PART A – Identify Leadership Role
My Leadership project will involve the development and execution of my first photography exhibition. After the completion of my photography project, which is currently documenting “The Wizard in Alderley Edge”, I will choose images from the series which I will display for the Exhibition, hopefully creating a compelling and understandable story around the legend of Alderley Edge.
To show my leadership of this project, I will plan around any practical issues, including insurance, access and promotion of the exhibition, plus printing of the work, exhibition layout and opening dates! I will be working with Arron from PEA Smart who will help me with any physical work that is needed, i.e. space preparation, hanging of work etc.
Chosen Location
I have found space in which to present my exhibition, the room is at Happy Memories play centre in Hyde, I have created a quick floor plan of the space, so that I can begin to consider how I will display my images! The space will be available every Saturday and Sunday of every week, and I will be able to leave my exhibition up for the public to see.
The Floor plan shows several free walls where I can hang my work, and also several shelves for any additional, videos or sound that I may want to add at any point!
So far I have 7 images that I believe are ready for exhibition after further editing! All the images have been taken over several visits to “The Wizard” in Alderley Edge, the images will all be presented in black and white, to keep a continuity to the exhibition and to help it work better as a sequence.
Further Exhibition Space options
I have been contacting several different exhibition spaces in the north west, i think the space i looked at before may be too small for my work, and i will need something a bit bigger!
Emails regarding different exhibition spaces!
VERNON MILL
Further to the above information, I have recently visited Vernon mill, and through communication with Kim Barsky, an artist at the mill, I have been offered to use a space on her wall in the studio, Vernon Mill are hosting a large exhibition of artists work on the 18th October, and my work will be shown alongside theirs.
My work will be shown in Kim’s studio alongside her work on the opening night and over the weekend.
PART B – PLAN THE PRACTICAL ISSUES
I have created a poster to begin the Promotion of my exhibition and I have set the date at the beginning of August to have the exhibition opening night!
I will use several ways to promote my exhibition, including Facebook, Instagram, local shop windows, word of mouth etc, the Exhibition will be free and open to the public to view! I am going to allow the exhibition to run for 4 weeks. Feedback will come through people I am working with for the exhibition in PEA Smart, I will update my blog regularly to evaluate my progress with this area of my project.
Updated version of the poster used to advertise my exhibition!
Further to my last update, I have now also began to look into alternative venues in busier area’s to draw more attention, the current gallery spaces I am looking at are –
Vernon Mill – Stockport, it is an art community in the north west, it has lots of space available.
Nexus Art Cafe – It is small but is in the Heart of Manchester and is very well known in the art community.
Bee Studio – In the heart of Manchester the space used to be used by Kraak gallery but is now a photography studio, they have offered the space at a fee, which may be too high.
I may still complete the exhibition at happy Memories in Hyde, but then after that I will move my exhibition to one of the other spaces to build more interest!
I have decided to exhibit 10 images for the exhibition opening night, as I will need to transport the images myself I have decided not to frame them, and to use mount board and spray mount instead!
PART C – EFFECTIVE ARTS LEADERSHIP
Over the last few weeks, I have been emailing and ringing Kim Barksy in regards to a space at Vernon mill Art gallery and Studio’s.
She has offered a wall space in her own studio and has invited me down to see it, Cody Murray is also coming to look at the space as she will be using it at the same time as me.
when I visited Kim’s studio, I was happy with how big the space was and how much light was in the room! I took up Kim’s offer for her wall right away 🙂 I know need to begin to plan my wall layout, and work with Cody to make sure there is room for both of us.
Vernon Mill Health and Safety after first visit
Last week I visited Vernon mill to arrange a space for my exhibition, it has taken a while to locate a space as we have contacted and visited many different spaces. Upon visiting this space, we realised that it was perfect and affordable (Free) however, there are some issues that I need to address with the building itself. As I am taking a leadership role for this exhibition, I will need to assess and complete a health and safety check.
