The artist and employment

Boy this topic is a hot one for me at the moment! After seeing the Fay Incorporated show at Toilet Gallery (above image, thanks to Feltbug) last week (see here for more info), I've been thinking about "Artist as Labourer", and then of course there is my own process of looking for work in this crazy country.

Since leaving art school in Australia, I have been pretty lucky to be working (mostly) in the arts. I worked at a gallery during my degree, briefly spent some time working in a record store (and if that isn't cultivating rock'n'roll artistic tendencies, i don't know what will), did some teaching and then worked at a National Visual Arts organisation for a few years, in a variety of roles and of course non-paid work running Project. All the while collecting a little pile of skills that are easily transferrable and being able to use my knowledge about the arts.

And since I've been in London, I've had a few 'interesting' experiences with working here and both of them have taught me a thing or two about myself and about being an artist. And the complicated relationship between work and artistic practice that I find myself rubbing up against every once in a while, ie. how much am I worth?

cooking as part of the installation of entropy at platform. not on minimum wage.

For the last couple of weeks I've been working in a kitchen, for minimum wage and suffice to say, this sucks. i can do it OK, but i'm not actually very equipped to deal with the stress that's in a kitchen. give me 5 deadlines, an artwork that's not working, an email inbox a mile long or a grant application to do overnight and i'm fine. However, none of those skills really apply for very long in a busy kitchen, day after day. Or perhaps i'm just a wooss (howeverthefuck you spell it). and as a result, i quit. i know my mum won't be very pleased to read this, but hey, she'll deal with it.


And then there's the crazy experience I had when applying for work with an architecture practice:

I went for an admin position in an architects' office ("with high street clients") and was offered the job, if i could dye my hair all one colour and take out my facial piercing [For those who don't know what I look like, I have blonde and black hair, with a lip ring, but I scrub up alright]. I've had 'funny hair' and piercings for most of my adult life and I've never been asked to do that before. It was quite a strange experience. And I'll tell you why it was strange and had a process all of its own - I'm outta my comfort zone. If i was at home, I would a) probably not being applying for admin (having moved a little further than entry level now, although not by heaps) and b) I know the lay of the land and I would easily be able to know (from experience) that it wasn't necessary to look a certain way in order to do my job.

I had thought to myself - If I owned a punk nightclub or a DIY art gallery, which had loads of punks, skins, tattooed people with funny hair and piercings as my main clients, and i was looking for staff. Would i say to an applicant who had straight blonde hair, perfectly done neutral make up and corporate clothes "you're great for the job, I like you and what you've done, but do you think you could cut and dye your hair, get a tattoo and maybe get a few piercings?" ? I knew that the answer would be no. And that the answer would be no. In fact I felt like asking them whether they had asked their African secretary if she would change her colour because the clients wouldn't like it, but decided not to stoop to pettiness. Although I was glad to hear when I told my mum about it, at the end of it all she said "by 'one colour' [as in the hair colour], can it be all blue?" Ha!!



Which brings me to the point of this post:

Being an artist is not a consolation.

So many artists I know are staffing the kitchens, bars and dining halls of countries around the world unnecessarily and I've decided, invoking the spirit of the spoilt brat (which I'm not usually) that this is no longer applicable to me.

I (like all my other artistic brothers and sisters) am a creative, intelligent, resourceful, organised and talented person and as an artist, can bring so much to an organisation in terms of perspective, lateral thinking, creative solutions and attention to the audience , no matter what country I'm in. And it's time I actually begin to push that. In fact, if you're an artist in a similar position, it's time you start to do that too. I'm a little bit over the artist-as-cheap-labour routine and you should too.

I moved to the UK to soak up the depth of cultural experience here. I've got artwork on the go, I've got exhbitions planned here and an opportunity to see and learn so much creative stuff, to actually get involved and make a difference. Fuck wasting that on a shitty grill and/or a small minded corporate firm.

Interesting 2007

Some of you will remember or know first hand about the Interesting 2007 conference that happened on Saturday. For those who don't, read some bits here, here and here.

It started for me on the Friday, where I popped into The Design Conspiracy to help out a little bit. I didn't help much but I've heard that every little bit helps. And it was a great way to build up the excitement too. Made it a bit of a two-day thing rather than just something on Saturday.



I loved the absolute breadth of the variety of the speakers and have taken away so many thoughts and ideas. The main thing I got from the day, actually, was the thrill of hanging out with 'my people'. Like the first time I walked into a Last Hemeroids show at the Vic on the Park. We're all a little geeky, a bit brainy, totally open to experiencing new and exciting things (except those who hated the chanting and the drawing exercise) and not afraid to show it. It was love all round, from my end.

