Throughout my project Looking Back|Moving Forwards which was kindly supported by Arts Council England, Blackpool Council and UcLan, I have had a number of crits and meetings with curators, such as Kerry Harker and Claire Gannaway. These have been held at both my studio and the final exhibition at the Grundy Art Gallery, and have been really useful in helping me consider approaches and ways to move forward with my practice. I have also held crit’s with my peers at Rogue studios, Manchester and also artist friends from other cities. A few weeks back, I had a studio crit with artists Nicola Dale and Susie MacMurray, which was really useful, we chatted about the architecture I explore in my work, and ideas of restoration in my work. Susie interestingly commented that even though I am restoring parts the architecture, the work looks new, although communicates a language of the past also.
During my project, I have also had a series of meetings with a marketing mentor, Jennifer Dean. These have been really helpful, as it has helped me consider how I am presenting myself online, through marketing, and also through 1-1 interactions in a lot more depth. We went through my website, social media such as Facebook, Instagram and Twitter, as well as my mailing list. We also talked about the importance of sending out a regular newsletter, to keep people informed of what you are involved in, things like building up your mailing list with organisations and individuals specific to your research interests. This has been really important in starting and maintaining relationships which has given me opportunities for after the project, as well as really useful discussions.
Jennifer also helped me with writing press releases for each of the events within the project. We also talked changing the language of the press release for the receiving audience, and how important it is to write a personalised email rather than sending out a massive mail out to people you hope may speculatively be interested in your work. Her was invaluable and will help me with future projects over the next year.