Vernon mill is amazing however it is old, which makes it unsafe in some area’s, the first thing I noticed was the uneven flooring, which could easily lead to some trips, I can’t refit the whole floor but I can inform people of the dangers via a sign or verbal warning at the doors.
Some area’s of the building are off limits, this is due to construction work and the refitting of a new roof, I will make signs or see if Vernon mill can provide signs to inform people of the unsafe area’s in the building.
Some area’s of Vernon mill are very damp, and as a result the area can become wet and slippery, Vernon mill had some wet floor signs around the area, so I can double check that these are in place on the exhibition night.
On my visit to Vernon mill I was shown the wall where my work will be displayed, the wall is currently grey, and will need to be painted white. As part of the agreement for us having the wall, we will need to paint it white ourselves, the wall is quite high and we will need some ladders to get to the top, accidents can happen with ladders and we could fall or hurt ourselves.
some area’s of Vernon mill are gated, these are big iron gates and could be dangerous if they swung out and hit someone, also if someone got suck behind the gates or locked out in another area, I will check the gates regularly on the exhibition night to check that they are safe.
Access to Vernon mill is by either stairs or lift, the stairs at Vernon mill are very steep and old, they are spiral stairs and made from stone, they could be very dangerous if someone was to fall down them, I will leave a sign informing people to be careful on the stairs, the lift at Vernon mill is very very old, it has already broken once before and is currently being repaired and should be working on the exhibition night, there is possibility that the lift can break, I will make sure that people are aware of this and know who to contact in an emergency.
PART D – WORKING EFFECTIVELY WITH OTHERS
Through the last few weeks, I have been communicating and working with Kim Barsky from Vernon mill, to plan the dates and arrange the wall space that I will be using.
Mainly I have been communicating with Kim through emails, and with the help of PEA Smart. I have met Kim on a few occasions where she has shown us the wall I am using and discussed the opening night.
On the opening night of my exhibition, I will be exhibiting alongside Cody Murray and using the same wall, so we have talked about how our work will look when it is together on the wall.
Cody is currently working in black and white like me, so we haven’t had a problem with making the images match in colour.
The wall that Kim has given us, is quite large so we can easily fit both of our work on there! Me and Cody have decided to share a table in the centre of our work to put our stuff on there, Cody has prints to sell and I have cookies to share.
PART E – REVIEW THE PROJECT AND LEADERSHIP ROLE
I arrived at the exhibition around 3pm, I needed to change out two of the images on the wall that I wasn’t happy with. We brought command strips so that this was a quick and easy task. After this I set up a table, to put my exhibition crib sheets on, I had baked Chewkies the night before so I placed these on there as well, so visitors could help themselves, after this I helped a few
of the other artists set up their tables and their rooms, all this probably took around 2 hours, so we had an hour spare to relax and to have a drink.
The public began arriving around 6pm at the mill, and they began to visit my room shortly after, at first I was nervous and kept thinking that nobody would like my work, I was hoping this would pass, but I felt nervous throughout the night. Later in the evening, my family and friends arrived to see the work, unfortunately my dad had left early as he was poorly, with my friends and family there I felt better, especially when my sister arrived, as they all gave me positive comments on my work.
The rest of the night was fairly easy with my family and friends there, I stayed at the show until around 8pm when I had to leave. Reflecting on the night there are a few things I would change, I would make sure that the space I used wasn’t shared and would be my own space, Vernon Mill would not be space I would use again. I liked how my work looked in black and white, and would use this next time, I would do an exhibition again in the future, but I would like some space to work on my photography and to develop further idea’s.
All in all I found the project really challenging, especially the mounting and presentation of the images,
I have found the writing side to be quite difficult and the management of my blog and report, I have really enjoyed taking the pictures and my walks around the wizard in Alderly edge, I have enjoyed learning how to use Photoshop and how to use my camera better. I did enjoy the night of the exhibition, I just found it stressful, but I would do an exhibition again.
I have found that working with others has been quite challenging at times, as we have had to work around different times and appointments and also if we have had a lot to agree on, I think that if I did another exhibition in the future, I would look at doing one on my own.
justaddhoney 