Although, disappointingly, while the rest of the conference was as far from a conference as I've ever experienced, as usual, the lunch wasn't long enough. But as I was discussing with Paul afterwards, that applies to life in general, so it ain't all bad.

Another extremely cool thing that came from the conference was in fact not at the conference, but the people who were there. At drinks on the friday night beforehand, I got to meet my dear blogging buddy Marcus (who is as sweet, mad and awesome in real life as he is online), as well as having drinks with other bloggers Paul and Ben Terrett. Then on the day other bloggers I got to meet included Rob Mortimer and NP, Beeker and Claire ex D&AD, plus catch up with some of the other kids I've previously met, Sam, Gemma, Will, Charles, etc. So as well as the goodness for the mind, there was heaps of goodness for the heart too. In fact it felt something like a family reunion and a mensa talent quest mash up. Postmodern was the theme of the day and I'm OK with that.



And speaking of mashups, the one thing I took away from the day was my sketchbook. A compilation of all the mad stuff and cool stuff I learned and experienced at Interesting. I sat up the front like a girly swat the whole time and sketched out the day. Well almost everything. In fact my sketchbook is a swarm of notes, quotes, words and little tidbits of images from the day. Some are ghastly, others are not so bad. My personal favourite is the image of the 'tech table', the only constant thing about the day.

Grant, who spoke exceptionally well*, has suggested (again) that i post the sketchbook as documentation of the day. I've tried to find a way that i can make it slightly animated and turn pages, like a real sketchbook would, but I didn't get very far.

*[although I'm surprised I can say that, seeing as during his talk I had to run around avoiding a disaster - trying to find something else to draw with after my pen had died after it had been drenched in tea after my tea leaked from the recycled cup i had been using all morning. Fuck!]

here's a link to the sketches as a flickr slideshow (the closest i could get to an e-book):
http://www.flickr.com/photos/7299213@N03/sets/72157600394090268/show/

Suffice to say, I had a wicked day. I didn't get bored once, didn't fidget or tut, or want to hang outside (except after lunch, but i really should let that go). And at the end of the day when we were all having drinks and meeting/catching up, I could easily have gone back to do it all again the next day.

Seems like the name of the conference was absolutely perfect and I'm looking forward to seeing Interesting 2008 happening.

my nanna

In the midst of lots of thinking, writing, living and talking about art and art-related type things, it's time for a sentimental post.

For the last week and a bit, my Nanna has been visiting London from Australia and I wanted to tell you all about her and the great time we've had.

Nanna turns 77 this September and she's the spunkiest old bird I know. [She reads this blog and will be absolutely mortified that I'm blogging about her, and the 'old bird' bit probably won't help matters either.]

Here are my top 5 reasons why my Nanna rocks:


1. She is on a galivant around the world - visiting her family here, after 5 days in Singapore, is off to Chicago on Tuesday, is back here for a bit, is hoping to squeeze in a trip to Paris [with me] before she heads back home via 2 days in Tokyo. All on her own!

2. She's a wicked techofiend - she is here with her new laptop, which she has mostly managed to set up on her own, is access the wi-fi in the hotel she's at, bought a new digital camera on her travels too - and when she came over to check out my new pad the other day, brought with her a mobile photo card reader! What a gal! She's not great with sending text messages, but always replies to my ones with O k (note the space), loves trawling the net and is up with the basic photo manipulation software! In fact, I wouldn't be surprised if I can convert her into twitter! Ha!

3. She's into 'doing stuff'. Last night we went to Royal Albert Hall to see the English National Ballet doing Swan Lake ('quintessential' anyone?), the other night we saw Mousetrap at St Martin's Theatre, the night before last her and her cousin went to see Chicago (the musical, not the US City which she's leaving for in a few days' time, although the irony wasn't lost on her) and tripped up to the London Eye. And when I suggested we go rowing on the lake in Finsbury Park (in the pirate boat, of course), she was totally up for it, despite a very inexperienced oarsperson. *ahem*.

4. She copes with my language. In fact, she just ignores it now, which I appreciate no end. I do tend to tone it down, but sometimes a thoroughly appropriate 'fuck, fucked, or fucking' will escape and she just lets it slide. That sounds like a lame reason why she rocks, but I know very few septegenarians (except Rob's mum) who can deal with us young 'uns and our appalling language.

5. She is smart, independent and stylish. She has always been 'smart' in all senses of the word - in fact she studied biology via correspondence in between her 3rd and 4th child, just because she found it interesting - and her fashion still isn't what I would call 'old'. Certainly she's not got the latest from Topshop or Primark, but there's no twin set for my nanna. I really admire the independence she has strengthened in her twilight years. She still drives well, travels (see #1), has opinions about all kinds of things, is interested in life and uses her brain.

