Collecting the final frames take two
When people come and look at my graduate exhibition I - not quite worry - but wonder if they know how much work and time and thinking went into these small prints sitting quietly on the wall. My piece certainly isn't a large one, and while I try to ignore the thoughts that "size doesn't matter", I know to people who don't normally look at images it often does.
With this post, I want to share more of what when into making a piece for exhibition, and the costs that are incurred by the artist. We are told, as students, that throwing money at a project is not what will get you the grade. There is some truth in that. There definitely needs to be a concept. But once you have that concept, it is indirectly expected that some money throwing should probably be part of it.
My graduation exhibition piece cost:
Printing ----- €250 ----- Printed myself using college facilities.
Framing ----- €405 ---- Framed in Hang Tough. Not without complication, but otherwise fine.
Hanging ----- €30 ---- Screws, mounting board, etc.
In my search for information on funding and affording gallery space, I've come across these PDFs - "The Costs and Funding of Exhibitions" and "Business to Arts: Private Investment in Arts and Culture Survey Report".
Nothing in Stone
Nothing in Stone is an exhibition I'm organising with 13 of my fellow photography graduates.
Gallery Space in Dublin
In my opinion, Dublin is lacking in low cost/affordable art spaces/spaces interested in showing student work. The largest space I have been able to find is Steambox on School St. in Dublin 8. Recently I found a new site called Fill it (currently still in it's 'beta' stage) which allows people to rent out currently empty space in the same style as Air BnB (in fact the website feels exactly the same). While I am really excited to see where this goes, at the moment the spaces on it are a little too expensive for not enough space.
What am I paying:
For 13days I am paying €500 for gallery space, with an additional €140 deposit.
Sponsorship?
Sponsorship is hard to come by. Not impossible. Just hard.
For a show I'm currently organising I spent an evening sending out emails to companies I thought most likely to sponsor a small art event. I didn't hear back from a single one. However, every exhibition that I have been involved in has been sponsored in some way by local shops or places that one of the artists works.
Current sponsorship:
€200 from Tiger. Huge thanks to Tiger and Hue Hale for organising this.
Promotion
Now that there is only one month left before opening, promoting the event will start. Posters, pice lists, websites, there are some many things we would love to do.