GAIL
THEIS
Sparks
1st – 3rd February 2019 at Legge Studio Lewisham
A 15-artist collaboration
We applied for a UAL bursary of £200 just before the Christmas holiday. This was granted on the proviso that we would collaborate with other UAL colleges and we would include the local community in some way.
Legge Studios was our venue, an old garage, now used by sculptors, one of whom is a Camberwell student. We hired them to organise transport, help collect and return our artwork and prepare the space for our show. This included lighting, heating and clearing the site.
Craft workshops were held at the local school before the event and were extended to Legge Studios over the weekend of the show.
There will always be problems when so many people are involved in such an undertaking. Many of the issues we encountered would have been eased had we chosen a closer site. The main one for me was, despite warning the curators of the size of my piece, a measured plan was not carried out in advance and, to be safe, they rejected my proposed piece at the last minute, which would have fit in hindsight. I had another painting to replace it, but it wasn't a new work and I felt the one I had intended to enter would have worked better with the rough-and-ready nature of the space.
The weather was exceptionally bad the day of the private view. We had an unexpected leak in the smaller gallery space and the electricians setting up the lights were delayed, however all hands were to the deck and we were ready just in time for the first visitor to arrive for the private view.
I was on the catering team and had fortuitously chosen to serve warming drinks of mulled wine and mulled cranberry juice. We had a good showing of visitors despite the sleet and snow and were delighted that so many people attended the private view, which created a cheerful party buzz all evening.
The remaining days were sunny and crisply cold. We had a fire brazier burning in the courtyard with tea and biscuits served all day. A steady stream of children accompanied by parents came for the workshops.
