Those of you interested in developing a gallery space in order to develop new audience opportunities, could look at Washington Garcia and other peripatetic gallery spaces. Find Washington Garcia at spaceshttp://www.washingtongarciagallery.com/aboutus.html The interesting issue here is that often these spaces are started by groups of artists and that they can develop into career opportunities. Washington Garcia has been running for about three years in Glasgow. Initially they were going into empty buildings, painting them white and making the spaces as gallery like as possible. Then gradually as they built a reputation, developed a website and now they receive money from Glasgow International http://www.glasgowinternational.org/ to help support the shows they put on, as the city now recognises the importance of the shows they curate. The fact that they have targeted mid career artists to show has meant that they could very quickly establish a strong profile and other galleries have wanted to look at who they are showing. Sometimes it’s not about developing a space just to show your own work, but once you have established a toehold in the art community its much easier to then start accessing venues for your own work.
Matt Roberts of Matt Roberts Arts http://www.mattroberts.org.uk/ gave a talk to the third years yesterday about what you need to do in order to engage with the world of post college employment. He was emphasising how important it was to volunteer, set up shows in alternative venues, write about and curate shows, basically the more you put into networking and having a broad range of experiences the better. If he comes in again, make sure you make the most of him and dont be afraid to promote yourselves.