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Exhibition development deas
Valerie Rock -
Wednesday, November 8, 2006 - 11:22pm
Metal Books Exhibition Here are some ideas for online exhibition - to start a dialog I am thinking of a theme exhibition which has a start and end date for entering digital images (include quicktime videos too?). The entries are "held" in a file which is not posted to the exhibition site until viewed by manager/exhib group. Make sure images post correctly..etc. Not as a filter or jurying of entries. Announcements of upcoming exhibition peppered throughout other links, sites, listservs of artmetal and perhaps other metal/art related sites. Format created for entries ... a "boiler-plate" so to speak. Easy for participants to enter information. Have blocks in which to enter this information. This way, info can be utilized as desired by those setting up exhibition. Artist name (might be collaborative so have ability to have several names or group/class name), material, size, Title of piece (optional), optional description or thought about the theme or piece, email address, website, artist location (state, country), usual media? Have ability for artists to include a poem or short story in entry info Curators/exhibition admin group develop a FAQ site and monitor frequently so that frustration in posting entries is minimized Establish a place to post questions regarding the posting of entries Responding to questions and assisting artists is done by exhibition admin group. Attempt for much self-sufficiency by exhibition admin. Questions or situations not resolvable by exhibition admin group will then be relayed to webminster. Artists do not post directly to webminster. Questions posted regarding the exhibition are automatically directed to correct location on artmetal. Consider that this will be a first time exhibition, posting, digital, internet experience for many participants. Set up an "event" posting so people know when they can ask questions on chat Because many participants will be new to internet posting, perhaps a snail mail address, email address, mailing avail, phone number available during set times for questions? At least a way to mail info to participants. Volunteer time, yes. But if there are costs such as mailing, where does this money come from? Donation by exhibition admin group and keep track as a donation to artmetal. Place this info on the blog for exhib set up. An Informational post site includes: theme, entry types (any limit on size of file, type of file for image), start and end dates to post entries to exhibition, how long exhibition is up. Is it open to anyone? We are representing artmetal members? Or is this exhibition made by artmetal as a service to artists? Maybe for this first one we don't have to define that. Anyone who finds their way to the posting of "call for entries" is eligible. This means teachers who have classes of students can print out the info and post on bulletin board in classroom. As long as person is able to provide a digital image of their entry and gives entry information. Do we want to have a method to accept postal entries? good quality photographs which are not digital? Or do we include info on the FAQ page that directs to resources? I think we should refrain from using postal because of show format and also cost. Do we screen entries before show goes up? (jury for content/image?) Probably not, so we have enough work in the show. But do want the images to be focused, good contrast, read well on page. Where do we announce show for entries? Should we limit to computer and word of mouth? sandbox, artmetal, personal invites from artmetal to friends, links (as opposed to putting out an ad in published magazine - time line too far out now) Exhibition is "locked", not able to be changed except by manager or group admin once the exhibit is "UP". Consider person to be a reviewer of the show..and post this review. Review as a press release, so that it may be used as marketing/advertisement. Perhaps a "catalog"? Place that a person can download the entire exhibition to save to disk. If this is done, do we add in a copywrite feature? Yes, what about artist copywrite? A comment to this effect should be included in entry info. By entering image in this exhibition, artist agrees to allow image to be posted on the ">>>>" exhibition. Or maybe less legalese, "opportunity to post image to the www and free use by community...? Anyway, something to consider. For some participants, this will be first entry in an art show. Comments/posts in reference to the "hanging" exhibit (visitors book) are monitored by admin before posted to site. A log or repository of blogs, memos of the exhib admin group is maintained (on a closed, subscriber only group) to help document problems and resolutions, questions, ideas as this first exhibition is created and maintained. A history is maintained of actions performed. Having this "depository" for info is important. If desired or needed by subsequent exhib coordinators, it is already available rather than trying to create it after the fact. An additional closed, subscriber only, group is avail for members to post opinions of the running of the exhibition itself. Observations of this first exhibition. A debriefing/discussion of show after the entire is event is complete (end of exhibition). Okay, a techie question I will send to webminster: All the memory needed for this sort of thing. And the potential traffic..Is this something "we" need to address in developing this? Is there a potential $ outlay that might be needed? Anway, there are some initial thoughts. Comments? Sound okay? Questions that you think of? Anybody want to be on the exhibition admin group? Anyone want to be the manager?
Thanks for the reply.
Valerie Rock -
Thursday, November 9, 2006 - 7:41pm
Thanks for the reply. Brainstorming ideas. And once it gets fleshed out a bit, can then ask how or if to do on site. I am excited about this (as you can tell). My art welding students are so focused on learning and making this semester that another focus is not helpful or exciting right now. PLan to make an event time for discussing this. But this weekend I have a middle school girl intro class, and also we are having some big weather change. My thoughts are to have a location on which people can enter info and images. That is accessed by exhib admin group. On our level, all entries accepted to show unless poor quality work or image. The show is worked on offlist and not viewed except by committee. Once up, it cannot be changed by anyone (except admin in case of typos/links,etc) Perhaps we could have a "junior" level for kids. Once up, yes, popularity judging by all viewers. Viewers choice. Postings of comments by viewers too. Maybe another group of folks can set up/consider a traveling exhibtion too. That is more planning. And would involve money needs. But an entry fee might be a good idea. It could be done as paypal on site? Used as donation to the Artmetal site. VRock » reply Exhibit brainstorming
Emfairmeadows -
Thursday, November 9, 2006 - 11:56pm
I like the idea of having a virtual gallery first before making plans to create an actual travelling show. From one overworked artist to another, lets take it slow and see where the project leads us. I would also limit this idea to email ready art. There could be an unknown amount of work related to fielding phone calls, accepting artwork, photographing it for free by the way, who has liabilty insurance for the artwork when it is traveling? I'm not trying to be negative, but I think you have a good idea that we can expand upon without the project getting overwhelming. By all means if someone wants to take this on that's great, but, gulp, that's a big load. All of the planning ideas sound good. Title, FAQ, chat discussion, Bio, Artist's Statement, Copywrite. A catalog can always be viewed, so there's no need to print one out. Can we just trust that items submitted will fit within the guidelines that we present. Something like, "Artist's Book shall contain pages made of actual three dimensional medium (not limited to copper, gold, brass, steel, wood, plexiglas...) Artist's Book shall contain at least one piece of metal. Image size shall be no larger than (whatever size QuiQue tells us so we don't max out artmetal.) At some point it would be great to have an online gallery service for artists, but for now, why not limit it to our membership. Membership is free so if someone wants to enter then they should subscribe? Yes? Gotta sleep, Elizabeth M. Meadows "Gotta love a gal with an anvil." » reply Thanks for the input,
Valerie Rock -
Friday, November 10, 2006 - 1:11am
Thanks for the input, Elizabeth! My initial idea for this is for it to be an online-only exhibit. And with your comments and input, yep, still sounds best to me. Question came to me about it maybe being a traveling exhibit and even hearing that makes it sound way too much work, effort and cost. Even just the mailing of the piece is a lot of work for the artist, let alone the coordination of stuff once there. I like celebrating and reveling in the artmetal.com site and having this as an inaugural exhibit for the site. Perhaps, after the online exhibition and viewer choice awards/voting....a sub=group traveling show maybe could be set up by someone else. I see that as an entirely different animal, one not as neat or interesting right now. I really like the description of the entries.... as you wrote, "Something like, "Artist's Book shall contain pages made of actual three dimensional medium (not limited to copper, gold, brass, steel, wood, plexiglas...) Artist's Book shall contain at least one piece of metal. Image size shall be no larger than... It added good things for describing show. Thanks VRock » reply |
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Wow! Information
Wow! Information overload!... not sure if I can answer everything... my head is swimming
There's lots of different directions that this exhibition idea can go. You've brought up some good questions. One that is always a key for discussion is "judging." Do we get a single judge, several judges, or open to the community to judge the exhibition? I personally think the show should be judged by the community. On the technical side, I think I can set up a gallery which has a voting module which will allow either members, and/or visitors to vote on the individual works of art. But is this what you want? And if so, who will be allowed to view the gallery? Members, subscribers, visitors, or everyone?
Another idea/question... How about having a real traveling exhibition? Is it possible to have the show travel to galleries and museums? I wonder if NOMMA would be interested in exhibiting one of our shows. The National Ornamental Metals Museum Association has a physical location in Memphis, Tennessee. There are other museums and galleries that emphasize the metal arts which may be interested in having an exhibition. But finding out about the ins/outs is not something that I have time to look into. If this is an interest, then a volunteer will have to step forward.
As to promoting... the least expensive way to promote submissions to the exhibition is via the internet. Again, the work to do this is going to have to be done by a volunteer.
I will help in anyway that I can to set up the web interface for the exhibition here at ArtMetal.com. If you desire to have a voting system, and/or private access to the content, I will be happy to set it up.
As to money... there are various ways to raise money if necessary. Question is, do we need it? Many exhibitions have money awards for 1st, 2nd, 3rd places. Do we get sponsors to contribute money for the awards? Do we have an entrance fee? I had a friend recently enter a photography show that had a $1,000 first prize, but required a $25 dollar entry fee. This is typical for many nonprofit arts organizations desiring to raise money.
You are bringing up some great questions Valerie! Please keep the brainstorming coming. I think the first thing to do is to get an ad hoc committee of volunteers that will be willing to look into these questions AND to establish the guidelines for the exhibition. The committee members should also be willing to help implement the established guidelines.