Janice Creenaune meets Sharon Pechey, a Scarborough resident and past primary school teacher and assistant principal, who now continues her love of learning and teaching children by volunteering as a guide and workshop assistant at Wollongong Art Gallery.
At 67, Scarborough local Sharon Pechey has a lifetime of experience in classrooms and schools. In retirement, Sharon continues her passion for education by volunteering at Wollongong Art Gallery, leading guided tours and acting as a workshop assistant to children and adults.
“A love of learning never finishes at school end, and the Wollongong Gallery attracts many with pure and genuine interest in the artists, particularly the local artists,” Sharon says.
She’s always been passionate about art and while teaching Sharon would take her students on excursions to the Art Gallery of New South Wales.
“It would completely open their world. For many it was their first experience of an art gallery.”
She decided that’s what she’d do in retirement.
“As soon as I retired I contacted Wollongong Art Gallery and offered my interests in volunteering as a guide. I was accepted, began training with a new intake of volunteers and began officially in 2014.
“I enjoy every minute, interacting with the different groups and visitors and especially with the many friends in the art gallery community. There is great camaraderie among the volunteers and support offered from everybody at the gallery.”
Some volunteers act solely as guides for various exhibitions. Others are workshop assistants and some volunteers hold both roles.
“For some of us with teaching backgrounds the roles are a continuation of skills we have developed over a working lifetime,” Sharon says.
“We just step up to the new roles. There are Junior Art Trails for preschoolers, various workshops and guided tours to keep us all busy.”
Sharon says volunteering at Wollongong Art Gallery is, in some ways, like a continuation of her classroom and teaching practices.
“Both the guided groups and the workshops allow people to talk about art in a safe environment that is completely non-threatening for us all. They always have questions, but we are often sharing the art together, and that can be a wonderful experience for me as well.”
Sharon says the gallery’s education officer Julie Danilov is “amazing”.
“Julie co-ordinates the volunteers and gives us great support. She is the one to allow it all to happen so smoothly.”
Sharon has a wide appreciation for all art, but is very keen to further understand and appreciate First Nations art in Australia.
“I search out Indigenous galleries when I travel around the country. The Buku-Larrnggay Mulka Art Centre in Yirrkala, a small village near Nhulunbuy in Arnhem Land is one of my favourites.”
Without the generous efforts of experienced volunteers, like Sharon, a visit to the gallery would certainly not be anywhere near as enjoyable as it is now. We are so fortunate to have her in our city.
Wollongong Art Gallery is one of Australia’s largest regional art museums. Entry is free and it’s open Tuesday to Friday, 10am-5pm, and Saturday to Sunday, 12pm-4pm (excluding public holidays.) From December 7, look out for Shape Shifters, an innovative retrospective of Australian collage.
The writer Janice Creenaune is a volunteer for Polycystic Kidney Disease Foundation Australia. Email janicecreenaune@gmail.com