ANU Spaces - Shan Crosbie, School of Art

Meet Shan Crosbie, a third year School of Art student who has been undertaking a six-week internship at the National Gallery of Australia.
 
Shan has also been involved in starting up a new student-run blog called Words + Pictures.
 
Shan, what degree are you studying at ANU?
 
I'm currently in my third year of my Bachelor of Arts degree majoring in Art Theory and Spanish.
 
What is your favourite spot on campus?
 
My favourite spot is by far the School of Art and Music Library.
 
You like it because....
 
It is such a warm and inviting hub. It boasts a creative design for creative people, and it also happens to house all of my favourite artists on its shelves.
 
If you were free for an afternoon, what would you do?
 
Well that depends on what you mean by free, I'm very bad at relaxing these days. When I've got a free moment from uni and work I always seem to find myself dreaming up the next creative project or plan so my work never really stops!
 
Tell us about why the new blog Words + Pictures was created. Who contributes to it? What is the benefit of having a student-run blog on art and history?
 
Words + Pictures is an initiative set up by myself and a very hardworking and enthusiastic lecturer from the Centre of Art History and Art Theory, Robert Wellington. As a student of Art Theory, I always found myself existing somewhere between the Art History students and the Fine Art students. To me, it seemed strange and almost wasteful that there wasn't more collaboration and connection happening between the two streams of students.
 
Recently, Art History has connected with the School of Art on an administrative level and this was a great step towards the vision, but I still didn't feel that this connection had filtered down to the level of the students.
 
In an attempt to bridge this gap between the two streams of students we created the Words + Pictures CAHAT blog.  The concept of the blog is that Art History students pair up with Fine Art students and the Fine Art student shares their work with their Art History partner who then writes an article responding to their work.
 
The blog serves a double purpose to document the connections made across the School of Art and also to showcase the work of both students to a wide audience. The blog has been running successfully for a month now and has been received extremely positively by both students and staff.
 
If students want to contribute to Words + Pictures they can get in contact with me or simply check out the blog at: http://cahat.weblogs.anu.edu.au/
 
You've also been undertaking a 6-week internship at the National Gallery of Australia. Can you tell us what you've been doing there?
 
I've been working with the Learning and Access department at the National Gallery of Australia for the past six weeks. There I have been helping organise and develop the online presence of public programs such as Draw Together, Dr Sketchy's, and Start with Art.
 
I have also been lucky enough to help with some fantastic special access tours like Art and Alzheimer's and Carers tours that really show an exceptional side to the Gallery and the lengths the staff go to make art available for all.
 
What career would you like to get into once you've completed your studies at ANU?
 
I am lucky enough to be moving into a rewarding career in field that I love, the arts. At the moment I am keeping my options open as to where exactly in the arts I will be. I am currently working for Art Monthly Australia magazine and really enjoying the world of arts publishing which connects well with my work with the Words + Pictures blog.
 
I also have plans to extend the concept of connecting Art History and Fine Art students through the blog on a national level, so at the moment I'm excited to see where that project takes me!