA at University College Dublin (the management side of things was taught by the Business School at University College Dublin - that's about as close as I get to a business background!). Following my Masters, I went to New York and completed internships at the Museum of Modern Art and the Guggenheim in their Education Departments while working in bars in the evening to make ends meet. Soon after I returned from New York I heard of the job at Tate Liverpool and moved over here.
What makes your business unique?
Although Tate Liverpool is not technically a businesses, we do engage in - for example - marketing activity in the same way as businesses do, but this is not necessarily to make money. Tate Liverpool is interested in attracting people to its galleries because it wants the public to realise that Tate Liverpool is their place - a space for them to see the public collection of modern and contemporary art and to have unique and meaningful experiences with the artwork and each other in the Gallery. This is very relevant to my role - which is about building audiences, making the work we have on exhibit more accessible, making interdisciplinary links between the work and other art forms and generally encouraging the use of Tate Liverpool as a social space to meet friends and family - an alternative to the local pub!
What are your plans to make the most of Capital of Culture?
At Tate Liverpool we have an exciting line up of events - from our Late at Tate nights linked to NIki de Saint Phalle (24 April) and Klimt (26 June, 31 July, 28 August); our Birthday Party celebrations (3 - 5 May) where we celebrate 20 years on the dock with a feast of activity including a special Northern Soul Night on the 3 May and also a conference entitled Magical Mysterious Regeneration (12 - 14 June) where we take a more critical look at how the arts can be a catalyst for regeneration.
Any tips?
Personally, I am trying to see as much as possible throughout the year of culture, and am looking forward to seeing One Step Back One Step Forward performance at the Anglican Cathedral and Endgame at the Everyman this week. The re-opening of the Bluecoat has been a real highlight and I'm looking forward to the Liverpool Biennial too.
Any business anecdotes?
We recently staged a performance called 'Kissing' as part of one of our Late at Tate Liverpool nights in respond to Rodin's The Kiss sculpture which is currently part of our DLA Piper Series: The Twentieth Century: How it Looked & How it Felt. The performance consisted of 12 couples kissing at intervals throughout he evening in the foyer, stair shafts and lifts of Tate Liverpool - surprising and startling visitors to the Gallery that evening. It looked at how different our response is to actual kissing in public as opposed to a sculpture of the same act!