What a fucking role model hey.

a gallery per day: june week 2

Duncan Hannah, The Lost Girl 2006
thanks to Rh|g website

boy it's been a busy week!

this week's post for gallery per day is up here

hold on, i'm coming..

this week has been a super busy week and i've got draft (or daft) posts waiting on gallery per day, cultural tourism 101 (part 2), how cool my nanna is and some more cultural observations about my time here in london.

they're on their way, so if you're not the patient type, perhaps check out the other blogs in your bookmark/RSS/blogreader for a bit and check back in a few days. it will be a nice surprise then!

cooking in the kitchen

i often compare being an artist to being a cook and artistic practice like a kitchen - there are loads of similarities between the craft of making things that it seems to work well. and you have to be able to multi-task, know when to put some things on high heat, when to just let pieces simmer, have the patience to wait until it's ready, but the ability to go-go-go when the timing is right.

and maybe it's because i'm currently doing kitchen work (english pubs have the best qualified staff!) but i thought i would just post about what's cooking in my kitchen (artistically speaking)

it's a hive of activity, but not a lot of output. i've several dishes on the go and am madly preparing others that i'm hoping will take off.

i spent last night concentrating hard on a little plan of an idea i've had, for a work i'd like to see happen in An Undisclosed Location. Like making hors d'oevres pastry bases from scratch, it was very particular and time-consuming, but hopefully will be a good base for some 'lovely stuff'. Whether it tastes good to others, I'm not sure, but as soon as it gets the OK, it's a matter of piping out the filling and voilà!

As well as doing that prep-work, I'm I'm also doing some brainstorming (gasp! the bad word at the moment in parts of the blogosphere) for a position i'd like to get. which involves playing around with words and using a bit of software to make things look nice. like working on a recipe, i'm writing, rubbing out, writing, scribbling out and thinking about how best to present it all.

and then there's another idea that has been slightly formed and is just simmering on the backburner for the moment. it's going to be a collaborative work, so today the other artist and i went for a bit of a trip to the space, to check it out and see the fantastic show that was on there (check the gallery per day stuff later in the week for an elaboration). it was like doing a tasting - making sure we're on track, that it has all the right ingredients in the right order and ready to reassess at any moment.

there a few little side orders i'm working on too- one being very simple, like a plate of chips and needs to be presented regularly, and another a bit like soup - ready to go, just needs heating, and they're the dishes that compliment the more involved ones, making a balanced diet of works and exhibitions.

unlike kitchen life, though, i'm not stressed about all this activity, quite excited about the prospect of it all taking off and the 'kitchen' being abuzz again. i'm not quite sure what the equivalent of wash-up is in my arts practice (maybe documentation?), but i'll cross that bridge when i get to it. for now, it's all about preparation.

a gallery per day: june week 1

having spent the better part of the week actually concerned with finding a place to live and a job to go to, my gallery visiting was not quite as deep as it has been in the last couple of weeks. you'll have to just forgive me.

in some nice news, i've decided to make a separate blog for a gallery per day. i'll post a 'new gallery per day post' each week on here when one goes up, so you can still keep up with what's going on. i'll also be trying to improve my grammar, spelling and language on there, because i'd like to take that element of my writing a little more seriously. don't worry, i'm not having a complete personality transplant, just a little bit of a tone down, so that if grown up publishing-type people want to take it up, they don't have to freak out about offending the kiddies.

it's here.

. 29.5.07
. Tuesday

Riflemaker, John Maeda, myspace and Anja Niemi, Statbad

I popped into Riflemaker because I had been enjoying a very yummy coffee at flat white and it was around the corner. I was pleasantly surprised to be presented with a John Maeda exhibition. I had heard of Maeda, but not quite registered it, so was pleased to be able to acquaint myself with a name that seems to be well-regarded in tech-art circles. I wasn't 100% enamoured with the exhibition - the text boards and the random op-art pespex reliefs were a bit random for me, but i did totally love his ipod works. There were 2 works in particular that were sharp as tacks and I would have loved the whole exhibition to be like this. But sometimes I can be greedy.
The first ipod work was an ipod video that displayed a screen that replicated the old-school Apple green screens and 'played' a logic code 'conversation' along the lines of:

I LOVE IT WHEN YOU TALK TO ME LIKE THAT
?SYNTAX ERROR

RUN MAEDA
MAEDA
MAEDA
MAEDA
MAEDA
MAEDA
MAEDA
MAEDA
MAEDA
MAEDA
MAEDA
MAEDA
MAEDA

When i was in high school we learned very basic code like this to play very basic games and draw very basic images. This contemporary chat between technological machines was amusing and poignant at the same time. I was pleased that superceded systems and machinery were given a nostalgic place by Maeda.

