Final entry for my Internship, but not the final post for my blog

Final entry for my Internship, but not the final post for my blog

I would like to apology that I have not updated any information for almost two weeks. I have been sick for more than a week. I was very sick, but it is getting a bit better now. I still have a running nose with me.

I have had a long trip in New Zealand in October. After I was back to Sydney, I catch up friends and volunteers in ARI. I will update some new of my Internship.

Firstly, the video (see the post of” speak out in front of Camera”) has been published on the website of pop up project. This is the video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=owp0wPsT3fE

Secondly, the opening day of the clay studio will launch on November 16^th. However, the utilisation right of the studio is only exclusively for the members of ARI until in the end of summer vacation. I was surprised with this decision, but I agree with the idea that people might not join the clay class in the holidays, especially around Christmas. In this period, the studio could provide for members a space to create their artworks and make some Christmas sale for our ARI.

Thirdly, we have a few new members joined in this month. This is quite exciting after we had one artist left unhappily. We have three more artists join in our ARI. They also brought their work to shop on that Saturday.

This is the artworks from our new members!!

Finally, I catch up with the ARI in Epping. I think I would like to do some contribution with their project. I have not seen them, but I have known that they were quite successful in their last exhibition by E-mail. With their current exhibition, they have already sold three paintings. That means this ARI got a lot of potential if we can work it out. The attraction to emerging artists might be the large space of the ARI. I will see what I can do for their marketing project. 

Across other pop up project in Epping.

This was happened in the end of August. I was talking to my interviewer from the government about what I have been done with this ARI. When I mentioned about the project of the feature artist might be delayed or cancelled is due to the issue of leadership and collaboration. For example, who is going to take it? Who will be responsible for running this project? I was happy to take the responsibility, but I was not a member of this ARI. In addition, I was an intern and I am not supposed to do my Internship without supervision. As a result, she talked to me if I would like to learn anything in my Internship, let her know. She said she has other project with her and she can arrange for me. I said it would like to learn more about running a marketing program exactly. As a result, she introduced me to the other ARI that she is responsible for in Epping.

I got the artist’s number and I contact with her. After that, I met her inside that ARI. Everything is different from my ARI that I have been work for more than 4 months. The size of this new ARI is even triple bigger than the previous ARI. They would like to focus their ARI on running exhibitions, mainly painting and print makings. I have had a conversation with the artist. She said the director would prefer the ARI to look like just a “gallery”. And then she said she would prefer the ARI run as our ARI (like an art retail shop). They got such nice space and I really want to help them.

I briefly looked at the environment and I think they just need to arrange the space and set out their mission and object. In terms of the utilisation of this ARI, I suggested that they can redesign the space and display the work more professionally. For example, they got a big window to display; they can showcase their feature artworks there. To think about the income for the gallery, I think it might be great if they can separate the gallery into three parts: The first part would be window showcasing space. This showcasing space could be extremely important to attract people to get into the ARI. The second space would be the place for the major exhibition. I recommend that they could be flexible to divide major space into two parts if some artist enquires to rent a space for their solo exhibition. They can still re-combine this space into one place if they need to handle a big exhibition in the future. The final space of ARI would be a retail part or a studio part. I was thinking it would be great if artists could run their painting class there as well. However, the safety issue needs to be concerned if they want to run a class for kids. It is a bit dangerous on the way to the cleaning area (kitchen). As a result, artists prefer to organise a few adult workshop casually.

Regarding to the object and mission, I have draw the SWOT analyst for the ARI. It is important to know the mission and object first and then my can set out the short term and long term target. In this situation, artists have to discuss about what is they really want the ARI to be. After they decided the mission and object of ARI, we can go on the target setting and organizing the marketing project for the exhibition.

In their last exhibition, I helped them to work on their decision making of their business plan and I also helped them with the survey of customer development. I have separated this survey with three parts as well. Part A is just basic personal information. Part B is for the visitor and collector to fill in. Part C is for the artist who is interested in participating in this project.

Unfortunately, I could not go on their exhibition, but I have heard the opening night for the last exhibition is quite successful.

The sustainability issue for Artists Run Initiative

Shock!!

One day, in the middle of September, one artist, who is also the member of our ceramic shops, pop in and took off all her works from our ARI. She was not only taking her ceramic works, but also her daughter’s painting and jewelry. Another artist, who did her voluntary work on that day, and I was shocked. That artist told us she has told the director that she will take off her works in this week. It was still surprised that we did not get any information from the director before she pop in.

