Download Galleries Revision

The Art Industry
The Art Industry
• What is the art industry?
• First mentioned in 1970.
• It is a collection of professionals
involved in the making, selling and
displaying of art works.
Exhibitions
• May be a temporary or permanent
presentation of an object for public viewing.
• It includes 2/3 D work of any medium including
visual and oral.
• Many pieces are only resolved when installed and
many exist only in drawings before installation.
Exhibitions
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Many factors affect an exhibition:
Aim – of the curator, directors or senior management
Theme
Audience
public
student
culture, background
age
Artists – suitable or available to be involved?
Venue
Finance/ Staffing
Time – some take 5 years to organise
Exhibitions
• Reasons:
• Retrospective – looking at past works
• Survey – documentary – samples of a range of works of one or
more artists
• Commemoration
• Thematic – specific ideas / themes
• Speculative – concerned with ideas, viewer sets the issues.
• Financial – to sell work, raise money – auctions
• Promotional
Public Galleries
• Owned by the public
• Professionally managed and permanently staffed – The NGV is
world standard, staff are highly qualified
• Run by a board of trustees or management – legally constituted
• Usually federally funded
• Not for profit – eg Top Arts works cannot be sold – artist must
do it
• On going exhibitions
• Promote special exhibitions – videos, tapes, merchandising as
well as written articles
• NGV
• ACCA
The Role of a Public Gallery
– Provide public access to art works
– Acquire art works from a range of mediums, styles and
production eras. Many galleries deal with specific mediums /art
– Formulate policies in the development of collections of art works
to ensure that money is spent responsibly and that collections are
valuable in terms of their artistic importance
– Educate the public and special interest groups – programs for
school – often have an education officer
– Conserve works that are historically or artistically important –
NGV collection goes back 40,000 years
Commercial Galleries
• Privately owned
• Business venture
• Stable of artists – regular artists with work in storage – exhibit
every 1 or 2 years
• Gallerist (director) always promoting the stable artists –
negotiate with other galleries to show artists works
• Have less information than Public galleries
• Take a % of the sales to off set costs of framing, invites, ads
etc. as well as profit
• Artists have to meet the costs – openings, mail outs
The Role of a Commercial
Gallery
• To show the work of artists
• To develop a clientele of people interested in
purchasing art
• To provide a suitable exhibition space
• To sell as many works as possible
Artist Run Spaces
• Run by artists for artists. Writers, coordinators etc are all artists.
• Their role is to promote (and often sell)
artist’s works. Web galleries often provide
for communication between viewer and
artist.
Professional Roles
• Curator
• Graphic designer
• Exhibition designer
Curator
A curator is a keeper or custodian of objects.
The Role of a curator in a public gallery includes:
Selection
Recommendations
Contact
Research
Liason with publicity and finance
Exhibition Designer
The exhibition designer’s role is to
estimate the number of potential viewers
and to display the artworks in the most
effective groupings, under appropriate
lighting conditions and against
appropriately coloured backgrounds. This
keeps viewers moving through the
exhibition space and prevents
bottlenecks. – works out a floor plan. It is
done in consultation with the artists
themselves wherever possible.
Exhibition designer
• The Exhibition Designer has a work brief and a set budget.
• There are a number of tasks and considerations:
• Consider the style of the artworks to be exhibited
• Consider the type of exhibition
• Construct mock ups in 3D models of the rooms and internal
structure of the exhibition
• Consider sight lines and relationships between rooms
• Consider the 'flow' of people through the exhibition
• Decide on use and position of display cases
• Research and decide upon materials to be used in the
exhibition - surfaces, backdrops, paint colour for the walls
Exhibition Designer
• Decide on placement of works - number of works per room (many
works increases temperature and humidity during opening hours)
• Determine correct lighting level and placement of lights
• Once the placement of works has been resolved the exhibition
designer will draw up a flor plan or 3D scale model.
• The model will include:
Location of plinths, glass cases, special hanging fixtures and
Audio visual equipment.
Height and length of walls and location of doors
Spaces between works
Lighting design
Seating areas
• Determine signage and information panels
Researcher
• The catalogue that accompanies major exhibitions is
compiled after careful scrutiny of the artwork’s
provenances. Provenances are time lines showing
the various owners of an artwork since it was
created.
• Catalogues also record details of the artist’s lives
and previous exhibitions.
Director
In a major public gallery this is a controlling
position with the authority to make final decisions
(usually with input from a Board of Governors and
senior members of the professional staff).
The Director decides the future direction of the
Gallery – the area on which it will concentrate and
the ultimate responsibility for arranging major art
events.
Conservator
The conservator in a gallery is responsible for the
maintenance of artworks; cleaning or replacement of
picture frames etc.
Graphic Designer
• Designs invitations, flyers, posters,
promotional flags.
• Decides on fonts, colours and strong design
elements to reach the audience.
Security
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Guards and cameras watch continually
Maintenance is carried out daily
Health and safety concerns are dealt with
Preservation concerns are dealt with
Promotion and Marketing
• Promotion and marketing helps a gallery establish
and maintain a public profile and audience.
• The primary aim of the marketing manager when
promoting an exhibition is to define the audience.
• The audience then shapes where, when and how
the exhibition is promotion.
Marketing
• Refers to paid advertising:
• Paid advertising in daily newspapers, art journals,
street press and the electronic media
Promotion
• Promotion refers to unpaid advertising:
• An opening event with an address by the Director,
an artist or invited guest speaker
• Exhibition invitations, fliers and brochures used to
promote exhibitions and events
• Press releases and special media previews
• Free listings in newspapers, reviews and critiques in
daily newspapers and specialist art journals