Spring Forward: New Beginnings

With just under three weeks until we open our Spring Forward exhibition, things are all go at the gallery. After more than twenty years in the art business, Iain has decided to venture into monthly exhibitions. He asked me to organise them, which I was more than happy to do. We have been delighted by the response to our artist call in February.

This inaugural exhibition is obviously special to us, and it brings a mix of excitement and trepidation. This first one will be what we learn the most from. The proverbial testing of the waters that will highlight what we are doing right and what we need to work on.

I have organised events and exhibitions before, but different environments breed different challenges, and we understand that this means being flexible, and adapting as we go.

The first thing I did was come up with thematic ideas for each month, along with titles. Iain was happy with the first draft, so I set dates, allowing for a week between for the switch around of works.

Then I contacted artists Iain was interested in working with and we collaborated to place them in to exhibitions that worked best. We then put out our artist call, which attracted incredibly talented artists from all over the world. I spent most of February responding to e-mails, creating spreadsheets and organising artists into exhibitions. We have also been doing some grunt work to have the gallery looking great for the start of the exhibitions. We are now full for our first four exhibitions, and have limited spaces in the rest.

This month, I have been focussing on marketing, social media, brand guidelines etc. As well as a daily feature on our artists, starting on Thursday. Keep an eye on our social media pages for behind the scenes looks.

Our artists for this exhibition: