“Mae mwy nag un ffordd i gael Wil i’w wely.”
So you’ve finished your piece of creative work . Now what do you do with it? Put it in the back of the cupboard or on a shelf to gather dust? No, if you’ve created a piece of art – in whatever medium – you will want to put it on public display. It might be that you stick to the fridge door with a magnet or have it professionally framed and hung on a wall in the house. There again, you might want to show your work to a wider audience so you need to find a place to exhibit it. Think outside the box like the creator of Llandoddies did.
Exhibiting art work is a chicken and egg situation. It’s difficult to convince the organisers of a gallery, a library, a hall or any kind of public space that they would want to host your exhibition when you have no track record but you can’t get a track record without having an exhibition. There are a couple of ways around this. Firstly, start entering competitions or submitting work for joint exhibitions. Make sure, however, that you set yourself a budget and don’t go over it. Some competitions are free to enter but you may have to take your work there and collect it in person. If you get placed in the competition, it can add kudos to your CV when you present it to a Gallery owner. If you submit work for a joint exhibition, your work will piggy back on the art of others but as long as your name is in the programme it doesn’t matter. How do I know these two things work? Because in 1999 I was runner up in the Embroiderers’ Guild International President’s Cup Competition and a couple of years afterwards I had a piece of Textile Art shown in an Open College of Arts exhibition at the Royal Watercolour Society Gallery on the South Bank of London. Don’t those two things sound impressive?
What they have done to my CV is provided it with external validation which is something that Gallery Owners, Arts Development Officers and Funding bodies all look for. None of these people or groups can possibly free up enough time and expertise to be able to sort the wheat from the chaff when it comes to the myriad of different arts and media available today. Having something on your artistic CV showing that you have exhibited somewhere – even if it was as part of greater whole – tells people that you can produce high quality work in a timely fashion. Both of these things are crucial when it comes to assigning exhibition space.
Or you can form your own (or join an existing) exhibiting group or cooperative. This may be made up of people working in the same medium or not. You can then spread the cost of hiring a hall, for example, for a week or a month. You can make it a selling exhibition, do workshops or have other events. One of the best examples of this kind of thing is the Wool and Willow Festival in Llanidloes, mid Wales which runs from the end of May to the end of June each year. The important thing if you’re going to exhibit this way is to have a clear understanding of the roles of each person involved, keep a tight control of finances and – most importantly – have some form of vetting procedure so that work which is exhibited is of a high standard. Again, make sure you keep a copy of any publicity materials in your CV.
You can have an on-line exhibition if you have a website of your own but having your own website can be expensive., especially if you end up paying extra for every image posted or the frequency of amendments. Also, unless you have a website designer who has the patience of a saint and is willing to accept that you will always be able to find something you would rather do than sit in front of a computer screen, you may struggle to get an online presence that does your work justice. For those of you not lucky enough to have a Lorraine from Greenweeds you can always go try use social media platforms or free-to-use blogs to get your message and images across.
When you are convinced that you can produce high quality art work, in a timely fashion, that has been externally validated and you can show that you can adopt the role of artist in not just the creative sense but in an integrative way too – ie you can lead workshops, deal with egos, work with administrators, organise rotas, handle finances, smile for cameras and chat nicely at great length to people who have or feign an interest in your work – (and these, usually all at the same time) then it’s time for you to look for opportunities to have solo exhibition.
Exhibition space is always at a premium. Galleries are always most interested in selling work because obviously, they are businesses. It may be that your work is not commercial or that you do not see selling as a priority so it could be worth talking to your local council and finding out if there is an opportunity for you to exhibit in one of their facilities. Churches, schools, village halls may all welcome an art exhibition. Festivals and Open Air town centre events are also possiblities.
For the Coblynnau project, which comes to an end on the 1st July, I’m having a one day, ‘pop-up’ exhibition in the Vistors’ Centre at Bryngarw Country Park on 21st June and the following week, we’re placing all of the Textile Art out and about in the park. If you’re in the area, come and have a look. If you enjoy creating art work, don’t keep it to yourself. The world needs artists and it needs art.
Remember that you might need public liability insurance for any exhibition in which you place your work.