As part of the 2nd year of my Fine Art Degree we have been tasked with the challenge of curating an exhibition in our Tutor Groups. We have a third of the year's work to choose from and can decide whether we do this as an actual exhibition or virtually. We are a group of ten and have currently twenty five pieces of work to choose from. So many decisions, so many options, so many hurdles.
We have set up a Teams group and have already had three meetings, which have been well attended, even though they have fallen as most of the students are travelling home for their socially distanced Christmas. Jo Dunlop has offered to be the Secretary as she has a lot of experience in this and herding cats from her previous work. Although my background is in Design, Advertising and Marketing I am trying not to take charge of this and have expressed my thoughts at 'mentoring' some of the other students who may wish to gain experience in these areas. It has meant I am stuck between not taking control and also looking like I am not signing up for everything.. at the moment that is.
One of the first things we discussed was about the work and I suggested I create one document that contained all the work on so it was clearer to decide what we were dealing with rather than scrolling back and forth between the work on the VLE (Virtual Learning Environment).
This highlighted the variety of work we needed to consider. Although we could pick and choose work from our selection as we felt would suit a proposition we decided that in this year of all years we would include everyone, we unanimously agreed that nobody should be left out. This will mean more work and everyone pulling together to go the extra mile but we believe the result will be worth it in the end. We don't want to find the easy answer.
Having looked at the work together we weren't sure if it would split into 3, 4 or even 5 groups but after discussion it was proposed that there could be three groups:
Abstract
Natural/body
Storytelling
Having originally thought we would have two, three or more people per group curating things it was felt this might become too overwhelming and confusing, so we have decided to keep it to just one person per group and then those three getting together to share their ideas about hanging/displaying the work. This can then be reviewed by the whole group.
The full list of roles we are looking at is:
Organising meetings and communicating actions that are decided to the group (ie group secretary)
Constructing exhibition space - using KUNSTMATRIX
Installing work
Curation/selection of work
Writing texts (including exhibition interpretation material)
Communicating with the artists
Marketing - including social media - promotional material - press release/s
Catalogue - design & text
Proofreading
Virtual tour/private view
One of the issues arising from the last meeting is the software that enables us to put a virtual show together. By using the Kunstmatrix version we can play with the trial version and look at the limitations but to actually use it for real we will need to pay a certain amount a month.
The actual date for the show is quite fluid but looking ahead at our timetable there seemed an obvious timescale. We discussed the deadline date for our first unit (BA2a) hand in on the 5th Feb and the date of the start of the next unit on the 1st March. This gives a three week gap between the two dates with certain activities happening in the third of those weeks, but no actual workshops. We agreed that it would be good to get as much as possible done as soon as possible, with the intention to exhibit around the time BA2b starts, but to declare the two weeks in the run up to deadline (from Friday 22 January) an Interim Show free zone.
One other item we keen to explore is a potential 'Teaser Exhibition' this would be a physical exhibition where we would look to show at least one piece per section and highlight the other work that will be on show and promote the online location of the Virtual Exhibition.
Due to the lockdown getting tighter and the chances of an actual physical exhibition becoming less and less likely we have decided to leave this until we potentially can get back into uni, maybe we'll do a retrospective show?
Dividing the responsibilities
Having split the group into three smaller groups we also have groups who are responsible for some of the different activities required to make this show happen. I was keen to not take over the visual look of the show but was keen to mentor others who might want to work on the marketing side. Several of our team (Amy, Nicole, Imogen, Emily and Isabel) came up with ideas for a logo/brand look and we selected x3 of them to take forward. This was where I could suggest and guide using my experience as an Art Director as to what could work best and how we could develop the ideas. I took the original ideas, created in various ways, and made them all up in Adobe Illustrator to make sure we could use them for all our promotional work.
We had a very productive meeting about the developed ideas and during the meeting were able to make a final selection and full set to show to the main group, the preferred idea was Option C but we wanted to adjust the colours and clarify a few points. Below is the final set as presented to the main group.
We decided it would be good to have a positive and negative version to use in different scenarios.
After looking at various options we decided these were the preferred sub-brands. We tried an outlined white 'in' and a different typeface for the 'vention, trigue and timate' but it didn't read as well and it is important to get over the idea of these sub-brands. The colours were being viewed on a variety of screens and the differences were quite substantial. We have decided on the middle set of the above.
These sub-divisions will also be used on social media, as a tease about the forthcoming show and an Instagram account has been set up by Imogen. We will also consider other forms of social media to promote the show. - https://www.instagram.com/in_exhibition/
The poster has had the addition of a QR code to enable quick linking to the show. It was also suggested that we can use this as part of our marketing to direct viewers to the virtual show using this on a variety of other media, stickers, flyers, etc. The dates, location of the show and artist list has yet to be confirmed.
Artist Call-Out
One the main criteria of our show was that we would include everyone, be totally inclusive and not make anybody feel that left in these very trying times. Each of the groups across the year have been allocated a third of the 2nd Year Fine Art who have been asked as part of their course to upload their work. This we believed was therefore acceptance that their work is there to be viewed, selected and shown as part of these Interim Shows. We constructed an email that we all agreed on, after a few minor changes that could be sent out by various members of the team letting the artists know that we had chosen their work, we were happy to use what they had submitted but if they wanted to update any imagery or text to let us know. We also asked, after Amy suggested, that we confirmed their pronouns. We really all felt that we had everything clear and as easy as possible for the all the artists we had been given to chose from. The email is below:
Dear Artist (this was personalised).