The other ipod piece that I loved was a relief sculpture framed in a beautiful box frame. There were 16 white ipod nanos piled in a fan-like shape, all running different films of passing scenery, abstract and colour-based work that didn't seem to relate to each other, but I think that was the point. It was such a beautiful moving colour field object.

The other exhibition at the gallery was the photographic work of Anja Niemi, whose eery photographs of ghostly girls in abandoned spaces were very beautiful, well photographed and reminded me of Emily Portmann whose worked got snapped up by Sullivan & Strumpf as a graduate. This may sounds like I'm saying that Anja's work was 'so undergrad'. That wasn't the intention, but it was quite single-minded. I could have bought one (the one of the girl in the bath), and for regular readers of these weekly ramblings, you'll know that while it doesn't necessarily mean a lot, it means something. Especially 'cos I don't have any money to buy one.

. 30.5.07
. Wednesday

National Gallery, Sainsbury Wing, Italian painters, 1350-1550

I decided to mix up my usual pattern this week and take advantage of late opening hours on Wednesday. Although I didn't actually stay until 9pm, there wasn't the feeling of pressure to leave that usually happens when i find myself engulfed in the National's collection. For good measure, I met both Charles and Young Will there today and while I was quite a crap gallery guide for Charles in the first instance, once Will arrived, we all found ourselves having fantastic conversations about all kinds of stuff, while slugging tea in the National Café. It was so acceptable, it was unbelievable. Stuff geek girls' dreams are made of.

While i was quite ambivalent about most of the Italian painting in rooms 62-65, I did arrive at Sandro Botticelli's Venus and Mars and spent quite a while drawing it. Getting Venus' proportions right wasn't easy, but once I got it, I really enjoyed it. I could really converse with the seraphims playing havoc with Mars' war paraphernalia (helmet, staff), i loved drawing Mars and his raised knee and the curve of Venus' body (through the sheer drapery) was lovely. While Boticelli has left me cool in the past, I can see why the boys and girls love him. Here was the beginning of the rennaisance and it was oh so sexy and completely legit. Sexual subversion, advocated by the church? Better than Eastenders anyday.

Annika Eriksson, The Soundtrack
Thanks to the Cubitt Gallery

. 31.5.07
. Thursday

Cubitt Gallery, Annika Eriksson, The Soundtrack

Tucked in behind Pentonville Rd, Cubitt Gallery is a fantastic artist-led-space, attached to studios. I felt right at home in the place that was raw, with concrete floors and an industrial feel. The video work was really quite good. I don't often feel like standing in front of a video piece for longer than a few seconds, but i stood in front of this one for a while. It's an image of a drummer on the street, just playing on his own, to either his own internal rhythm, or the rhythm of the street. Or maybe a bit of both. I have a connection with rhythm and I was fascinated by the representation of someone else's - both obvious (drums) and more subtle (traffic, citylife, solitude).


. 1.6.07
. Friday

Tate Modern, UBS Openings, Poetry and Dream

Regular readers will be wondering what happened to going to Tate on Thursdays, but I decided to go for a Friday this week for the same reason I shifted the National - late openings means i can just drift in there. And when I start working [which i have], i can still go to the Tate easily after work and spend time there.

If I thought the States of Flux section was crammed, boy was I in for a surprise in Poetry and Dream. There was one room there which was seriously jam-packed full of Surrealist works. After going to Surreal Things at the V&A last Friday, this show was a nice compliment to that. Giorgio De Chirico's work was the first thing in the room and it was so, so exquisitely painted, that I just stood in front of if for ages. The form of the classical sculpture was so perfectly rendered and there was just the right amount of disegno(form through drawing) and colori(form through tone) to provide absolute harmony. Unsurprisingly, I saw an artist sketching it when I was on the way out.

The exhibition covered such a range of (mostly) Surrealist and Dada works and what was fantastic about it was to hear the conversation amongst patrons. The images and style of symbolism/imagery is so much in the vernacular that whilst people didn't quite know what was being said, they felt they had the right to discuss it, which I think is absolutely vital. I was really aware of the dynamic of visitors during my visit and I would have to say that Poetry and Dream had the most visitor engagement thus far. The Joseph Beuys 'Stag..' installation got the least understanding/most fear, which was completely balance by Cy Twombly's large scratchy paintings of Quattro Staggioni (Four Seasons). Well done, Tate.

