What is an average day in the ‘working life of an art museum’? The answer is there isn’t such a thing as an ‘average’ day. From one day to the next you don’t know if you will be showing the Governor of New South Wales around the museum, climbing a scaffold to adjust the lighting on a work of art only minutes before 200 people arrive for an exhibition opening, wheeling a rhinoceros (sculpture) around the galleries or working out how to hang 10kg ring shaped ceramic pieces from the ceiling. All this and much more are some of the unusual and challenging things that happen behind closed doors at the museum, which makes it one of the most interesting places in which to work.

Ask any museum volunteer and you will hear similar stories. The volunteers at the museum are the life-blood of the museum. They work in all areas of the gallery – from exhibition installation to gift shop and reception, from collection cataloguing to conducting storeroom tours. They never know who might walk through the door, famous and not so famous artists, art patrons and collectors to visitors from all over the world. Imagine opening a crate to find a huskie team with sled from Mawson Station in Antarctica or an Elizabethan dress with over 200 pieces of material to be unpacked. These and many other surprises await any volunteer at the New England Regional Art Museum (NERAM).

This online exhibition, with photos taken by Anna, Brooke, Courtenay, Jess, Nikita, Sam, Taylor, Tita & Toby, a group from Armidale High School under the watchful eye of professional photographer David Doyle, document some of the many and varied activities in the ‘working life of an art museum’. The photos capture our staff and volunteers in unexpected and unguarded moments, contemplative, candid and confused moments, but they also record the work that goes on in the museum that the public never sees. Blank white walls, yellow crates, empty hanging wires, screwdrivers, nuts, bolts, hooks, poles, trolleys and white gloves everywhere, but amongst all the organised chaos are the hardworking and dedicated people that make it all happen for when the public walk through the door!

We hope you enjoy our first online exhibition showing the ‘working life of our art museum’, NERAM.