Mentorship Program

The GPG Mentorship Program sees students teamed up with a mentor, who provides feedback, assistance and guidance through regular in person or online meetings.
The mentorship program is student-led, and students are expected to have a general idea of a project, areas of practice or professionalism that they seek assistance with. This can be as specific as a series of new paintings, or as open-ended as how to organise a group exhibition.
The mentorship program is extra-curricular, and not designed to assist students with work for assessment.
The duration of the mentorship and frequency of meetings will be agreed on by the mentor and student, according to the student’s availability and needs. It is imagined that the mentorship will include at least four meetings.
Students are invited to submit an Expression of Interest via the form below. EOIs can be submitted to gpg@union.unimelb.edu.au. The deadline for submitting EOIs is March 18.
GPG MENTORSHIP PROGRAM EXPRESSION OF INTEREST Word doc
GPG MENTORSHIP PROGRAM EXPRESSION OF INTEREST PDF
We recommend you consult the GPG MENTORSHIP GUIDELINES before applying.
The GPG Mentorship Program is open to all currently enrolled University of Melbourne students. If you have any questions email gpg@union.unimelb.edu.au.
Please contact us directly if you require any access provisions. Accessibility is important to Arts Programs and we aim to accommodate everyone.
Submissions will be considered against the skills, knowledge and experience of the GPG mentors. At present the mentors include Arts Programs staff members Sandie Bridie, Coordinator and Director of the George Paton Gallery, and David Attwood, Arts Projects and Programs Officer. Information on the mentors can be found below.

David Attwood makes work in the form of readymades, found objects and sculptural assemblages using contemporary commodities. In 2016 Attwood completed a PhD in Art at Curtin University, and in 2019 completed the SOMA Summer program, SOMA, Mexico City. He has participated in numerous solo and group exhibitions nationally and internationally in commercial, institutional, artist-run, online and offsite settings. Attwood is the co-editor of the book The Art of Laziness: Contemporary Art and Post-work Politics (Art + Australia, 2020).
Sandra Bridie’s work straddles individual practice, collaboration, exhibition curation, teaching, gallery management, writing, and the interview as documentation of individual and collective artistic practice in Melbourne. Sandra has coordinated a series of spaces and projects including; Fictional and Actual Artists Space (1995-6), Talk Artists Initiative (1997-2000) six conjectural modules (2002-3). Sandra was also a founding member of the artist’s group Ocular Lab, which ran from 2003-2010 and through this involvement hosted a series of international, national and local artist’s residencies in the Ocular Lab space.
Bridie’s individual practice involves the invention of fictional artists presented via a suite of art works from a range of media including film, sculpture, performance, painting and conceptual art. These works. as seen in her 2017 publication Sandra Bridie, b.19–: Eight fictions, are usually accompanied by a published ‘interview’ with the fictional artist describing the journey towards the work seen.
Since 2004, Sandra has held the position of director of the George Paton Gallery.
GPG Mentorship Testimonials