Beach Gallery Orkney

Today’s coffee break musing has got me thinking about ‘Value In Kind’.  While drafting a humungous document to support a funding application, I listed in great detail the huge amount of work that I will be doing to create an exhibition of someone else work that other people will enjoy.  I need to remind myself what’s in it for me.   Costing out all the time spent as if I was getting paid for it has totalled up a very large sum.  It leads me to ask myself a question that other less art-enthusiastic friends will certainly ask me… “Why are you doing all this”?  A question to which I’ll need to think carefully about the answer to.  There isn’t a column on my spreadsheet to show the value to my personal creative development.  It’s hard work, often behind the scenes grafting that is unappreciated which may or may not lead to any payment.  You’ll agree that we do it because we love it, but my art-doubting friend will need a more convincing answer than that!   I need another column to put a value on personal creative development, but how can that be valued in such a document?

Made a callout on a-n last year for artists to make contact with me here on the stunning island of Hoy, Orkney.  Waited to see what transpired. Was there anyone out there?  What would happen by just sending out a  tentative ‘hello’?   What’s emerged from this is a plan to show some lovely shoreline birds in our waterfront display area by Adele Pound from Northern Ireland.  Folks in the community here on Hoy are invited to come & see, get inspired & join in.