Obviously, the atmosphere there was weird and we could not do anything for that because she had decided what the best is for her. She did a lot of good ceramic works, but the prices of her works are a bit expensive to compare that with other artists. I think the reason to set out the high price of her artworks is that our ARI still took 20% commission for rent. She does not want to sell her works with a cheap price, but she cannot really sell them with the high prices in this area. Thus, she has to decide that she want to stay and decrease the price of her work a little bit or bring it to the commercial gallery with a even higher price. Apparently, she decided to go forward the latter and gave up all the contribution that she did for this organisation.

It was always hard for ARI to stay in sustainability. The situation of artists is variation: If they are emerging artists, they are not “popular” enough to survive from selling their works. Due to the fact that they can hardly sell their work, they might lose their initiative passion and then eventually leave ARI. If Artists are very “talent” at making a sale to support their living, it may eventually come to leave ARI as well. They would like to exhibit their works in big gallery to increase the price of their artworks.

Then the question mark comes out.

How could ARI be sustainable for their customers?

On that day just before the artist took off her works, I was still selling her works in the morning. I told my customer that she could buy one ginger-grinding plate to try first. After she tried and then she is happy for that, she can come back to get another one for her friend as a gift later on. If the customer never come back, it is fine. However, if customer come back to get another one, they might be disappointed about finding out the artist is no longer selling their works in our shop.

I understand the art world is always hard for all artists, so artist will definitely go with best option for their sale. In terms of moral issue, I am just wondering should those popular artists stay with the place which grew their career for appreciation. Or they could just walk away for their own benefit. In my opinion, you can go for your benefit, but never forgot to come back and help the organisation when you become a popular artist. If there is no environment for you to showcase your works, you will never become famous. If you can come back and help other emerging artist like you, the ARI would not be collapsed and it might actually grow more people to help ARI become more sustainable in the future.  

It is always not easy.

Dear angels : could you tell me tell me how can it be easy for artists and art administrators?

It is always not easy.

It has been quite for a while since June this year. We did get some “OK” sale on July and August, but it come back to quite again.

I have heard from my supervisor that two ARIs of this building will move out soon.

I attended their final warfare party the week before and we have a brief conversation about what their will do in the future. They actually have a lot of experience to work with art market, so they possibly will focus on art and crafts market rather than stuck themselves in one place. The other artist is original from Brisbane and after her partner pass way in this state, she might plan to move back to Brisbane. I have been told the two space of these ARIs might be rented as a commercial store. The government is happy with this result that pop up project does work on bring people back to this building. When the people are back and the business is back again. If shops are open, the building will not look terrible at night time and it might come with its security issue.      

 Sometimes I was wondering how could art really survival by itself? After one week off ARI, I am starting to think about my future. If we really want to do art administration, the best option must be looking for a job in museums or state galleries (not for profit gallery). Running a non for profit organisation is very hard because you hardly got a stable income for the organisation. Regarding to artists, selling their artworks might not actually make any profit for them and support their life. From my observation, If artist sold some work, they are happy to do some voluntary work. However, if it is not, they might unwilling to do some contribution with the shop. As an artists run initiatively, artists need to look after themselves and responsible for their sale. For example, if their works is hardly to sell, they need to think about the reason (maybe too expensive?)and then fix it. In this situation, artists also need to take a risk if non of their works have sold,but they still need to do the compulsory work once per month. Despite it is not easy for ARI, the museum and state gallery is hard to get in as well. For the youth, there is not a lot of opportunity for them to work in museum. they are mostly looking for the people who has Phd degree. 

Dreamers Market

Dreamers Market

Last weekend is also my first time to participate in an art market. It started with a lovely weather, but it change to a bit windy and cold in the Riverside Theater.

There is still a lot of local art lovers pop in this market. I find that Parramatta is still too far for the people, who lived in the city, to visit. I try to target the friends from University: they were very happy to go, but they were giving up eventually due to the fact that location of the Dreamer Market is far from where they lived.

I am starting to think about what kind of people would love to come to art market? Art students? Or ladies or a couple with their kids? What do people actually buy from market? I have attended the Finder keepers market as well in this year. They have food support, especially hot food, such as soup. It actually makes that market more “stay-able” than the dreamers market. People might feel hungry when they are shopping. If there is no food sell in the market, people might be starving and they will not happy to stay and check the other art stuffs.

Also, I find the layout of space is a bit awkward. The market is inside the Riverside theater, but it’s not exact an interior space. It is a half opened space. The weather might become another big issue to cope with. If the weather is bad, like a windy or a raining day, people might decrease their interest to go to market. Thus, Dreamer market may be quite or not busy due to its location and the variation of weather. If we compare that with Finder Keepers market, Finder Keepers got a full interior space, so the weather does not impact on the market too much.

We actually did not make any big sale on that day, but it is still a good experience for me to participate in this market. The week after the market, we have some people pop in our shop because they got our postcard from the dreamer market. I am excited about this result; at least some of them do come back and check our ceramic shop. It is a big progress of our marketing.

