There have been a few more developments in our NY plans, all being good too which is a nice change.
Debra Eck, our Jamestown artist and contact, has been busy having meetings with various people in the community over there and has not only managed to get a further 500$ donation, but also a possible sponsor for a catalogue. Last I heard, she was going round all the restaurants to see if they would offer free meals to the artists. Can’t see people being so supportive of the arts over here for some reason, but we can’t complain after getting so many backers to our Kickstarter project.
Speaking of Kickstarter… we now have a frustratingly long wait for them to check all the financial details of the backers and to release all of the names. We need to know who and where to send out the artworks to as well as contact details of the artists who want to participate. We are all so keen to move on too.
The other interesting aspect of funding (sort of)… is that I received an email from the Swedish artists who are also participating in the exhibition. We met the artists from Artmobile when we took part in SUPERMARKET in Stockholm last year and invited them to exhibit with us when we toured the exhibition from the Liverpool Biennial up to Leeds.
The email was a brief – ‘we’ll fly over to New York and meet you there’, sort of thing. No asking for help with funding or anything, which is absolutely fantastic for us, but makes me wonder how easy it must be for artists to get financial support over there?
Anyway… that’s where we are up to. I want to book my flight right now, but although our crowdfunding efforts were hugely successful, in reality, it will only get 3 – 4 of us across to NY. There’s still that dreaded ACE application to contend with now.
My own work? The crowdfunding followed by a horrible bout of flu with the ‘negotiating with gallery over damaged work’ saga in the middle , has left me totally drained and finding hard to pick up enthusiasm for it again.
Today we reached our crowdfunding target – with a whole 48 hours to spare. I still can’t believe it. In fact when I checked earlier, I saw what was at that stage, a figure ending in 15 and I was trying to calculate how much we still needed to reach target. It feels sort of numb and unreal at the moment . Such a weird feeling.
When I posted on our facebook page that we’d made it, one of our backers commented ‘that was the most stressful weekend ever’ Tell me about it!
Everyone is against the thought of paying for exhibitions – I know I am. But….needs must and all that. We have decided to include the work of other artists in our Jamestown NY exhibition. To cover costs, admin, transport and the extra time the poor exhibition technician who will be putting up these additional works, we are going to charge £12. So…. you can either stop reading in disgust now…or… put a New York exhibition on your CV by pledging £12 on our Kickstarter site.
http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/scibasecolonize/scibase-colonize?ref=search
It’s not £12 entry in the hope that you will be selected, its £12 guaranteed acceptance. To eliminate some of the more dodgy work that my come our way through this ‘ all is accepted route’, we will need to see at least 3 images of works so that we can chose one ( though we don’t need to see images yet until January ) The work will have to be small – A5 and very light.
So…. You have a week. Help us reach our Crowdfunding target, while being part of an exciting project!
‘Unfortunately, I noticed your work has been damaged’ An email I received on Friday about my work in the Warrington Contemporary open. ‘It appears to have been done by an over enthusiastic child entering the gallery before his parents.’
I was so annoyed I haven’t responded yet. I just don’t know what to say. No word about compensation – nothing. I mean, the work was delicate anyway – made of paper, so why didn’t they put it under cover?
I’m speechless.
15 days to go…. and it’s the same routine – wake up, check if there are any other backers, go to work, check again at the earliest possible chance, come home, check again, read the flurry of suggestions and ideas from the rest of the group ( hmmm…well, some of them anyway ) on how to get more backers, check again…. sigh.
In desperation I went through my LinkedIn contacts (something I don’t even look at normally, as I find it a complete waste of time) and sent out a ‘please back us’ message. Within ten mins, I got an email back from an artist stating ‘No, I won’t back you, but I would like to be in the exhibition’. Er – work on your correspondence technique matey!
24 backers and a quarter of the money raised for our crowdfunding project is not bad at all – and I’m equally impressed that there are so many ‘Artist talking’ bloggers backing us (nice to see artist supporting each other!) But we still have a way to go.
Needless to say, my own work has taken a complete back burner.
Nothing to do with the crowdfunding obsession – just that occasional blip I get when that ‘Why am I doing this?’ wave washes over me. I think it started when I picked up my installation from the Chapel Gallery. I know its normal to feel a little deflated after an exhibition – all of that intense work that you’ve put in, a few weeks of the ‘high’ you experience when you have that huge sense of achievement, and then …..nothing.
I dumped the boxes in my spare room, which doubles as a studio, storage space and occasional sleeping room for visitors and thought – ‘I don’t have the room for all this stuff!’
Need more space…..need more time…..need more money!
http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/scibasecolonize/scibase-colonize?ref=search
