Thank You Volunteers!
It’s a couple weeks now since NEoN 2019 and we just wanted to take a moment to thank the wonderful volunteers who helped make the festival possible.
The tasks our volunteers do are varied; from assisting with installation, invigilating and to helping with workshops and social media. This year we even were able to provide one volunteer with the opportunity to be an artist’s assistant during the festival.
Lisa Lindsay came back to volunteer with us for the second year running. She said “NEoN is a great festival to volunteer at if you want to gain new skills and meet new people. My first day volunteering in the activity room I met my old college lecturer, he come in with a group, and showing them the stencil cutter and helping them make gifs was really fun. It was great seeing their interpretations of the theme.”
Jake de Búrca provided support during our Re@ct: Social Change Art Technology symposium, which this year expanded from a single day to a three day in depth exploration of the role of activism in digital art.
Symposium co-chair Joseph DeLappe said: “Jake was really instrumental in helping prepare supplementary materials for the symposium. He took the Google doc we had and transformed it into a useable, printable PDF timetable and speakers guide. He essentially took a day’s work off my lap.
“But he was also there for the entire first day helping people get set up and getting their lanyards and getting settled. He was just someone I could trust to get stuff done. He was a real help.”
Alex Murray deserves particular praise for assisting our exhibiting artist Steve Lambert, as does Lauren Barton who helped out with social media. Each year we try to match our volunteers with roles that will help them gain skills they’re particularly interested in developing. Although we have a list of jobs we’d like assistance with, we’re also very open to suggestions.
When looking to fill staff positions or when bringing freelancers into the organisation we often consider who has volunteered with us before. Former volunteers have gone on to hold paid positions with the organisation in areas such as outreach, engagement, event management, producing and administration.
Helen King, our outreach and volunteer co-ordinator, said: “This year we had a particularly dedicated volunteer team who supported us from the planning stages right through to the delivery of the festival.
“NEoN is now part of the Saltire Awards scheme, which recognises the contribution volunteers make in organisations such as ours and what they achieve. We will be recommending ten of our volunteers for awards to recognise their invaluable commitment.
“I am so grateful that each year I get to work with such amazing people.”
For former volunteers it is always worth following us on social media in case any opportunities come up to be involved again. We can be found on Twitter as @weareneon, Facebook as @northeastofnorth and Instagram as @neon_digital.
And thank you to everyone who’s volunteered with us, this year and in previous years. We couldn’t do this without you.
NEoN
Image by Kathryn Rattray Photography
