The show was really successful, and we were all very happy with the work we were given and how each project space was curated. Social media was a big success and the marketing was really successful. However, we have learnt a lot from curating this event, and these mainly came from aspects that didn't work so well.
We all were really proud of how each project space was curated. Each space had it's own flair and the works looked really effective in situ. However, we did encounter a few problems when curating. The main problem was Project Space 2. Because this was a corridor space, had the most work, and not enough wall space, it was a challenge to place works in places where they would fit. On top of all this, we had one of the exhibitors put their work up straight away without waiting for us to say so, so we also had to work around that. It was a particularly big piece as well, which took up the centre of a main wall where some of the works could have been placed. However, we worked together to place the work in suitable areas, and managed to come up with a floor plan that worked.
The main theme of the work in this space was religious, spiritual and the body. We tried to give each piece their own space, especially Maisie's head piece as they needed room to be viewed as a whole. We also had big pieces surrounding the dear piece that was put up first to balance out the work. As well as trying to place works close to what the artist requested. There was a lot of compromising with artists to try and fit all the pieces in each space. Furthermore, we've had to try and place difficult pieces in places where we wouldn't have ideally placed it. For example we had a piece in PS4 that was an illustration of a horse that didn't fit with the rest of the works we had, we therefore had to place it along with the prints above the vitrine box as we felt they looked archival and this piece looked like it would be displayed in a museum. They worked well together, however we did feel like the piece should have been moved slightly more to the side so it wouldn't be confused with the other pieces, but there was no other space for the piece.
Furthermore, we did receive criticism with how we arranged the works into spaces. People felt that there wasn't a connection between the spaces, and that the whole 'under construction' theme wasn't captured well in each space. For example, some stated that PS1 and PS2 had a lot more finalised pieces, whereas in PS3 and PS4 we had more interactive, work in progress pieces. I think to improve on this, it would have been better to mix works in pieces with finalised pieces to have much more of a connection.
Further more, we did have some criticism with how we did the labels. My suggestion for the labels would be to have the artist's social media links to find out more about the artist as we didn't want to have to gather 60 captions for the works. This in theory would have been successful but perhaps with the added captions as some of the works needed more context to be understood, and not many of the students in the lower years are as active as we are in finding information. We didn't do any vinyl text either, which in hindsight would have been effective as it would have helped give more context to the show as well as context to why pieces were shown where. The clipboards were a great addition, but weren't used to the effect that we were hoping for. From this, we have decided to focus on labelling and wall text, and really make sure we have context for the show that is clear and understandable. We are also more aware of how audiences respond to works and how they are shown, and are keen to keep this in mind when curating the next show.
In terms of social media, the instagram was very successful. We gained many likes and the layouts looked really effective. However it wasn't as successful in helping in gaining interest in the workshops. I think it is difficult to get people in house to take interest in workshops as they may not be aware of the account, and most people who liked our content were external companies and people who were interested. I do think we need to tailor the instagram to students in NUA so they can feel more excited, rather than making it aesthetically pleasing. However, this is also an effective tool of social marketing, so I do think it's a case of finding the balance between the both. I also think that the captions needs to be more specific, and less informal perhaps.
Furthermore, I think for the next show, I'm going to carry on the use of posting in 3s and possibly making it look similar to how we did Under Construction, but I might put a spin on it to make it different and more relevant to the next show. I do want to use the colour scheme technique and possibly keep the content black and white to keep in theme with our idea. I feel that I've developed my skills in social media marketing, and I think in the next show I want to try and have more of an overall role in social media marketing, as well as documentation.
Finally, in terms of marketing I think our poster was really effective, and I think the floor plans were really well done and in theme with the branding. However we did have a few issues in printing them. The first being that we discovered that the budget had been spent solely on posters, and the event programs weren't printed on the other side of the smaller posters which meant we had to print them separately. Additionally, there were issues printing the floor plans as there were spelling mistakes and names missed off. These issues will most likely be avoided for the next show as communication will be key, as it wasn't used to full effect here. It was a challenge that we had to overcome and I think we did it pretty well considering the time frame we had.
We had multiple posters hung in different campus's across the uni, all varying in sizes from large to small. We also made sure to hang some in the studios as well create a digital poster for social media. I think we didn't need as many large posters as we printed, I think for the next show we should keep to a limited amount of posters for specific areas that would get the most footfall. This is to keep costs down, and to allow us to focus on different types of physical marketing. Overall however, I think the physical marketing looked really effective and I think it would have worked really well if we had the audience engagement that we wanted. Perhaps this is something we think about in the next show, how to really engage the audience with our physical marketing.
Overall, we have learned quite a lot through the curation of this show, and I think moving forward to the next show, we have a lot of areas that we need to focus on and really consider. There was a lot things that were successful and a lot of things that weren't successful and as a team we have have developed our skills in terms of curation and organisation. We were able to problem solve and challenge ourselves with a big idea and I think overall it was a big success.