Throughout the set up of the event Tess, Reiss and I had to do a wide amount of negotiating this ranged from delegating tasks to our peers (on the set up of the exhibition) to movement in our original floor plan. The main negotiation we incurred was due to the event previously being in a collaboration with ‘Have Your Say’. From the curatorial teams previous meetings with Take A Part, Pat Patel and Debbie Burton, we had the understanding there would only be three external agencies needed to have a station within the exhibition, we had organised this accordingly. However only 30 minutes before the opening of the event, we had at least 3 more agencies turn up that were believed to have had a table at the last events, and were not advised that this was going to be different that then therefore demanding a station. This caused issues as we then had to bring in more tables and boards for these companies to put out their merchandise.
This then meant we had to move the Kitt Hill Commission into the Dance floor room, which then caused issues when the Bonkers Bunting Fashion show was supposed to happen as we then had to move her station. The same process was used for the film screenings as these were being playing within the dance floor room before the fashion show however this was a much smoother process as we had already anticipated this.
Although we managed to fit everyone into the space, these aspects did affect the overall look of the exhibition, as our floor plan was no longer much use, due to us having to cram in more external agencies. This did affect the way that the exhibition was then curated as the artwork was no longer a focal point as the merchandise stations blocked most of this off. We also felt that these stations then dominated peoples experience of viewing the photographs as external agencies flyers were places all around the space we had curated. This meant that we had to encourage the community to look at the work for the full experience and understanding of the development of community arts in Barne Barton to be realised. Overall, due to the circumstances I do feel that Reiss, Tess and I handled this very well, and the exhibition was still deemed a success by the community.
Artist As Curator 