Thursday, August 14, 2008

Inside look at the days prior to an art show

A lot goes into organizing and running a successful art show. IAS artist Nathan Lumm gives insight into the days leading up to opening night of an art show, or as he refers to it, the calm before the storm.

What is going through your head at this point, with only a few days until opening night?

A couple days before a show, I start to get nervous and wonder if we forgot anything or if people are going to show up. Pretty much everything is done. The only thing left to do is set up the show and wait for the opening.



What has been the biggest challenge/reward of curating a show?

The biggest challenge has been communicating with all the artists. It really helps that there are two of us working with them.

The biggest reward is getting to know and meet artists from all over and having our first show that we have curated. My wife, Janice, and I have talked about opening our own gallery eventually, and this kind of experience is priceless.



What kind of preparation goes into putting together a show like this?

A whole lot of planning goes into a show. It's not only about contacting artists and getting them onboard for the show. There's all the behind the scenes stuff like planning (how big is the show, title of show, artist list), contracts (letting the artist know what the percentage breakdown is if their pieces sell), flier artwork, press releases, bugging the artists to get their artwork in on time, putting up the show.

It really is a lot of work and I apologize if I've ever made it hard on a gallery before.



Any plans to take on this task again?

Funny you should mention that. My wife and I are in talks with an upscale bar/lounge about curating a show for them. It won't be nearly as big as "Eight by Eight" and that's just fine with us. Other than that, we'll stick to the artist side of things with a couple shows coming up.




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