WoW! That last post was the 3rd October. Ouch! So much for getting you all up to date with the project and keeping the momentum going… Progress has actually being going full pelt on this side; I just haven’t got around to sharing it with you. Oops…
There have been lots of stumbling blocks, lots of decisions to be made, but also heaps of progress. Most of the children’s work arrived mid October and unpacking and looking at that in the flesh was really exciting. There are some real gems. I’ll share some on here and then hopefully in the not too distant future they will be available for viewing along with the artists work on a project website – details coming soon.
I looked into crowd-funding, even signed up for two events – one with Artquest and one during UAL’s Enterprise week. The 2nd of these was cancelled but the 1st was very informative. I think it’s a great thing to do if you want cash for a project (which you can’t accrue from other means) and there is loads of information on the internet now about it. Not to mention here on a-n, see www.a-n.co.uk/p/1002915/ for a great summary.
That said I’ve ruled it out. The main aspect apparent from the seminar is that the more I looked into it the more i saw it would be a full time job for the 2-3 months prior and during your project being live, not to mention ongoing updates to all the donors after the event, to have a successful pitch. It just isn’t tenable on the timeframes we have here. Which put me in a flat spin when I initially realised as I couldn’t see any other way of getting funds for necessary printing I hoped to do – this side of xmas and beyond. As already mentioned I don’t want to ask the artists for any more as they are already donating 1-3 pieces of work.
So some soul search was required. First off I was really nervous this was a crucial aspect of our project – get cards printed in time for xmas, sell and raise awareness in the lead up to major events early in the New Year. But as I calmed down I realised it was just one aspect, one nice to have and not that crucial. I could always put in the money myself and re-coup it after the event – as a loan.
Better probably to get some good images together of all the art work now produced and start putting together a really good marketing strategy – get this blog up-to-date; get a website online; have a facility to pre-order printed material (this way not nearly as much upfront money required) such as cards, limited addition prints, artist books etc; firm up venues and dates and start gathering interested parties to attend the event(s) … so much still to do, probably too much on the list.
What I’ve realised is the whole project is in flux, but madly believe it’s better to have things on the list and rule them out than have not thought about them in the first instance.
