Exhibition Strategies

Its a scary thought, planning our final exhibition. It seems so far away and the consensus appears to be that none of us know what we want to do for our final piece, or pieces, but we need to think about and start planning how we want our exhibition to look.

When we went into the breakout rooms, this is what we discussed (notes taken by Emily):

Physical: If there is a chance that we could get into a space towards the end of the year even if it is just university rooms, that would be a nice opportunity to have some form of physical exhibition that we then record as a kind of walk through video.

To give people a feel of the exhibition and scale rather than a detailed look at the work. we agreed it would be lovely if possible to have somewhere public like a gallery to display the final show. Even if it was based in the university on our campus or the main campus. if we are dreaming we would love to have it in a gallery in Wrexham or Chester? Or target galleries elsewhere after the degree show had finished as part of a collective group if people were interested.

Display- combination of free flowing spaces and sections, to have the option of both.

Virtual: The online exhibition we would like as a space to have clear photographs / videos and spaces for each artist to curate themselves and display their work.

This could include videos and sound bites making the website a little bit more personal.

The virtual website we think should be accompanied by a social media platform and maybe a joint hashtag to promote the show. the Instagram or twitter of whatever would contain artist takeovers, videos insights, even sound bites could go on that over an image. livestreams, q and a's.

I think virtual is the most likely option. Although it is a shame we will not likely have a physical exhibition, a virtual show opens up a new range of exhibition possibilities. We discussed having a website with possibly virtual tour of an exhibition space if it is safe enough to get artists a place to display their work, then have someone walk around the space talking about the work.

It might be nice, as mentioned in Emily's notes to include videos and sound bites with each artist talking about their work, and have a social media platform to publicise the show.

It is also important to acknowledge that this is a show happening during a pandemic and the work has been created, mostly during lockdowns. So I think the show should be named as such - something virtual based etc. But I have no idea what.

I personally would also like to create a physical book, if nothing else, for the artists to have a souvenir of the show and the hard work we have put into it. I have volunteered to design the layout for this if it is wanted.