Curation of an Art Show as a Nobody.

Did I get your attention? This is from my third curation Antics 2015

Hey?! What does that even mean, a nobody?

Well, I mean coming out of UnIvErSiTy as an artist doesn't really get you much. Especially if you were barely making it through (so you had no funds to put into your projects) and chose a commercial field like AnImAtIoN. (A story for another time, but I started out my grad year homeless. I'd say I feel accomplished making it through that year.)

That's little ol' me. Here's a frame of reference, my last class of uni.

The obnoxiously colourful one up front. Howdy here I am.

Trouble in Paradise

I'd just moved into an artist collective straight out of university. Rip, roaring, and ready. But, man oh man, little did I expect what I was getting into. It was a dictatorship. You couldn't make food in the kitchen without getting lashed at from the leader. Let alone start creating in the studio. I felt honoured to even be paying as low of rent as I was and being this close to the central of Vancouver, BC. I wasn't prepped to shake the boat.

Little did I know a coup was about to occur. Turned out this tyrant was a self-titled manager who was profiting off of everyone else as well as not paying rent. She got too greedy and was caught. I helped push that snowball down hill, and it caught speed. She tried to take down the collective with her so she nullified her lease....And as Vancouver is known for, the new landlord-to-be wanted condos. He saw this as the perfect opportunity to remove us from our homespace.

She thought no one could do what she could. Unfortunately for both of them, he took cash in the mix (He had never had renters before. It was his hobby flipping properties) creating a binding agreement with us. He created a new lease with two of us and it was a beautiful celebration after two and a half months of battling it out (both amongst us and with him). In the meantime, uncertain of the future. I wanted to use that space as much as I could while I had the chance. I wanted to prove a point to this nasty woman. I decided to curate an artshow.

Now what does that even entail?

First of all you have to have goals. Things you want to accomplish. Everyone's are going to be different.

I wanted at least 100 people to show up.

I wanted a beer sponsorship.

I wanted an article to come out of it.

Now of course, my situation was special. There's going to be more things like regulations and budgets. Also getting space if you don't have space. As well as, dependent on the organization. You likely want an income to come from this project if you are a business.

Now adays we are a nonprofit. We also have our budget coming in through studiomates, and we have plenty of notoriety. Back then though, I wasn't even sure if I was allowed to use the previous gallery collective's branding or not. (that was a headache)

For us, however, it was a tad easier. Just needed organization, and a name that could be made catchy and sound prestigious. My first show was titled POLYPHONICS. And had to do with colour harmonies. I accepted proposals to be a part of the show, 100% of the profits to the artists, and posted it up on Facebook, Twitter, and Tumblr as well as posters around the local art schools and Instant Coffee Listings in Canada. This gave us a diverse background of people who wanted to show. Not only did it appeal to emerging artists learning how to write proposals and presentation, but since our collective's work was in it, it gave the collective more of an audience. I can say, every show so far we have sold work.

The other aspect that appeals to people is that we can showcase experimental work. We aren't a profit driven space so the more interesting or engaging something is, we want to see how it interacts with the space! We've had ballpit buses, tattooing in the basement, a light up curtain that you step into, a room draped in black fabric, giant cardboard dinosaur, and a glitch game that has a controller made of vegetables and fruit. Edible work, interactive work, nude performances. You name it. We're game.

Marika Vandekraats 2014

Also we still have a standard with our curation. About 50% of the proposals get turned down, because we allow each work its room to breathe. We don't shove everything together.

Some keys to remember, rather than my ramblings.

Who is your audience?
I pinpointed my demographic being mostly people in their twenties due to our quirky nature. However with our naming, and where we advertised the event (local papers, posters, email listings, hashtags) we pulled in some people who would never go to things like this. It created the perfect cross-contamination of crowds. Confusion that lead to enjoyment and discussion centering around the works.

Write like you mean it.

When you write up a themed event. Inspire them. When you are contacting beer companies. Appeal to their brand identity and business model. When you talk to a writer or journalist. Recognize what points are going to be the gimmick for their article.

Treat your artists as you wish to be treated.

Okay obviously we were a no-name space. There were some important things to do. Within the day/hour I would send a thank you for your application email. My replies were succinct and quick. When I said I accepted the work, I would also have an outline of what day was set up and when was pick up. This invoked confidence. Of course though when the artists showed up to a house, they were a bit suspicious. I had to talk everything up. Make them feel welcomed, even though I was installing all their work (novice mistake). By the time the evening of the show came around. They were so excited to see the difference. How we had completely rearranged the space from a studio homespace to a showspace.

Marchien Veen 2014

Advertise with purpose.

Having a large showcase got a renewed interest in the space that a dying collective had taken place in before. How do I get a large amount of people to show up to a city which was notorious for the Northwest Yes. By having 30 artists, you're guaranteeing at least 3 friends invited per artist.

I also made gifs, which are very shareable and actually interesting, for my advertising. I would link the event in the comments below the gif.

You have to ramp up and sneak peek as things go on. Do you have an email list? Do you know your local Facebook groups?

Don't post once, then expect people to remember it two weeks later. It's like watering a plant. Don't let it die!

Get the after photos of the event up as soon as possible. Don't let those go to waste. People want to see themselves again to remember how good the event was.

How do the works interact with each other?

I had a tendency to group works that I felt complimented each other. However, you can also group by size, style, dialogue (do they create a conversation between them?) and space. You can kind of see that in the pictures below.

Organization is important.

What steps do you need to take in the next couple of weeks? Who should you delegate the tasks to?
I had a google doc excel sheet with the list of artists who applied, in order to keep track. I would colour code it and reorganize it based on who got accepted, which room in the space they would be located in, whether I had heard back from them, and with all the details I needed for the artist statement list and tags next to the work (price, name, size, bio, statement, etc). All of this takes a lot of pressure off of you, and can help when co-curating with another individual.

End goals

Lighting and placement is important. People really pay attention to how things are placed and the time that has been taken to make things look nice. Do you have a DJ? A photographer? A playlist? Someone to man the bar? These are all things that should be taken into account, cause don't expect yourself to do it. You'll be too busy greeting people and checking on things to take all those on as well.

I hope this has been helpful.

Feel free to leave comments and questions.