I was pleased to see some more Magritte works and totally loved this quote from a wall plaque:
".. the subtle undermining of the everyday was characteristic of Magritte and his Belgian Surrealist colleagues, who preferred quiet subversion to overt public action."

And speaking of subversion, Marcel Duchamp is one of the single most influential Dada/Surrealist/Installation Artists in the modern era, apart from Pablo Picasso (IMHO) and while I appreciate the method behind scattering his work amongst all the exhibits, I really, really want him to have his own room. His subversion and his proliferation were so far-reaching that it feels like he gets lost among his colleagues. I managed to put something like this on my little postcard drawing I did as part of the kids program (OK, so i'm old enough to have children, but that doesn't/shouldn't stop me), but I'm not sure whether that makes much of a difference, really.

In fact, while drawing my Tate postcard, I had the nicest time chatting with a couple of younger Tate patrons about the collection, which was just delightful, and something I thoroughly recommend.


. 2.6.07
. Saturday

No gallery.

I spent all day running around North London looking for a place to live and applying for work. I didn't feel much like going to a gallery by the end of it.

Mark Wallinger, State Britain
Thanks to the Tate website

. 3.6.07
. Sunday

Tate Britain,State Britain, Mark Wallinger.,

So much has been written about this work (rightly so), by Turner Prize candidate Mark Wallinger, that I'll just keep it brief. In fact, I'm going to focus on the Talk with the Artist - a video that is playing in a small nook on the ground floor, which is Mark taking you through the work and the impetus and feeling behind it. It was incredibly enlightening and while I usually prefer to leave the Introduction until last, i really appreciated it. He discussed the piece being transformed into an authenticated 'object' by being in the gallery, rather than an 'eyesore' sitting outside Palace of Westminster. He discussed that for certain conservatives, this work now has validity because it has been recreated by an Artist (capital A), as opposed to a passionate protestor, Brian Haw.

While the work was a little obtuse the first time I saw it, the concept of it began to sink in and I really enjoyed poring over the way in which such basic forms of communications - hand-made signs, raw wood, grubby material and greasy tarpaulins - have been 'recreated' using artistic means.

After checking out State Britain, I had a quick peek in the Modern Figures section of the Modern Britons section and was wildly disappointed. There were only a small handful of interesting paintings, including a self portrait by Gwen John and some of the daily scenes by Walter Sickert. I haven't seen other parts of the Modern collection, but I was really surprised that, in terms of figures, that Frank Auerbach and Lucien Freud, are missing. Surely they are Modern figurative painters. Perhaps they'll show up elsewhere and I can safely report that British Art is in safe hands. If not, the Brits are being seriously under-represented in their own gallery.


. 4.6.07
. Monday

Nolias Gallery, W+E M I X

I stumbled upon this gallery, while on the way to catch up with Helen. While the space was not particularly welcomming, the show was slightly interesting. In particular, a work by chinese artist Yuan Tian. Up on the mezzanine, there was a bedroom setting and the duvet/doona cover was printed in red writing in English "Hey, make yourself at home!" and Chinese script of the translation "Get the fuck off my bed, I just changed the covers!" (paraphrase). The Welcome mat was also in both English and translated in Chinese as "Take off your bloody shoes".

As a recent visitor, running into my own version of English translations (ie. Thankyou, can mean, Why don't you just fuck off!), I really appreciated the idea of culture clash and miscommunication. The rest of the works, looking at an east asian perspective of living in London was a refreshingly familiar inquiry and to be admired.


Next week, galleries I've got on the list include Jeff Koons at Gagosian, Damian Hirst at White Cube, Cindy Sherman at Sprüth Magers, Old School at Hauser & Wirth and hopefully the Design Museum (which i've been meaning to get to for weeks now).

EDIT: Sorry about two mega posts in a row. I promise I'll post something light-hearted and whimsical next.

cultural tourism 101: how to get people to enjoy a cultural experience

After my distastrous trip to Leeds, instead of getting a goitre about how shit it was, I decided to get constructive and get open source. Inspired by Sacrum, the Open Source Art School and the Advertising/Planning School on the Web, welcome to the first lesson of Cultural Tourism 101.

While i don't have a PhD in Cultural Tourism, I am a cultural tourist (especially at the moment), i have resurrected a gallery in a regional town from the depths of hell (to hand it over to the best) and i have a brain, which i choose to use often.


What is cultural tourism?

