After the Fair…

In the first few weeks after curating the glorious Contemporary Arts Fair Discover:Gather:Give I am slowly settling down and giving myself time to reflect on the event; to me one of the most important undertakings to achieve.

I read with interest all the exhibitors reviews, remember the comments made by visitors as they arrived and left carrying bundles and bags of artwork, of the social media responses and suggestions from friends and family – every single one essential to enable me to develop #Cafdgg into a live and relevant event.

I value and learn from each comment sometimes more from the brutal than the kind, as it takes an experienced exhibitor to compare #Cafdgg with numerous other events they have attended to widen my eyes and for that I am grateful. All  reviews are welcome as I can learn something from every one.

For me the most effective way of learning from the reviews is to let them sink into my mind as I do other things – the moment before I fall asleep, whilst gardening, doing tai chi or walking up a mountain and inevitably a solution will float through and I can assess the validity of it before the process starts again.

It is like making a piece of art; you know your starting place and yet how do know when your thought process is complete?

Each time I curate an event it takes weeks of thinking, envisaging what it may look like on my virtual mental tour before I even start on the actual planing. The time between now and March is vital as for each event I plan the change in focus of it  – more jewellery and woodturning, different price points, less painting and illustration, introducing basketry, silversmithing or blacksmithing, or adding demonstrations and workshops – all ideas to be dashed or built upon.

In  March 2020 exhibition spaces will be allocated to the artists who have applied to exhibit with us and it is the correlation between my plans and the artists skills that pulls together the setting up of a flowing, inspiring and enjoyable event for both the visitors and artists alike.

At the moment I am open to all of the ideas as they float into my head as I, snooze, walk, dig and do the White Crane as I rest and recuperate.