After our last meetings we devised a plan to try and get proposals or some sort of ideas about what people wanted to do for the interim show. We at first did the studio walks however not everyone was around, some did leave notes but overall it wasn't as effective as what we first thought. So we decided to get the register for the entire year and group people to each curator so we could personally contact everyone to try and get some information on their work and plans for the exhibition.
We tried to arrange people to who we thought suited each curator best, and who would be easiest for each curator to contact. For my group I chose people who I normally interact with as well one who I lived with so it was easier for me to gather information. I managed to get proposals from everyone in my group by the deadline I had set, however it did take several messages and a heated debate over my tone to get anywhere. I was asked if it was a bit harsh to state that those who didn't get back to me by my deadline wouldn't be involved, however I explained that it wasn't so much harsh but rather a way to get people to communicate with me sooner. I explained that we didn't have long until the show, that we really needed to know what people are doing so we can start to plan around them, and that there are a lot of people in the year group to curate over 5 days, and that in the real world, curators can't and most likely won't wait around for an artist to send in their proposal. They work to deadlines, just as we have to.
Heated debates aside, once we had collected everyone's proposals it was time to meet up and start to discuss placement, tricky works and ideas for marketing and poster designs. Beth had brought along large scale floor plans so we could start to mark everyone's works. The most difficult works to place were those who were planning to do big sculptures and using electronics. My group was mostly comprised of painters and small scale sculptures, so luckily I didn't have to compromise with anyone. We left out placing the wall based works as we felt they would fall in place once we have secured to sculptural pieces.
We also discussed risk assessments and were informed that each artist is responsible for arranging their equipment as well as doing their own risk assessments. I communicated to my group this as well as stating that I would help them with any risk assessments as I have a lot of experience in this area. We also discussed locations of workshops and Carl suggested that we could use SG60 as a possible workshop space. He also made us aware that he would talk to people outside NUA to see if they would be happy in participating in workshops and discussions.
We had also met up with Andrew, the graphic designer behind our leaflets and posters. He showed us a proof print of the poster and we all loved it. We decided to go for a layered look for the poster, with tracing paper over a printed background. We wanted to keep with the theme of 'under construction' and felt that this worked perfectly with that theme as well as showcasing the white space of the project spaces, linking everything together nicely.
Me and Sophie also announced our plans for how we wanted to go about with the instagram for the show. We decided on creating one main instagram that we can pass down to the next curation team. We thought this would be a lot easier than making 3 different accounts for each show. We discussed possible content for the instagram and to get in contact with NUA marketing to help with our marketing campaign for the show. Everyone seemed to be on board with this idea, giving us plenty of ideas of what to post, when and what hashtags to use.
We finally met up on the Thursday and went over everything and finalised ideas and to update people on the poster design. We discussed final placements, updates from those who had more difficult pieces to place and then made a plan of when to start posting content for social media. Everything so far seems to be going to plan, and there hasn't been many issues apart from a few artists who haven't gotten back to us clearly and those who have had to rethink their pieces slightly.
I'm really happy with how things are going and I can't wait to get the show set up and seeing all the work together in situ. I also can't wait to get stuck into social media marketing again and to creatively post content leading up to the event. The plan now is to wait for works to be finished and generate some content to start to post two weeks before the show.
Me and Sophie also need to get in contact with Andrew and discuss possible digital forms of the poster and leaflet that we can post on the instagram.