#visitinglecturers

Niche place to study - a university and gallery 

MA Curating the Art Museum - practical hands-on course

Exhibition Project 

Responding to the National Register for births Marriages and Deaths

No physical exhibition due to covid 

Came up with a website 

Detailed off 

Intro to a webpage - teaser trailer exploring themes

Rest of page - an intro, explanation of brief 

Then Actual Layout of the exhibition 

Three rooms divided by themes

Menu Bar - about, exhibition, artists, events, catalogs(downloadable PDF), blog, visitor book

Visual Diaries, Family Albums, and Community Portraits & Traces of Loss

Interesting layout 

Summary pinned to the page

Scroll down style 

See person interact with the work 

Hung up work in an exhibition space and photographed it as well as photographing it archivally

Audio Pieces about works 

High Res Images to be able to zoom in 

Process of an online exhibition & Tips

Website development - everything mechanically worked together, the result of digital format

Create a tight timeline - create a document with everything written down, clear idea

Think about how you are maintaining the scale of the artwork - how do you achieve what it would feel like in an actual exhibition 

Have some interactivity through an events program 

So easy for work to feel flat - tried to use interpretation around it to slow visitor down to really look at the artwork and stay on page - audio content and artists interviews within the catalog

Curators talking about work/visual interpretation, outsider responses/own experiences, sound art, audio transcription, and image description 

Audio connected the audience to artwork 

Marketing 

Who is your audience, communication objectives - marketing strategy 

Create a buzz around artist work 

Social media, press, newsletters, collaborating

Instagram account - ads, graphic design for visual identity (cohesive visual identity), catalogues, posters

Instagram, Twitter, Facebook ( not so relevant for the age group but important to keep in mind), TikTok??

Press - collated a list of the press to send it all too - the guardian, art magazines 

Sponsorship

Director of Brighton Photo Fringe - photo fringe an open-access platform 

Freelancer for over 15 years - continually developing her professional practice 

Identifies as a creative producer - wanted to help artists to show their work/present/share work with the world

‘Cutting my teeth in West Bromwich - The starting point

Studied in London then moved into the Midlands - due to interesting opportunities, community art-based projects

Worked with the public in West Bromwich to develop gallery spaces in an old building, the old factory covered in a wide range of work that represented different stories from different communities - a wide range of artists and people alike + Wearn’s landing point of photography 

West Bromwich missing lots of ‘social’ aspects such as a swimming pool - work with artists to reimagine spaces ‘The Black Country’- huge areas of industrialization, communities built around the factories - rich storytelling 

‘Community Art’ turned into ‘Multistory’ - invited Martin Parr to capture as many stories as they can, Parr renowned for the documentary photography - turned into a four-year project = “Multistory, Black Stroy Stories’ - looking at the culture in places such as the high street, went through every layer and tear through the stories within this they asked artists in the community to contribute 

Became a whole umbrella for more work

Social Documentary Photography 

People were able to buy a print for £5

Wearn’s role was to be the researcher - people, spaces, the demographic 

Worked with Mark Powell - commissioned different photographers to photograph the same space from their own perspectives 

Additional Artists that worked with them:

Mahtab Hussein - two years photography Tipton, portraiture 

Wearn Invited via Martin Parr to be a creative producer for Postcards From America

10 photographers capturing Rochester in a month after Kodak failed - no gender spilt, wasn’t an equal representation 

Work with community groups and schools so each photographer would have five students each to help them around 

Then started to get involved in festivals - Brighton culturally rich and full of festivals 

Brighton has no space to show visual art -  animate disused space to bring people together 

Festivals about finding other spaces to show work in - creating opportunities for artists to create new work 

Worked with photo works for the Biennale 

Project artworks - Nerodiverise artists - encourage to touch the artwork, work responded to her personal experience in filling out forms to do with what she is able to do, as well as how accessible the forms to have work commissioned

Originally from Lisbon - Degree in Graphic Design 

Came to London in 2004 for 15 years for work experience at Saville Associates then Royal College of Art, John Morgan Studio, Winkreative, Kiku Orbata 

London - Berlin to focus on Voodoo Voodoo - own informal studio that does not have a conventional workplace

Selected Projects:

Dust

Started with cemeteries, a research project around space

Alexander Matthew’s

A journalist 

Freelancer still needs to curate presence 

Tomorrow Magazine 

Tom Dixon- Product Designer 

A magazine that served as an extension of his brand

Collaborated with photographers and illustrators

8 Ties

Specific focus on the theme 

Engage with other people to bring it to life

ecleiptic project 

Night Light; Incomplete Distortions 

Playfulness is the layout - think beyond the photography itself - its presentation

How can imagery take a different life

How can imagery bring a concept to life

About the idea of the desert and the road - people trying to escape 

Voodoo Voodoo - Self-promotional posters

Playful designs 

A mix of projects and commercial projects 

Trying to connect 

Tongues

What do you want to know as an individual 

Nicholas Carr - writer, technology, how we interact with technology 

Not just a blog - hear about so many different topics such as radical ideas, experiences, revolt, anger, celebration, beliefs, etc.

