top of page
Search

🎓Head Teacher Experience | Visual Arts, Arts Administration & MUSE Gallery

Mel Baveas
Sep 20
5 min read

Being a Head Teacher was one of the biggest learning experiences of my career. Between 2024 and 2026, I worked across Visual Arts and Arts & Cultural Administration at Meadowbank, St George and Ultimo


I wasn't just managing teaching programs. A huge part of the role became building the systems, spaces, resources and opportunities around learning so students could actually access them. 🛠️


📚 The courses


My Head Teacher role covered a broad range of courses and learning environments:

  • Certificate IV in Arts & Cultural Administration (Galleries & Museums) — Ultimo, full-time, 6 months

  • Certificate III in Visual Arts — St George, including Photography and Sculpture electives

  • Diploma of Visual Arts — St George

  • TAFE Statement in Painting Skills and Techniques — St George

  • Drawing Skills and Techniques short course - St George

  • YES Program - St George


The Arts & Cultural Administration course was particularly hands-on. Students worked directly within Building C — The MUSE Gallery, a heritage-listed former Museum of Applied Arts, gaining practical experience through exhibitions, cultural events and creative projects. 🖼️


Students developed skills in:

  • Exhibition planning and scheduling

  • Curatorial development

  • Installation and deinstallation

  • Gallery operations and Front of House

  • Event delivery

  • Marketing and audience engagement

  • Industry and stakeholder liaison

  • Artwork and collection handling

  • Project and gallery administration


The course was built around students participating in real gallery projecs in The MUSE Gallery from beginning to end, including major exhibitions and smaller collaborative projects.


💻 Building a better student journey

One of the biggest things I built was a Visual Arts & Arts Administration mini-site from scratch.



The question was simple:

Could a student actually find what they needed?

I brought information together in one place, including:

  • Course information

  • Timetables

  • Orientation

  • Student support

  • Disability and accessibility information

  • TAFE support services

  • Contacts

  • Academic integrity

  • Career pathways

  • Gallery information

  • Industry opportunities

  • Tutorials and resources

  • Graduate information

  • Exhibitions and events


I wanted students to have somewhere they could go before, during and after their studies to understand their course and the opportunities around it.


I also developed:

  • 🔗 QR codes to make information easier to access

  • 🗂️ Orientation resources and room sheets

  • 📄 Supplementary student documentation

  • 📝 LLN assessment processes during orientation

  • ♿ Disability and accessibility support processes

  • 👩‍🏫 Classroom support with Disability Teacher Consultants

  • 📣 Course and exhibition promotion systems

  • 📅 Project planners for internal and external promotion


The focus was always on reducing the amount of information students had to somehow figure out for themselves.


🖼️ MUSE Gallery

MUSE Gallery became a huge part of the role.

At different points I was effectively:

Gallery manager + curator + project manager + event coordinator + facilitator + administrator + marketer + Front of House + student support + bottle washer. 😂




I worked across the practical and creative sides of the gallery, including:

  • Exhibition planning

  • Curatorial development

  • Gallery calendars

  • Artist and stakeholder communication

  • Installation and deinstallation

  • Facilities and security

  • WHS and risk assessments

  • Heritage requirements

  • Catering

  • Sound and equipment

  • Accessibility

  • Parking and artist drop-off

  • Gallery sitting and visitor information

  • Opening-night coordination

  • Front of House

  • Painting Plinths

  • Delivering and Picking up artworks

  • A should to cry on

  • All the leftover jobs that still need doing when everyone else has gone home 😅


I also took on the student-service side of the gallery operation and developed a more structured internal booking process.

This included:

  • Internal booking request forms

  • Calendar invitations for gallery spaces

  • Gallery guidelines

  • Facilities SNOW requests

  • Security requirements

  • WHS documentation

  • Catering coordination

  • Sound instructions

  • Accessibility information

  • On-the-day gallery requirements


The goal was to turn gallery operations into a system, rather than relying on someone simply knowing how everything worked.


🎟️ Humanitix & event infrastructure

I also created the Humanitix presence for TAFE NSW Visual Arts & Cultural Administration, building event pages and supporting the ticketing process.



I developed a step-by-step ticketing guide and used the platform to create and promote events including:

  • 🎓 TAFE Art Grad Show 2026 & 2025

  • 🕰️ TAFE Through Time 1891–2026

  • 🎨 TAFE Staff Group Show 2026

  • Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Cultural Arts Exhibition 2025

  • The ARI Show 2025

  • Photography × Ceramics 2025 Show

  • Meadowbank Visual Arts Graduation Show

  • St George Visual Arts End of Year Show


This connected the physical gallery experience with a digital, public-facing event system.


🌱 Creating opportunities for students

A major part of the role was creating opportunities beyond the classroom.



I went to graduate exhibitions, identified students whose work I thought deserved a wider audience and tapped them on the shoulder to invite them into exhibitions. I also created call out poster and distributed across TAFE & Instagram.


I helped bring students from different campuses and locations together, including students from outside Sydney.


I also supported collaborations such as the Eora student exhibition, working with Murrah and students around framing, transport, installation and a yarning session.


The aim was to create pathways where students weren't simply completing an assessment and walking away with it.


They could experience what happens when their work enters a gallery, public program or professional context. ✨


📅 2024 → 2026

2024

I began the Head Teacher role with a focus on Meadowbank Visual Arts while also working across broader section responsibilities.

One major project was preparing for the move of Arts & Cultural Administration from Meadowbank to Ultimo, helping establish the foundations for the new delivery model.

2025

The role expanded across:

  • St George Visual Arts

  • Meadowbank Visual Arts

  • Ultimo Arts & Cultural Administration

  • MUSE Gallery

  • See Street Gallery


This was a period of significant change, with sections being reorganised and merged across campuses.


I worked through the practical reality of making those changes function for students and staff while continuing to deliver exhibitions, events, course promotion, accessibility support and gallery operations.


2026

By 2026, the infrastructure was supporting a new cycle of courses, exhibitions and events.

MUSE activations included:

  • 🎓 TAFE Art Grad Show 2026

  • 🕰️ TAFE Through Time 1891–2026

  • 🎨 TAFE Staff Group Show 2026


Arts & Cultural Administration students continued learning through the gallery itself — planning, installing, promoting and delivering real exhibitions and events while supporting other teams and students at TAFE to use the student run MUSE Gallery.


🧠 What I actually learned

The biggest lesson wasn't about managing a teaching section.

It was about building infrastructure around learning.

Learning doesn't stop at the classroom door.


It happens through:

  • 📖 The information students can access

  • ♿ The accessibility support around them

  • 🛠️ The systems that make participation possible

  • 🏛️ The spaces they learn in

  • 🖼️ The exhibitions they contribute to

  • 🤝 The people they meet

  • 🚪 The opportunities they are given

  • 🌱 The confidence they build by actually doing the work


Being a Head Teacher gave me the opportunity to build a lot of that infrastructure.

And honestly?

Being a Head Teacher has been my largest performance artwork. 🎭

The gallery and classroom became the stage.

The students became the collaborators.

The systems became the artwork.

And the question underneath everything was always:

Can students actually find what they need?

If the answer is no…

build it. 🛠️


🔗 Visual & Image References

 
 
 

Comments

  • Instagram
  • TikTok
  • Youtube
  • LinkedIn
  • Pinterest
  • Threads
  • Facebook

©mel baveas
©der_melicious
©mel beevas
@melissa maree

PRIVACY POLICY

bottom of page