Arrived at the KRO (National Artists’ Organisation) apartment yesterday afternoon and was pleased to discover that I am staying in the room with a view. It feels pleasantly familiar to be here again – my third (possibly fourth?) time staying here. KRO also have an apartment in Paris perhaps I should look into staying there sometime during my sabbatical … finances permitting!
The meetings programme has been printed and placed in every exhibitor’s pack. Now I need to send an email to the information coordinator letting here know that I will be coming with the sign-up sheets – from past experience I can’t imagine that there will be a rush to register for meetings but one lives in hope.
First though a short run … inspired by, or remembering, my time in Riga I want to go for a short run each morning. This might be ’compromised’ by a few late nights … and by relocating to a friend’s apartment for the night that I was unable to book this room – logistically inconvenient but a great opportunity to spend time with P!
I am also really looking forward to catching up with the exhibitors who I have gotten to know over the last few years … it feels as though I am starting to build some kind of professional relationship with them … though in writing that I realise that is might well be less true than I imagine – recent experience bears that out! One of the things that I have let slip … not managed to maintain … is a good mailing list for when I have exhibitions … nor do I use Facebook, or even Instagram, for inviting people to openings … it’s a bit different letting them know about what I am doing, and by that I mean posting pictures on Instagram of things that are underway or have even passed … I think that people still appreciate getting an invitation to an event – I know that I do! So that is another thing for my sabbatical year ’to-do’ list: update mailing list, and re-acquaint myself with Facebook.
And of course I am excited to meet the first time exhibitors and to find out about them. As my confidence grows I feel better about speaking with them as peers – which is what they are. It also makes me think that I would like to re-activate Glitter Ball … in some instances it is useful … meaningful … to have an organisation rather then being an individual … and there are some things that I don’t want to simply hand-over to the artists’ club or that aren’t appropriate for the club. Thinking about N’s advice to use my position at the club to get my own projects going … it would be good to have some collaborative Glitter Ball Uppsala Artists’ Club events happening in the future … perhaps the series of talks that I want to organise cold be this kind of collaboration – that is well worth considering.
