● GLASGOW ' S NO 1 LOCAL TEXAN , MUSEUM EDUCATOR & ARTIST

Employment in Glasgow Museums a Challenge

IN THE SUMMER of 2005,
Will Vasquez, an
accomplished museum
educator from the steamy
Gulf Coast of Texas moved
back to Glasgow to marry
his girlfriend from university.
He planned to donate his
museum experience and
knowledge to Glasgow's
museums in the six-month
period before his marriage,
but was surprised to learn
that Glasgow's museums
had no use for his gift of
service.
Mr. Vasquez said of the
situation:
“Shortly after arriving, I was
eager to return to museum
work and attempted to
volunteer my services to
Glasgow Museums, but was
told that it wasn't common
practice to take on
volunteers without proper
Will Vasquez's painting “Southern Comfort” (2006) work permits. It's a shame
that the Council would turn
down a gift of service
city's museums and
galleries.
Since receiving his
Resident's Permit and
authorisation to work in the
UK in January of this year,
Vasquez applied for a
myriad (over 15) of
vacancies with Cultural and
Leisure Services. To his
disbelief, Vasquez has yet
to be invited for a single
interview. Vasquez added:
“Show me that Glasgow has
more than its share of
young talent looking to stay
the course with more
education, experience, and
motivation than me and I'll
walk away content that the
future of this city's cultural
institutions is safe without
talent from abroad.”
The lack of interest shown
by the Council has bound to
be a shock to someone who
has worked in the
academic, practical, and
business ends of the art

LIMITED TIME OFFER !!!

(valued at over $12,500 for
the 6-month period) at a
time when it was facing
Clip this coupon and redeem it for a chance to difficulty funding its existing
employees and
interview Glasgow's favourite Texan son-in-law! programmes.”
Undeterred, Vasquez
world, been the artist and
the purveyor of art, pulled
the strings behind the
curtains for all of these
organisations and even
successfully set up and ran
his own art-related

2FREE"
continued working on his businesses. ...all in the
painting and visiting the space of half a decade.

ALSO IN THIS ISSUE...

Phone Will Vasquez directly at the phone number
listed below or email him at
ricewolfie@hotmail.com to arrange a suitable
time and location for this amazing once-in-a-
lifetime opportunity.
• Vasquez's academic endeavors at the
“Harvard of the South”
• One of the largest art museums in the
States takes on Vasquez...TWICE!!!
• LzDz Revolutionary Skateboards Roll On
from Sunny California to Paris

Will VASQUEZ 339 7405 Will VASQUEZ

 Education
VASQUEZ MAKES HIS MARK AT THE “HARVARD OF THE SOUTH”

Rice is
his main
course
HOUSTON, Texas-
In June 2001, Will Vasquez's mentors
bestowed two honours Bachelor's
degrees on him, in studio art and the
history of art, from a private and highly Rice University is ranked in the top 10 universities for undergraduate education
and research in the US by U.S. News and World Report (2005) and boasts the
selective university in the U.S. deemed fifth largest endowment of all American universities.
the "Harvard of the South", (Wm. Marsh)
Rice University. His apprenticeships extended Victoria and Albert Museum,
As part of those degrees, he came and outside the university, from and compiled education
studied at both the University of Glasgow working in a city gallery with packets to accompany
and the Glasgow School of Art, earning fresh contemporary (and largely travelling exhibitions. Working
high marks at each institution. At his local) artists to researching Van at the Sally Sprout Gallery in
home university, due partly to his Gogh's, Monet's and Renoir's Houston, he received an
aptitude and partly to his diligence, he for a curator of one of the initiation into the marketplace
was taken as an apprentice / assistant to largest art museums in the and had face-to-face contact
professors in both of his lines of study, country, The Museum of Fine with the public, from the
helping edit and research scholarly texts Arts, Houston. Houston, uneducated gallery patron, to
on one hand, and doing ground work for despite its location in the heart the collector, to the hyper-
professional artists' studios on the other. of cowboy country in Texas, is educated, and back to the
teeming with art and art-loving artists themselves. “Leaving
By his third and fourth year at university, oil tycoons, and a central hub university, I felt I had both
he was given the nod to research the between Los Angeles and New tested my book knowledge and
university's selection of new lecturers York. At the museum, he had put it to some credible use in
and an incoming department chair, acted his research published in the the community, working at both
as a personal assistant and gallery collection catalogue, worked the micro and macro levels of
liaison for three studio art professors, alongside curators developing arts organisations and places in
and worked with both departments to and installing a major exhibition between,” Vasquez concluded.
develop and present symposia on art. with staff from Great Britain's ê Click below for websites ê

