Review the Enterprise Hub resources Promoting yourself and Showcasing your work.
Articulate your progress clearly and concisely regarding your networking and promotion plans and activities. Reflect on any challenges and action areas.
Record your findings in your learning log.
The artist’s residency I just completed was important step in building my network and in promoting myself and my work to a new audience. It was however just one step in many potential choices.
From the document in the OCA Enterprise Hub:
Promoting Yourself
Writing CVs, biographies, practitioner statements and developing a manifesto.
These written promotional tools are something I feel comfortable with., I have previously played with an artist’s statement and used different versions of this when I was applying for my artist’s residency. That feels like a key point in these documents. The knowledge of where and when to use these in my promotional journey. For example, a full CV might be useful in job application whereas practitioner statements, manifesto and artist’s statement are more useful when brevity is key and a longer CV would be too much. At this stage, I am focussed on an exhibition but maybe there is more scope to promote myself in different ways when submitting works to competitions, open calls or for display in a short summary of my work rather than a full exhibition of my current major project.
Online Enterprise Tools
Tools such as my OCA blog, my personal website, any sales platform I might use in the future and tools such as social media are things to consider at different points as I might need them. At present for example, I not considered the sale of my work so this might be something to look at in the future. I have rejoined Instagram and post some images there and do some networking. This the only social media platform I use in relation to my art. Platforms such as Twitter and Facebook are more of a political space for me. I also have a LinkedIn account but this was not tailored for my art and was a space I used for networking and job searches when I worked in the IT industry.
The course notes mention a business plan along with finances, selling and marketing. I don’t yet feel that this is necessarily something I would be interested in. Not at this stage.
Showcasing your Work
The showcasing my work section in the Enterprise Hub feels much more relevant to my personal journey at this stage than does the promotional elements mentioned above.
The start of this article on the motivations for displaying work seem highly relevant. “Understanding, in quite an intimate and challenging way sometimes, what you desire from exhibiting will inform your choice of context, your curatorial choices and your strategies for engagement. Being self aware and honest about why you are doing what you are doing will help you devise a realistic and rewarding plan. Look to your work and ask yourself what it needs. Look at the potential spaces available to you and ask yourself what those spaces might suggest or require of the work.”
It feels to me that refining and being comfortable with my project is a crucial step I must complete before I start to approach potential spaces for the display of my project. The self-awareness, my choices, the pieces I reject or add to my work and the order I place pieces within my sequence are all part of the curation of my own work. How can I then seek an external party when I am not yet clear in my head as to what my final project will look like? An online exhibition might be a good way to help me self-curate my work and imagine it in different gallery settings. I think that even at this early stage, my work has more meaning and complexity than can be shown online in the digital space so while a digital gallery setting is useful, I see this simply as a tool to how my work would look in real life.
The list of physical spaces in the Enterprise Hub document is extensive and includes National and regional galleries and museums, commercial galleries, white cube galleries, art fairs, community galleries, art walks, open studios, festivals, trade events, markets, craft events, informal settings, workshops, studios, pop-up spaces, street art, performance spaces and screening venues. The choice is almost overwhelming. To this list I also need to consider collaborative shows or solo efforts.
There are two interesting interviews on “Best Ways to Approach a Gallery” from curator Jamnea Finlayson and” How to get Notice by Galleries” by Erica Berkowitz. Unsurprisingly, these are skills the artist can work on and experiences to build upon. I think I might start to build myself a list and detail some of my early approaches as and when I feel my project is ready. As a prompt, this document asks the following questions. This seems as good a starting place as any.
- What type of venue is it? – is it formal/informal, small/large, public/private, commercial/non-commercial/, subsidised/ independent.
- What does it offer? – what is its location, context, size, lighting, access, remit, mission statement, reputation, local audience, surrounding network of practitioners,
- What kind of work does the venue normally show? Look at archive of a gallery to get an idea of the kind of work they are interested in prompting.
- Is the space artist or curator led? Who is in charge of the space, and how are decisions made? Who do you need to talk to?
- Will the venue help support your aims? Does the venue give you what you need to help move your practice forward? Is it a suitable space for your work?
- Is it a realistic option? It’s good to be ambitious, but equally to be practical. How achievable is your choice, given the timescales or remit of the venue.
So much to research and to consider here.