Dictionary.com didn't have a definition, but on a basic level, cultural tourism is attracting people to a place that is based around experiencing a creative experience, in order for them to be able to transcend their daily lives. Commonly, it is centred around music, art, literature, dancing, theatre, performance (as opposed to sport, business, or nature). as these are ways that we express ourselves as humans and give others a way to know us and know themselves.


Now, cultural tourism isn’t really a new thing. Even 2-bit towns in the arse-end of Australia have cottoned onto the phenomenon, but there are a few key points that need to be followed if a city/region/organisation is really going to attract tourists based on their cultural icons. I'm going to separate the lesson into two sections: events and institutions, because while a lot of the strategy behind it may be similar, there are a few key differences between the two.


Firstly, housekeeping.
There are a few basic questions you need to ask yourself if you're going to embark on establishing your event/institution as a point of cultural reference for someone:

• Do you want people to come?
Yes? Fantastic. That's what i would expect.
no? Leave.
What are you doing it for then? Is launching it online more your cup of tea, so you don't actually have to engage with anyone?

• Do you believe in your event/service/idea/product/place/whatever?
Yes? Fantastic. That's what i would hope for.
No? Leave.
Why are you doing this then? Perhaps a better option would be to actually hire someone who does.

• Do you have a good event/service/idea/product/place/whatever?
Yes? Fantastic. Now we're cooking with gas.
No? Leave.
Go away and improve it. Spend some more time/money making it right (not perfect, just right) so that you're not flogging a dead horse. Necro-sado bestiality is so last century anyway.

OK, chapter one.

Events

These are the main means of contact tourists will have with your event. If you can cover these bases, to the best of your budget/ability/means, you'll be on your way.

Who?
Make a list of the people you are trying to attract. If it's only a few people, that's OK, It's only a few people. But the important things is that you're clear. You need to know who they are. It will help put everything else in check later on and it is a lot easier to attract people when you have clarity of purpose.

When?
Often this is the first question that cultural event organisers (especially small ones) ask themselves, as they're often restricted by budget, or government funding/staffing etc. In doing so, they lose out on asking that first vital question, out of a sense of panic. After you've asked who, the when may be a whole lot easier

For example, if you want to attract students, don't make your event in the middle of exam time. Or 2 months before exams. Make it in the holidays, or at the beginning of semester. It sounds like common sense, but you would be amazed.
Consider things like what hours people work - maybe think about having a later closing time? Also, don't forget to check what else is on that day - big sporting events, election day, Mother's Day, Eid, beginning of Ramadan, etc. These will all be a hindrance to getting people to turn up, so it's best to avoid them, if possible. Knowing which ones to avoid will be made easier by knowing who you want to come. If your target is christian death metal fans, chances are Ramadan won't matter, but they might be busy on Sunday morning.

Where?
Accessibility is key for tourism. Not to reduce everything down to lowest common denominator, but to make it as open as your event can possibly be to the people you want to come. So your choice of where to have something needs to take this into consideration. And not just the physical accessibility either. Yes, it needs to be available to those who still have brains, but may not have legs that work, but it also needs to be perceptually accessible:

For example, a labourer with 3 kids may be intimidated by something held in the lecture hall right in the middle of an elite university, but could still brave it if it was in a hall open to the street. It's just an example (which i'm sure people will pick to bits), but what i'm trying to get at is to actually think about the wider implications of where you hold your event. This will be amplified in the next point.

How?
Again, accessibility is the key and if they can't get there easily, they ain't gonna come. Full stop. Assume that all of the people, coming to your event will be walking. That is the basic way of getting anywhere and if you make it accessible by walking, you've got half your bases covered. It may sound obvious, but make sure there is public transport available. If there isn't , make it so. Organise a shuttle bus from the nearest train/bus/plane station. If you can't afford that, leave a bunch of push-bikes there. Whatever, make sure that people who don't drive cars can get there. Not only is it fucking simple, but it shows you actually care about the environment and are preventing drink-driving (if it's an alcohol kind of event).
If you have thought about public transport, make sure you're in partnership with the companies. Maybe organise a special deal where you can buy your ticket and a train ticket for a cheaper price. And make sure transport is running throughout the whole time (not just the beginning).

Once you've sorted out public transport, obviously, you have to consider parking for those who cannot or will not use it. I have a friend who hates public transport. I've tried to persuade her, but she will drive. You need to make room for people like her, so organise somewhere that there is adequate parking. Let the local residents/council know that you may be clogging up the streets for a while. Maybe include a parking permit in with the ticket (at a price).

And same with cabs. Let the cab companies know that you've got a shindig on. The drivers will appreciate the increased business and your people get a safe ride home. Maybe you could make sure there's a phone on site, from which to call a cab. Just to make it a little easier.