More info

EDUCATION LANDMARKS: Will Vasquez A Tale of Two Cities

1997 Lamar Consolidated High School - Top 3% of graduating class, HOUSTON, Texas - Fourth-largest
Honour Graduate, National Honor Society, Duke Hispanic Scholar of city in the U.S. with 4.7 million
the Year, Varsity Football Captain, National Young Leaders Award. residents living in 8,778-square miles
of the eight-county Houston met area.
2001 Rice University / University of Glasgow / Glasgow School of Art -
GLASGOW, Scotland – Largest
Honour Graduate, Bachelor's Degrees in Art History and Studio Art, city in Scotland, with 1.7 million
exhibited works at every major student exhibition for four consecutive residents in 142 square miles.
years at Rice University.
 Employment
A compelling account of the life of Will Vasquez's desk at the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston in

The Fine Art of Teaching Teachers

Over 10,000 Houston-area teachers from various
disciplines attended the MFAH's teacher workshops
and conferences, gaining valuable insight into the
museum's collection and how to use it in their
classrooms. Vasquez helped turn these successful
programmes into Distance Learning Programmes in
2001, so educators far away could also take part.
HOUSTON, Texas-
A short month out of university,
the MFAH's Department of
Education snapped Vasquez
up and hired him as a full-time
programme coordinator and
part-time art teacher.
For the next two years,
Vasquez continued to develop
along the lines of his
university studies, researching
each major exhibition opening
at the museum and delivering
educational courses for local
teachers and short studio
courses for children. This
position exercised the limits of
Vasquez's university education
and his internship experiences,
as he not only had to know the
exhibition inside-out, but had to
somehow relate its content to
teachers of various disciplines
and grab and maintain the
interest of young children.
If delivering fifty of each course
over a calendar year weren't
daunting enough, he also had
to quickly improvise and learn
to operate the backbone of
each project; for each
programme, he was either
partially or wholly responsible
for the accounting, grant-
writing, publicity, programme
materials, registration,
statistical analysis and public
response, catering, event
photography, finding and hiring
lecturers and artists, and
whatever else was necessary
for the event to run smoothly.
By the end of 2001, he had
nearly mastered the moving
jigsaw puzzle that is event
coordination, opening the way
for more events and visitors to
the museum.

In his two fruitful years in the
Department of Education,
Vasquez developed an integrated
departmental accounting system,
introduced a mass email list to
replace the previous post-only
publicity (which not only saved
time and money, but made it
possible to promote events more
often and more than doubled the
attendance of some of his
programmes), and published an
illustrated arts curriculum
developed to help integrate
children with special needs. By
the end of his term at the MFAH,
his salary had been boosted over
10% in response to his devotion
and accomplishments there and
he was encouraged to take over
the Programmes for Families
division.

Curators, Dealers and Railroads, Oh my!

With all the academic and
museum work under Will
Vasquez's belt, one might assume
that he's most comfortable behind
a desk and unaccustomed to
doing the dirty jobs most people
avoid. Don't be fooled by his
credentials – he once worked on
the railroad...all the livelong day!
Before moving to Houston for
university studies, he took on a
number of physically challenging
jobs. Vasquez started out
shoveling fertiliser for a chemical
company in a small rural town in
Texas in his early teens. He
worked long days helping his
family harvest crops, delivering
hay bales to local ranchers, and
swinging a sledgehammer to
restore sections of railroad.
Away from home, he took on roles
in busy warehouses and
stockrooms. Vasquez worked the
dock of a plastics factory near
Baltimore, Maryland, overseeing
deliveries, compiling orders, and
maintaining the stock of the
international plastics supplier,
Fypon. In his early twenties, he
took on night-shift stocking jobs at
two of America's largest super-
markets to help fund his university
studies.
“Experience with tough manual
labour is by no means a pre-
requisite for your typical desk job,
but if I were an employer, I would
think that a candidate with that
type of history would go the extra
mile for my business,” Vasquez
concluded.

LzDz Custom Longboards coast
from Coast to Coast...and beyond!
By the summer of 2003, Will Vasquez
had more projects on his hands than
he could successfully manage. He
was working ten-hour days during the
week and teaching on weekends for
the museum, going hard on his art in
the evenings, and laying the
groundwork for a potential new
business venture on his meal breaks.
When questioned about how he dealt
with his workload at the time,
Vasquez said, “It was a heartbreaking
decision that had to be made. I felt
that all of my projects and work would
suffer if I didn't take a few irons out of
the fire, so I decided to leave the
museum to concentrate on my art
and new business.”
Business & Arts
From Vasquez's LzDz notebook
sketches to rolling artworks.
Heartbreaking as it may have been,
the timing couldn't have been better
for his art or his co-op business.
With Chris Walla, a recent graduate
with an engineering background,
and his roommate, an accomplished
surfer and skateboarder, Vasquez
set up LzDz Custom Longboards.
We developed and manufactured
custom longboard skateboards that
mimicked the experience of surfing
on pavement. “The boards proved a
hit with the Gulf Coast community
and later further afield - L.A...then,
New York....we even received a
picture postcard from an overly
satisfied (and daring) customer
“surfing” the streets of Paris!”