Speaking out in front of camera.

 Last Wednesday, a film maker and his assistant visited our shop. They took some shot in store and then they  filmed some interviewing video to advertise our ceramic shop. I came a bit early on that day and I was so nervous about talking in front of camera. In my previous experience, talking to people is fine and that is allowed you make a little mistake sometimes. However, talking in front of camera is not that easy because you cannot make any mistake. If you did, you have to redo it again. Because you cannot make any mistake, it will make you even nervous than the normal situation.

We had three interviewees on that day. The others are the director of our ARI and the artist who is the best seller of our shop. The filming question for them is based on they are artist and project director. For example, what is the best thing being involved in this project? What is enabling you to do? What do you think the pop up project change this old building?

I was been given the almost the same questions. They added one more question for me because I have a different cultural background and I can speak mandarin. There was a story: on that day in the morning, there were two Chinese ladies came in and ask to join our membership before we started to film this interview. They visited our shop twice before, but they cannot really speak English. They asked me to do some translation. I was helping them to communicate between my director and them. Unfortunately, they were not what we are looking for, I guided then to other fashion shops and the market in the street. As a result, the special question for me is”what do you think your language skill can help the pop up project? I remembered I answer that Australia is such a multicultural country. You can not only target the white customers, but also target Asian, such as Chinese Australian. It is a bit easy for me to understand their culture and value and convey the idea of pop up across the culture boundary to non Western people. In fact, word of mouth is the biggest market strategy for our shop. Thus, it is good to have a spontaneously conversation with customers and they would be actually be involved the idea of pop art shop.

I found that if people would just take a look in our shop, we could also mention the pop up project for the public. They usually felt intriguing about the idea of pop up shop and the change of this community. They would be interested in spending some time to do the art and culture discovery. Most importantly, share this fantastic place to their friends and family. To mention about the whole pop up art community in this building, is not only to promote our ceramic shop but also for all the pop up shops in this area. If this pops up shop want to survive in this modern society, we have to make it different from other pop up project. We are not just the space for artists to display and develop their creation but it would definitely contribute to the art tourism in Western Sydney. When it brings more tourists, we will have more attention and then we can get more customers as well.

NOW!!DREAMERS MARKET IS COMING ON 1^st of September!! in church st

This is the link of their facebook: https://www.facebook.com/dreamersmarkets

***Don’t miss it ,you will regret If you really like 100% Australian handmade stuffs!! 

Opening Night for the Exhibition I participated in & A Big Event is Coming!!

It is so busy in these few weeks. I will explain what has been happened in my Internship.

First of all, I accidently got the exhibition in other pop up shop (Our neighbor) in July. This is the photo that I took on that day. This ARI is so different from our shop. After the opening night, we were playing “Piñata”, one of the party games and have so many fun at that night.

AND SURPRISINGLY! I sold my painting!! This painting was finished last year as one of my assignments for my oil paint course, which is the elective course that I selected last year. I never think that I would get this opportunity to sell my painting!! That’s so fantastic!! I also got some inspired idea from the people who like my painting.

This ARI finished their contract with the government and they closed. The one I put my work in was their final exhibition. It is sad for all the pop up shops here because we survive and support each other as an art community. This might be a main reason to attract tourists to visit the place. The locals could also be proud of their art and cultural community. In fact, we cannot survive without each other and that makes sense to me. Customers come in to this old building for coffee or for seeing other ARIs. When they pass by, they might get a chance to pop in our shop. Luckily, we lost one pop up shop, but we will have a new pop up shop come in this building.

I will have an interview from the government next week. That is a part of promotion program for the pop up project. They will film all conversation with artists, intern and volunteers through the interviewing as an attraction to involving people in this pop up projects. Basically, I just need to answer: what the three best things about being involved in this project as an intern? What is enabling you to do and the creative experience you get from this project? I am going to make a draft and then do some practices on that, just in case that I will be too nervous to forget what I would like to say.

We are preparing the coming event-“Dreamers’ Market” on the 1^st of September. I have designed a few postcards for our ARI(Thanks for my previous working experience in a graphic design company, I felt it easy when it come to the design part J) Because of the bad economic in Australia, we have to work out our marketing strategy. We used to have a lot of clients from the government and we had some big sale for Christmas. However, it has been quite in our shop for a while. I think we need to target wider customers. Not only people who work in the government (the high-class), but also the general public (the middle class) who got art taste and they do not want to buy stuffs from two dollar shop. This might be a challenge for our shop because we are lack of people to handle such a big event. We need people and we need more ceramic talent people involved in helping us to run our project.