The last week has been crazy – especially as between preparing for the fundraising exhibition and the studio event (which I’ll go into later) I slipped and fell flat on my face, doing my back in and creating a corker of a black eye.
So…putting the injuries aside (but needless to say, making every task, regardless how small, labour intensive, as my American friends would say) everything went well.
It would be too much to post about the two events in one blog, so I’ll split it – starting with the fundraiser.
To recap if you haven’t read previous posts, I was invited to exhibit at art Athena in Athens, Greece at the end of May, and I will be taking my groups SCI/Soup Collective.
The invitation came through participating in SUPERMARKET, the Stockholm art fair a few years ago. I have to be careful how I describe Art Athena though as it isn’t an Art fair in the commercial sense – its a platform for artists. I can only compare it to the Manchester Contemporary ( with not having visited similar ‘fairs’ in other parts of the country) at which there is a commercial side and another side which is not – a stage as it were, for independent galleries and studios groups.
OK, so it was something I really wanted to do, but there were so many financial barriers. The first being payment for the ‘Booth’. At £280, its considerably cheaper than other events, but its still an additional payment.
Rather than ask all of the artists to contribute money, I asked them to donate a small unframed A5 artwork that would be auctioned off. We’d been given a free gallery space from a studio group in Liverpool City centre, so 2 of us spent a day pinning the works up (probably could have done it quicker if I hadn’t been hobbling everywhere, but it was done and it looked great)
Auctions are always hit and miss and many works go for so much less than they are worth. We therefore started all bids at £10. It was slow to start as everyone was a bit nervous, but soon got into full swing.
The atmosphere was fantastic and the bidding was quite addictive. I’d highly recommended it! The exhibition stayed open over the weekend with the remaining works staying at £10. We raised over £300, which was fantastic.
I’m going to be setting up a crowdfunding campaign this week to try to raise airfares.
I’ll post about the Studio / artist in residence weekend in my next blog…
Some links about the auction :
Images on our facebook page…. https://www.facebook.com/Soup-Collective-210185756241/
and a bit of blurb…http://culture.org.uk/2016/02/postcards-from-the-soup-collective-at-roadworks/
There will be a write up/ review soon as well…