To Everything, Turn, Turn, Turn

Vasquez's remixed propaganda piece,
“We Don't Need Another Hero” (2006).
In the beginning half of this year,
Vasquez managed to shell out
works of quality that quickly
found homes, in a private
residence and at Gallery 23 near
Glasgow's city centre. Despite
his early flickers of painted
success here in Glasgow, he
hopes to re-enter the arts
community with a position at one
of the city's many art institutions.
“I don't think you have to be in a
position that requires you to
study artwork to be able to derive
a rewarding connection to the
piece..or the community itself,”
said Vasquez. “I've had the most
brilliant conversations about
At LzDz Custom Longboards, A short few weeks after
Will Vasquez provided the completing the project in the
artwork and designed series of summer of 2005, with all loose
logo applications that graced all business ends tied neatly,
the boards to come out of the Vasquez saw the opportunity to
workshop. He continued work on move back to Scotland to marry
his studio art to help keep the and be with his sweetheart. With
business afloat during lulls in familiar determination, he sold
sales. With his gallery contacts his lot, furniture, car, and all, for a
and experience at hand, he one-way ticket to Glasgow and
managed to keep his head above has never looked back. He set
water selling his studio work from up a studio in the flat he shares
his flat in downtown Houston and with his wife in Partick and
over the Internet. In 2004, he continues to paint and search for
began work on a year-long museum work.
commission from Rice University
to fill its graduate
pub, Valhalla, with
an entryway mural.
artwork with museum security
guards, who undoubtedly spend
more time with the work than the
curators and sometimes, even
more than the artists
themselves.“
n The goal for Vasquez now is
to find his niche in Glasgow's art
community, and establish
himself like he's done with every
other challenge or academic
opportunity before, whatever the
cost and with a sincere passion
for his work.
If you can give him that inch in Vasquez's “Reflection on Empire” (2006),
the door, he's reward you to the a scene from the doorstep of Glasgow's
horizon. Call 0 141 339 7405. own Gallery of Modern Art.
 Interview

AG: Why do you want a part in what

Glasgow's Museums do?
WV: I've helped raised livestock and crops, from seed
to market...stocked market shelves with the products I
once brought in...and no doubt, it's rewarding to feel
part of a most necessary cog in the structure of our
civilisation....but nothing gives me more pride and
happiness than finding a way to help someone access
artwork and treasures of their forefathers. It's like
rubbing the eyes of a newborn, and realising you've
been witness to a key moment in their spiritual and
intellectual development. I've grown to love Glasgow,
the city and its people, and would be overjoyed to help
to nurture its growing arts communities. Vasquez with his wife, Marion, in “The Contents of
Twelve Dowanhill”, which he painted this year.

AG: What qualities do you possess that would

make a potential employer want you on their side?
WV: Top-tier leadership and teamwork, and a number of the
qualities that help make projects successful – for example, taking
the initiative...when everyone else stands around, creative and
improvisational problem solving...when the unexpected falls on your
lap, and dedication...when the faint of heart wilt and walk away. As
the captain of a football team, I learned that being respectable
beyond reproach, listening to all my teammates, and encouraging
pride in all their roles made a winning team. I've carried those
lessons forward in every position I've held since, whether I led or
supported the effort from behind. Apart from that, being raised to
be a friendly and courteous southern gentleman makes me
someone employers look forward to seeing every day at the office.
Will Vasquez looking typically quizzical during the interview

AG: If someone from Glasgow's museums

is reading this interview and has
questions not answered in this paper,
how would they get in touch with you?
WV: They can call me at 0 141 339 7405, e-mail me at
ricewolfie@hotmail.com or write a letter and post it to me at
12 Dowanhill Street, Glasgow G11 5QS. I'm quite
approachable and eager to answer any questions they
might have about me or work I've done in the past.

IN THE NEXT ISSUE...

• Vasquez fills post at one of Glasgow's fine
cultural institutions
• Management responsible for Vasquez
appointment receive kudos from community
One of Vasquez's exhibited paintings from his
early university studios, “Everlast” (1999)