As you can see - the how is all starting to mingle with the who and the where...

Promotion
If you've got all of the above covered, the promotion should be just like joining the dots. In fact, it's a waste of time and money if you've got great promotion, and a sub-standard event organised. You'll just alienate your visitors and have them blogging about it behind your back!

There are a tonne of ways you can promote cultural events. the great thing is that people who are into cultural events are usually open to being interested in interesting ways. Which means you don't have to go down trad routes of advertising.

Well-chosen advertising will still work, but choose wisely. Artists still read art magazines and musicians still pore over music mags, so a good looking ad in a well-read/regarded mag will still hit the jackpot. the saturday papers get read at a much slower pace and when people are open to transcending their daily lives, so if you want to go mainstream media, they still work.

I wouldn't even bother with a tv commercial. I don't think i've ever been to something cultural based on a TVC and the cost is astronomical. But i'm not a media buyer/consultant/boffin, so it's entirely possible that i could be way off.

Use the internet. In fact, if you have £5[$12.50] to spend on marketing, use £4 [$10] on a good, accessible website that tells you everything and the rest on a good well-placed ad (provided that you have everything else sorted, to back it up)

Whatever mode you go with, i encourage you to think intelligently about it. And if you can't, get someone who can because you will save yourself a lot of money, time and heartache. And if you've done the hard work (ie, the other questions), like i already said, the rest is easy.



Chapter 2 will be on institutions and i'll tackle that in a couple of days.


Homework
Your homework will be to go to a cultural event - a concert, a fair, a festival, a one-day talk, a poetry reading, a private viewing, and tell me what worked and what didn't, in terms of attracting an audience.

may happysnaps

in between the megalith of that previous post and the monstrosity of the next one, i thought i might pop in something light and fluffy.

earlier this month i posted about my flickr happysnaps - my aim at being interesting by taking random pics and uploading them to flickr (although as i type that, it actually sounds rather mundane). anyway, seeing as it's the end of the month, i thought i might put a couple up here, so you can have a peek at what i've been seeing this month.

more happysnaps

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a gallery per day: may week 4

the subtitle for this blog is: the week i didn't see any art.

it's going to be a relatively short post becuase, believe it or not, i visited a gallery per day this week and managed to only actually see 3 shows, thanks to most of them being shut or fucked up in some way. thank goodness i have a sense of humour!

tuesday
22.5.07

ICA (institute of contemporary art)

i went to the ica to have a gander and check out the reputable contemporary art gallery (not to mention clash pilgrimage stop). when i got there, there was no exhibition on, it's opening tomorrow. loaded with attitude. when i asked about buying a ticket to the david eggers talk on thursday (which i had heard about and was really looking forward to), i got 'it's all sold out' and about as much human interaction as a piece of fucking box board.

so, instead of storming off and bitching about the rude fucking british, i hung out in the very excellent bookstore. i can't really afford to buy anything at the moment (finances and space, etc), but i watched someone buy pretty much everything in the store, and turned a very lovely shade of pantone 365. i looked at wonderful books on theory, books with pretty coloured covers, magazines from around the world and even picked up a very cool looking freebie on Cool London Brands. I left feeling slightly renewed, went to use the toilets, closed. fucking gallery.

don't worry, i'll go back next week to see if i can reclaim a shitty first impression, but for today, the ica sucks. it does absolutely nothing to prevent absolute alientation from contemporary art, even by contemporary artists, for fucks' sake!



wednesday
23.5.07

stolen space, chloe early

after lounging in my fav. cafe, i popped in to see the show and got to see precisely 1.5 paintings before the gallery staff kindly told me that it actually wasn't open and that the private viewing was tomorrow.
they really shouldn't have had the signs (note the plural) out on the street, advertising the gallery as open. however, the paintings that i did see looked really great actually and i'm hoping i can skip back in there another day soon, before the show closes.





thursday
24.5.07

tate modern, material gestures (ubs openings)

in the next round of tate modern adventures, young will and i met for coffee again and gasbagged for ages, before heading around the material gestures on the third floor.
material gestures started with a huge fibreglass piece by my favourite british artist (at the moment) anish kapoor. i go weak at the knees with everything he does, and this one was no exception.
highlights of the floor included the wrong gallery (you may remember that i heard massimiliano gioni from wrong at the melbourne art fair forums a while ago), and the rothko room. mayhem and i were supposed to rendevouz there a while back and never managed it. it was fucking amazing and i'm so glad he decided that it was all wrong for a hotel and so, so right for a gallery. in fact i could sit in that room for hours on end, just being all, hummed out is the only way i can explain it.
i don't want to reduce rothko to associations with my childhood, but there was something about the room that reminded me of my grandparents' loungeroom - all that deep red and charcoalness had something to do with it.

