Modern Literature & Culture Research Centre & Gallery

Are you interested in interacting with people, art, music, and new media? Consider becoming involved at the Modern Literature and Culture Research Centre Gallery at Ryerson as a Gallery Tour Guide or Docent.

The Modern Literature and Culture (MLC) Research Centre is seeking caring and dynamic volunteers with an interest in introducing others to art, music, and culture. Volunteering is a great way to learn about art, the gallery space and curation process, and to share your interest and curiosity with others.

What is a docent?

Docents greet visitors and interact with them at the Gallery. They provide tours typically to individual guests and share some of the information provided by the curator. You will be able to interact with like-minded students and visitors and deepen your knowledge of art and music through hands-on engagement within a dynamic exhibition space.

You will also be able to learn about our current exhibition, Domestic Music-Making: From Parlour Music to Digital Sound (September 10 – October 25, 2019) curated by Cintia Cristia and Irene Gammel, which invites reflection on the processes of musicmaking, parlour music, and the themes of motherhood, desire, and frustration within this genre through the lens of new media and drawing. The exhibition features original sheet music and cover imagery from the twentieth century as well as drawings and sound sculptures by Toronto artist Marla Hlady. This is a kinetic, interactive exhibition that will introduce docents to recent developments in the exhibition, art, and music fields.

Volunteers will be invited to attend the exhibition opening event alongside their docent role.

Next steps

If you are interested in this opportunity, please send us a quick expression of interest at admin@mlc.ryerson.ca by September 6th, 2019.

Questions?

Phone: 416-979-5000 ext. 7668.

Recent News

Sana Munir joins MLC

Sana Munir joins MLC

Sana is engaged in archival research and annotating articles related to the Telling COVID-19 Stories project.

Brenda Aleman joins MLC

Brenda Aleman joins MLC

Brenda assists the MLC Research Centre director and team with arts and research administration, while also supporting the MLC archive.

Angela Larosa joins MLC

Angela Larosa joins MLC

Angela assists with social media content, researching avant-garde women and issues of creative resilience during the Covid-19 pandemic.

Jeanette LaPolla joins MLC

Jeanette LaPolla joins MLC

Jeanette provides research and support for the Lorna Stevens Collection digitizing and archiving WWI and WWII rare archival holdings.

The Great War in Literature and Visual Culture

MLC Themes

The Great War in Literature and Visual Culture

Amid the unprecedented social change of World War I, women renegotiated their identities by dramatically changing the way they engaged with the arts. But how did they do so? And how did everyday citizens engage with the war?
Elsa von Freytag-Loringhoven

MLC Themes

Elsa von Freytag-Loringhoven

Elsa von Freytag-Loringhoven, considered by many to be the mother of Dada, was a daringly innovative poet and an early creator of junk sculpture. “The Baroness” was best known for her sexually charged, often controversial performances.
Modernism in the World

MLC Themes

Modernism in the World

Recent research has departed from the Euro-centric and national view of Modernism to include approaches and methods studying Modernism across national boundaries and across different art forms to include fashion, dance, performance, technology, and visual culture.
Lucy Maud Montgomery

MLC Themes

Lucy Maud Montgomery

L.M. Montgomery is perhaps Canada's most important literary export. She was prolific writer of over 500 short stories and poems, and twenty novels, including the beloved Anne of Green Gables.
Canadian Modernism

MLC Themes

Canadian Modernism

The works of numerous Canadian authors who lived during the modernist era may well constitute the most central and experimental articulation of Canadian modernism in prose, allowing authors to stage cross-cultural, controversial, and even conflicted identities.
Modernist Biography and Life Writing

MLC Themes

Modernist Biography and Life Writing

Life writing, including autobiographical accounts, diaries, letters and testimonials written or told by women and men whose political, literary or philosophical purposes are central to their lives, has become a standard tool for communication and the dissemination of information.