Hi everyone!

As part of my photography course, I have to track my development on a blog. The posts from September 2011 until January 2012 are part of a module called Project Management, for which I was required to work in a group of eight students to create an exhibition. The blog followed every step we took in order to create a successful gallery. The blog posts starting from September 2012 follow my final year on the course. I'll be documenting my research and analysis of my final year projects, as well as include notes of my Professional Practice unit - which prepares us for a range of post graduate options. Finally it also looks at a project called New Creatives, where I'll be working alongside an artists to help college students get more involved with art.

Friday, October 7, 2011

Lecture...

Sistine Chapel - from www.christusrex.org
Yesterday we started off with a lecture by Stella about exhibiting photographs and the different ways we can display our work, followed by a lecture by Denise Callender, the promotions manager of the creative industries. 

Stella's lecture started off with a brief description of the history of exhibitions. She showed us a photograph of the interior of Sistine Chapel, painted by Michelangelo, and emphasized the fact that the whole interior was covered with paintings. It the renaissance, it was a tradition to cover absolutely everything. This is a huge contrast from the exhibition space that we use nowadays. She explained that the only places art was displayed, before modernism and the 'white cube' idea, was either in churches and places of worship, in wealthy people's collections (such as a wunderkammer) and in wealthy people's homes. 

The origins of the 'white cube' style was inspired by artists studios. It was always a very neutral space and it embraced the modern concept of simple structures. From this moment on, more and more 'white cube' galleries started to appear. The white space meant that the area was a lot more focussed, it was almost as though art was isolated from its environment - a sacred space. Anything against a white wall will stand out, the object can be fully appreciated. It was an uninterrupted area with no interference. The 'white cube'  became very persistent and even today this style remains to be the most dominant form of contemporary art display. 

Denise Callendar explained to us that anything can be a gallery, you have to think out of the box. For example, you can use a corridor as a gallery space or a house, you can display it on the Portsmouth big screen or on youtube etc. She continued her lecture by telling us to explore whether there are any other events going on at the same time as yours, clashes could be a positive thing but could also end up being something bad. She went on to explain about the installation process and taking down the work at the end of the gallery. Things such as bringing out won toolkit, collecting work and little things like these can have a massive impact on our reputation. If the venue liked us, we might be asked to come back and show more work. It is all about professionalism. 

She also gave us a few tips on making the leaflets such as include the dates, the title and explanation perhaps add a photograph to give the viewer an idea of what to expect. Also if we are going to have any talks or seminars add that to the leaflets too as people might be interested. We need to make sure that we develop a brand, this needs to be repeated on everything we have and on all advertisements. This will create an identity for us. The last important thing was make business cards - this way if people are interested in specifically my work they are able to contact me and ask me questions. 

The whole lecture by Denise was very helpful and she gave us so many little tips and tricks in order to help us out. When we informed her we hadn't found a venue yet she was very keen on helping and told us she knows an empty space on Albert Road named ultraviolet. It used to be a gallery space but has recently gone out of business. She also let us know that if we were to have any more questions that we could email her whenever with whatever we needed! 


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