CREATIVITY

EXPERTISE

gillian huntley

ABOUT

Gillian is a Toronto-based artist, researcher, and collections professional working at the intersection of cultural preservation, material history, and contemporary art practice. Her background spans museum research, archival digitization, curatorial support, and hands-on collections care across institutional and commercial settings.

She previously worked as a Research and Curatorial Assistant at the Victoria & Albert Museum in London, where she contributed to archival research and museum informatics for the textile galleries. She also participated in the photography, digitization, and archiving of a 1,000-piece historic menswear and textile collection dating from the 16th–18th centuries.

Alongside her independent artistic practice, Gillian currently works in art handling and collections documentation for film and television productions, managing photography, digitization, archival organization, and artwork preparation. Her work is grounded in careful observation, material sensitivity, and a commitment to preserving and communicating cultural memory.

My Process

  • Material Research

    Engaging closely with objects, textiles, archives, and physical materials as carriers of history, meaning, and human presence.

  • Documentation & Preservation

    Photographing, digitizing, organizing, and translating material culture into accessible and enduring records.

  • Curatorial Inquiry

    Investigating relationships between objects, memory, narrative, embodiment, and cultural context through research and arrangement.

  • Care & Transformation

    Working through attentive handling, restoration, repetition, and process-based practices that foreground stewardship and change over time.

WHAT SETS ME APART?

I move between three worlds that are usually kept separate: the museum/gallery, the workshop/studio, and the operational system that keeps cultural material in motion. I work hands-on with artworks — handling, photographing, digitising, and documenting them — while also making my own work (sometimes in the same environment). In this way, my practice stays rooted in handling cultural material while also working with how it is cared for, documented and perceived.

I am a trained art historian and researcher, and have worked in rigorous museum and archival settings. I don’t approach my world of work as purely technical or purely conceptual, but as something that sits in between — where care, attention, and meaning are all active at once.

That combination means I understand cultural objects both as things to be handled and preserved, as well as sites of narrative and meaning-making.

I’m open to roles, projects, and collaborations that sit across collections work, digitisation, archival documentation, and art handling, as well as studio-based or production environments where precision and material care matter.

If you think my experience aligns with your team or project, feel free to reach out. I’m always interested in work that involves close engagement with objects, thoughtful systems, and cultural material in its many forms.

You can contact me at studio@gillianfhuntley.com to connect and start a conversation.