I trust you are well and coping with everything.
I am writing to you on behalf of our Interim Show Group with regards our Exhibition which is going to be called 'IN'.
We would very much like to use your piece of work submitted on the VLE, we would also just like to clarify a few points as we go forward.
Are you happy with the image and description you originally submitted?
Would you like to submit an updated image or descriptive text?
We will be looking to create a consistent style of descriptive writing across our exhibition and will be writing the text in the third person. We would therefore just like to know what your pronoun is?
We are looking to stage our exhibition at the end of February, so ideally we would like to hear back from you by Thursday morning (28.01.21). There is no need to respond, we will assume you are happy with the current information and imagery supplied and we can start the construction and supporting material, if we receive no reply or update by this date.
I thank you for your time and if you have any questions please do not hesitate to ask.
Kind regards, Amy Dowding-Walker, Carl Durban, Emily Fanthorpe and Isabel Fowler
IN - Artist Liaison Officers
However as with so much digital communication different people read things differently and we have had to have a meeting about an issue raised and put into plan a contingency email to let every artist know we would like to use their work and for them to agree inclusion.
We never set out to offend anyone and have made plans to make sure everybody is comfortable with inclusion. We are having weekly meetings as a group and other meetings between the sub-groups. We are making good progress and will continue for another week and then leave things until after submission.
All our meetings are well attended and notes are taken and distributed by Jo, who has taken on the role of Group Co-ordinator. This has really helped to keep everything on track and made sure everyone knows were we are week by week.
The final touches
As planned we all took a bit of a break for the exhibition so we could concentrate on our BA2a submission, although there was still some tinkering to be done to things. We all knew that by including all the submitted works from our third of the year we were going to have our work cut out but it was something we all felt committed to and it might have meant extra work and more chasing but in the end we all feel it was the right decision.
As we returned post-submission it was a case of getting all the images together and finalising the copy. Seems simple but with the images being submitted in a variety of formats, sizes and methods of delivery it took far longer than I anticipated to gather, check and standardise them all. Some files were corrupt, some tiny, some needed re-cropping, all needed adjusting. However, had we have had a real installation there would have been other issues to overcome, so swings and roundabouts or rather jpgs and pngs...
Gathering the copy for all three divisions and one for the main overarching exhibition was not too difficult as we had various teams per the three sub-divisions and a nominated person wrote their relevant piece and then it was just a case of standardising it all and making it read consistently. As the copy is going to appear not only on the Virtual Exhibition but also in the Catalogue and elements on Social Media it was crucial that it all read as if from one stable.
After a few tweaks we decided on the copy below. This could then be given to Jess for the exhibition, especially as we wanted a feature wall for each sub-division to feature the text. Amy is also putting together a Show Catalogue and it was great to see her develop the ideas of how it could look as normally that would either fall to me or I would assume control, I really wanted to make sure I continued my mentoring role rather than assuming this is a role I would take on. Imogen has been taking control of the Instagram account and by supplying her with the relevant text it meant at any touch point the messages about the show was consistent.
Welcome to our exhibition, IN.
IN is a show based on INclusivity, it includes every artist who put their work forward for selection for this NUA Second Year Interim Show. Inclusivity was chosen as a theme and name for this exhibition; not only were all the works worthy of a platform to be shown on, but due to the COVID-19 pandemic and the difficulties it has brought, it was felt that this exhibition should be used to showcase all the work created by artists who have struggled, whether it be with motivation, or access to space and equipment during these difficult times. The works have been separated into three themes; INtimate, INtrigue and INvention, titles which represent the way the work as been perceived and, which reflect the accompanying text supplied by the artists.
INtrigue
This section of IN comprises selected and curated works with a narrative element. These eight works form coherent cross-overs of art disciplines which convey ideas speaking to societal issues and human emotions precipitated by conditions in our modern era. What the viewer will experience is meaningful and engaging and entertaining.
INtimate:
This section of IN exhibits a selection of works that relate to ideas around nature. These eight artworks have been carefully curated and explore elements of the body, portraiture and nature. The artists have been inspired by a variety of concepts surrounding nature and the intimate connections we, as humans, have with them.
INvention:
This section of IN presents a selection of work that are abstract in shape, form, colour and concept. Each piece is unique in its appearance and the approach by the selected artist shows a personal expression of issues they are looking to interpret through their work. Every piece will be interpreted differently by every viewer, this will only add to the completion of the work.
The show
Jess has worked really hard to get everything in place in quite a condensed time. We were conscious that by organising the copy and images Jess could concentrate on the development of the show, Amy on the Catalogue and Imogen on the Social Media.
We had a final meeting to go through the latest development and discuss any fine tuning we wanted. Very little was changed with either the Exhibition or the Catalogue. Below are a few screenshots of the actual show, some as we were reviewing and discussing in Teams and some of the actual published show.
To view the actual show the link is: https://www.artsteps.com/view/60357852fa538a146d7a59f4?currentUser
We also finalised the poster which has been supplied to Tutors to distribute amongst our peers, and hopefully beyond.
We did look at whether it needed more information or copy but as a poster we really wanted to keep it to a minimum and just get over the name, date and link.
Social Media
To be consistent with the branding and copy I adapted the brands to fit the Instagram format. These will be used to promote the various elements and tease the work on view.
All we need now is virtual footfall...
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