DOMESTIC BLISS - FIRST WORKSHOP AT GOMA

As I used to always do when I started a new topic or a new book, I brainstormed the title of this workshop. I had a memory of a song called Domestic Bliss by Glass Animals. This song narrates a tragic instance of an abusive relationship a mother of one of Dave Bayley’s childhood friends was in. Unfortunately, domestic violence still exists in our societies. Many mass media talk about it. In my opinion, nevertheless, to be totally fair we should talk not just of the violence from a man to a woman but also in the opposite direction. Many times, indeed, I see women be cruel with the fathers of their children. I think we should teach our daughters to have a balanced relationship. A woman should in marrying a man and having a good home with his money. A happy woman needs to keep in her mind her dreams from childhood and search for a way to realize them, with or without a man by her side.

The 4th workshop of the project Thistles and Dandelions about Heritage started by asking all of us our dream job when we were children. Among us there were many teachers and artists, a writer, a painter, a pair of interior designers. It was really interesting to know about other people’s study choices and how [lives bring everyone of us around the world] every one of us around the world live following a dream.

The workshop continued with a quiz: we should guess the names of the following buildings. Do you know them?

We should know that the organisation Glasgow Museums receives money from the council and from donations, so it is a charity.

We were also made aware that at the GOMA there are four different exhibition areas, two of them are permanent, and the others are semi-permanent. Currently, one of the semi-permanent exhibitions is called domestic bliss.

Next, we learned about the different workers needed for a temporary exhibition before, during and after it.

BEFORE

CURATOR – A PROJECT MANAGER

ARTIST

MANAGEMENT

LOANS DEPARTMENT

PHOTOGRAPHER

EDITOR and DESIGN TEAM

MARKETING

CONSERVATOR

LOGISTICS

AUDIO – VISUAL TEAM

FINANCE and ADMIN

DURING

GALLERY ASSISTANTS

SHOP ASSISTANTS

LEARNING and ACCESS

VOLUNTEERS

CATERING

CLEANING

AFTER

VISITOR STUDIES and EVALUATION

DOCUMENTATION and ARCHIVE

This workshop confirmed the value of volunteering in the UK in both directions. Indeed, if it is an excellent way for people to improve their own skills and competencies, it should be a great help for the venues to achieve positive results. I was a volunteer for the Italian Libraries and for the Romanian ones and I can say that it helped me to put in practice knowledge I had learned during my studies. I am still a volunteer because I still need time to decide how to realize the dream I had when I was a child. I find this project satisfying because it is giving me an opportunity to discover a lot of things about the place in which I am living from the point of view of women: it is really important for me at this stage because I am a mother of two gorgeous children and I hope to be able to explain to them the great strength they will have just because they were born female!

The next step will be watching a movie and discussing it. We are in charge of thinking about a topic for our own exhibition. I have been thinking about mine and it will be about refugees’ favourite tools in their new houses.

What do you think about it? Feel free to leave a comment!