Melissa Baksh Email & Phone Number

London, England, United Kingdom

• Organising and delivering a full exhibition programme across four locations, nine spaces and a wide range of disciplines. Overseeing exhibitions from initial stages through to completion: liaising with curators.
• Managing the daily operations of the gallery and a team of gallery volunteers.
• Events management e.g. Private Views and Gallery talks. Curating and hosting a sell-out panel discussion featuring cultural specialists: https://www.morleycollege.ac.uk/reggae-as-resistance/
• Writing and hosting the Morley Gallery Podcast, interviewing art industry guests such as Maggi Hambling: https://morleyradio.co.uk/programmes/morley-gallery-podcast-ep8/
• Managing the gallery’s website, social media channels and writing its monthly newsletter.
• Creating an original database on the Morley College Art collection.

• Writing on Old Masters, contemporary art, the colonial history of art collections and public art and statues. Commissions in The Guardian, The Times, The Independent, The Art Newspaper, Frieze, Art Review, Art UK, Art.
• The toppling of colonial statues is easy, what replaces them is more complex, The Independent
• Book review of ‘The Whole Picture: The colonial story of the art in our museums & why we need to talk about’ by Alice Procter, Art Quarterly
• The eight most festive paintings, Reader's Digest UK
• Feature on 'Dürer's Journeys: Travels of a Renaissance Artist', National Gallery, Art Quarterly
• Want to buy a Da Vinci? I can get you nine! Eternalising Art History – review, The Guardian

Hosting radio shows and podcasts on Rhythm and Frames (independent radio station EST Royal College of Art, London) Netil, Balamii and Morley Radio.https://www.mixcloud.com/melissasophia/

London, England, United Kingdom

Founder of In Tune Art Tours: original audio-sensory art tours, offering an alternative to the conventional museum and gallery tour. I use music to facilitate longer-looking and to create a more immersive experience for participants. Sharing my specialist knowledge in such a unique way facilitates deeper engagement and connection with art works.

Invited by the National Gallery Learning and National Programmes department to explore perspectives and narratives reaching beyond dominant discourses in the collection, considering questions about race and representation, as well as the origins of the collection.

London, England, United Kingdom

• Researching, locating and purchasing the rights to images for use in a forthcoming scholarly publication.
• Negotiating fees, arranging the payment of invoices, managing legal contracts, understanding reproduction laws, maintaining a database of information and working towards publishing deadlines.
• Central communicator between the author, arts organisations and the publisher.

London, England, United Kingdom

• Inciting discussion around art works, delivering gallery talks. Talks include:
• What are the similarities between the practices of Bridget Riley and those of Michelangelo?
• Spotlight talk: Rajasthan (2012) in focus.
• Official tour guide for Among The Trees. Conducting in-depth research of all art works in the exhibition, by 37 international artists. Writing and delivering engaging, accessible tours for a variety of audiences.

London, England, United Kingdom

• Supporting educational workshops for the public in gallery spaces.
• Welcoming visitors; providing exceptional customer service; gallery invigilation; ticketing.
• Clients include: National Gallery, Hayward Gallery, Royal Festival Hall, Science Museum, Kew Gardens.

London, England, United Kingdom

• Delivering talks, tours and workshops, creating printed & digital resources and assisting with educational events in galleries and museums. Past work includes:
• Longer Looking with Music: Poussin's The Triumph of Pan, lecture for an audience of 100+, National Gallery and Saturday Studio: creative workshops for young people, Wellcome Collection

London, England, United Kingdom

• Project managing workshops and events: working with time constraints, budgets and commissioning external freelancers and artists.
• Researching, developing and delivering talks and tours. This includes producing an original audio-sensory tour of Renaissance paintings in the gallery.
• Exhibitions Assistant for the annual Take One Picture exhibition: selecting artworks according to a criteria, assisting with the design and installation of the exhibition, producing a resource for children to learn.
• Designing and producing a self-led guide for the public to use in the gallery.
• Writing Instagram posts, writing and presenting a Twitter Bites video and a Facebook Live. The Facebook Live incurred 16,000 views internationally.
• Assisting with Mindfulness and Draw sessions for adult carers, Messy Mondays sessions for early years and Canvas(s), a project for young people from refugee backgrounds.

Master Of Arts - Ma, History Of Art

Continuity and Innovation: Reframing Italian Renaissance Art from Masaccio to Michelangelo

Bachelor Of Arts - Ba, English Language And Literature

Activities and Societies: Arts Editor of The Gryphon, 2014-2015 (student newspaper of the University of Leeds). Readership: circa. 32,000..

Erasmus Year: Bachelor Of Arts (European), Literature

Eilc, Italian Language