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.