Someone expressed an interest in setting up studios on the ground floor at Harrington Mills. He had seen my blog. However, I went through the sums and showed him that it would be too expensive and quite risky. It’s a shame because it would make a fantastic gallery/workshop/studios space.
We can only guess at the number of visitors who came to the Open Studios. Some signed in, but many didn’t. We estimated about 500 people… which isn’t bad on a tiny marketing budget. A great weekend! After little movement in the studios for over a year, two will be vacated by January. As we have a waiting list I have already contacted artists. I always explain to those wanting a space that the list can be quite fluid and wasn’t surprised to discover the next one in the queue had moved to Norwich. Two artists are pleased to hear the news!
Last night was the launch of HMS Open Studios 2010 and proved to be the best ever. There were lots of interesting high profile Sideshow events in Nottingham so the competition was really hot. However, people from 8wks to 80yrs turned out to see the photography of Lim Kyun Young and the work of 18 HMS artists. I was a bit nervous about Lim’s reaction to HMS Exhibition Space. How can you compare our modest event with the New York Photo Festival and our venue with the British Museum? However, he was delighted with the space and charmed by the families and artists who filled 5000 sq ft of HMS. We have also been invited back to Korea :)
We are warming up to the open studios launch on friday night. Professor Lim is flying over from Korea for the preview of his show in HMS Exhibition space too. All v exciting. This year there’s lots of competition as Sideshow has kicked off with art, music and performance happening all over the city. Derby has a number of excellent shows too as the city is hosting events by Young British Artists. Talking of which I met many of them at the networking event at Derby theatre last Friday.. 2 mins per person isn’t enough but I have since filled in some of the blanks via google and the future looks exciting :)
Lim Young Kyun’s large scale photographs of Antarctica are installed… and v impressive. It’s hard to believe these alien frozen landscapes exist on earth. The studios aren’t exactly tropical at the moment so we may advise visitors to wear woolly hats :)
Painter and studio provider.