the influence of american action painters and inaction painters (like barnett newman) was really well shown, while given enough room to treat the works individually as well. I'm not sure if the whole effect of world war II was quite impressed as much as it needed to be, but overall, it was hot.t.



friday
25.5.07

victoria & albert museum, surreal things

i had been looking forward to going to the v&a for a while, especially the surrealist ball. it sounded like such a great idea - totally free, encouragement to dress up, late night time in a museum, and, as it turns out, a chance to tweet (meet a twitter friend) Helen. turns out she had free tix, so i actually got to see the Surreal Things exhibition, rather than wander around the museum (which i would happily have done, but it was so much better seeing the show.)

i'm not really a huge fan of surrealism. In fact, as response to the madness of world war I, i much prefer dadaism. however, the surreal things was more about the design aspect of surrealism, which was far more interesting and engaging - set design, costume, product design (including works by Carlo Mollino and groovy couches by Isamu Noguchi). It also featured the Bestegui Apartment, designed by Le Corbusier and although Dali is my least favourite, the Mae West lips and associated homewares by Dali and Edwards were fantastic.

The Magritte paintings on display were pretty good (not the best, but still pretty ace) and i was quite surprised by how many surrealist works by Albert Giacometti were included.

If you're into design of any kind, I thoroughly recommend going to see the show 'cos while Dali is one of the most overrated painters in history, other artists in the Surrealists were responsible for some truly brave and inspiring works.





saturday
26.5.07

coningsby gallery, natalie abadzis, the leafsweeper

i stumbled upon this gallery, looking for another one, and it was nice to pop into a show that was quite delicate and innocent and clean. natalie is a designer and illustrator and her paintings were quite cute - little moments that captured little perspectives of life. her small artists' book was for sale, so i bought one. it was nice to engage with something a little more whimsical.


sunday
27.5.07

situation leeds, various locations, leeds.

i went to leeds for the day to check out the last day of situation leeds, a festival of situationist works in the centre of the northern town. it sounded fantastic, and with situation work totally up my alley, i jumped on a bus for 4 hours each way to check it out.

the weather was totally shithouse, but that didn't bother me too much. that was until my experience of the festival was a whitewash. the promotion and website for the festival was absolutely fantastic, but the actual event was really badly organised and totally lost me. although it was the end of the festival, according to the website and other guides, i could at least check out the work on the free city bus, the bus stops and at the university. well, when i got to leeds, i found out the hard way the the free city bus doesn't run on sundays, which meant that i drastically reduced what i could see. never mind, i went to the festival hub to check out what else i could see.

the festival hub was at the met gallery in the metropolitan university and for a 'festival hub' it was appallingly signposted. in fact, it wasn't and i wandered around a desolate university trying to find where the fuck i was. finally i found the gallery and was hoping to find out all kinds of helpful information, some keen suggestions as to some cool stuff to check out. all i got was a cursory brush off, a printed guide and some misinformation about the city bus service from a girl who was far more interested in hanging out on the net than in actually engaging with me, or helping me enjoy the art or the festival. what a waste of fucking resources! did these people even want people to see any art or have an enjoyable time?

when i managed to get some sense of where some works might be laying, i had a quick look around the gallery there and it was mostly documentationa about the festival and the cool do.go.see installation.

i went off to the leeds university to find the 10 green bottles which were 'on a wall outside the robert stevenson building' according to the descriptions and when i finally found the building, i walked around the whole thing (in the freezing cold rain) and didn't find the fucking works. i swear, it was laughable and laugh i did! and then, i decided to not put myself in any more pain and walked back into town to find a nice, warm, dry place to sit. i still can't quite believe what a shambles it was, but i consoled myself, buying a kick-arse pair of x-hi converse boots, drafting a blog about cultural tourism and not judging a city on one crap day/event.


monday
28.5.07

hayward gallery, antony gormley, blinding light.

and, to top off a fine week of not seeing any art, i braved the winter-like weather and bank holiday crowds to take advantage of cheap mondays at the hayward, and to see the gormley. i really like antony gormley's works - having seen the asian field and the desert figures in australia. and, so it seems, did everyone else in london. the show was 'sold out' which was not only annoying, but damn hilarious! and instead of going to the national gallery instead (like i usually do on mondays), i decided to laugh, cut my losses, come home, cook a huge lasagne from scratch and blog about it.

next week, i'm actually going to buy a time out and make sure i choose wisely.