Hybrid language 

Fashion designers, artists, digital avatars, musicians4

Started at bbc in 90’s

Film and literature degree 

Find your brand 

What’s your audience and goals 

Follow those who have a similar niche to yours - fellow practitioners 

Galleries?

Radio devons primary focus’ 

Follow us 

Like anc comment 

Reposting 

Click links in Bio

DM us 

Make conversations and connections with other users 

Social media is about connection and being social 

Get like, follow and shares - promote account - further up the algorithm, try to engage people

What emotions are you trying to evoke - facebook emojis

If it isnt a wow is it worth putting up?

Instagram Basics 

Be social 

Start by following others you want to copy or follow you and commenting - ask questions 

Follow hashtags 

Post regularly - mis of posts,stories and reels 

Use all hashtags 

Clear short bio with a weeb link 

Gather material in highlights/guides 

Answer all messages personally

Share posts from other stories with tags

Ask yes/no questions 

Consider how your whole rgid looks etc colours and boarders 

Tell stories 

Get multiple posts out of one picture and idea

films/reels of background to stories/work being created 

Undersong : Camera and Voice 

Undersong - an undertone… a subordinate melody that runs underneath… a refrain 

Linked to the idea of speaking - Was visited by father often, an incredibly quiet child, could talk in front of father 

Father was photographer and writer 

Although the link was not constant with father - areas of interest have appeared within work 

“She borrowed the will of the ball”

Camera can unstop a voice - can say something and help someone speak

Began to dress up as character from film 

First refrain : undersong 

The camera as a machine - how it sees scientifically 

“The camera introduces us to unconscious optics as does psychoanalysis to unconscious impulse” (Walter Benjamin)

Use camera as a way to say things that she was unable to say 

Project done on film - slow, meditative process 

Worked with daughter and friend 

Looking at ideas of dark and light and shadows 

Darker side of psyche 

Ideas of comfort alongside as being trapped 

Illuminate as well as hide things. 

Contemporary Confessions 

How this could be compared to camera obscura

A safe space where you can talk and speak and confess 

Second Refrain: The Catchers 

Again related to the idea of using the camera as a confessional space 

Researched Professor Charcot - used the camera to photograph women in these states 

Was fascinated by the idea of power and control alongside own silence 

Actively pursued performance - how a body moved in front of the camera

The Catchers - performance work - voice turned from a whisper to a loud protest 

Religious iconography 

Constricted spaces 

Third Refrain : Locus Amoenus 

We-are-low-profile - separate practice

Moved to Plymouth to play an active role in developing culture - make the city a better for artists

Viewpoint gallery - to shape something out of nothing

Although no curatorial experience had experience as an artists alongside national and international networks - now to get the same job but would need cultural experience in the way of an ma

Viewpoint turned into ‘The Gallery’

Multi sites and multi venue exhibitions - reach wider audiences - have done five 

Set up different opportunities for students to work with the artists they’ve work with

Developed projects with departments

A new approach, ethos, identity & dedicated website

Re-launching he gallery with new name

New platform - to support professional development of artists with a particular focus on enriching careers of artist based within the south west region

Far more participate lead

All galleries have objectives, benchmarks, funding criteria and ambitions

People who run creative spaces work collaboratively

What is curating? What is involved in exhibition making?

What is the space trying to achieve

How do you approach the artists

AN - artists information company -  website for fee guidelines

Artists should always expect a fee - never don’t be paid for your work

Exhibition design - what is it going to look like and how will it inform the work

Everything down to what the plinth is made of and what it says about the work

Transportation - where is the work coming from it it being sorted by professional mail handlers

Condition checking - will come with paperwork which says what state the artwork is in and you return it saying its the same as it was

Insurance - insurance as a venue, artists should have their own insurance, artists information company

Team/volunteers - The gallery work with freelance technicians

Interpretation material - tell the audience what the work is

How do the audience view the work

Professionally presenting your work

Volunteer - where I want to get experience and what experience do I want to get, helps support your own practice

Network - really important, building relationships, in particular peer network, network of art professionals, look outside your bubble

Be active in your community - getting involved means creating opportunities for yourself

Website - self sufficient

Social media - Instagram important within the artists sector, grow networks, curators will do research through social media

Documentation of work - how you present your work is online is very important, images are key to stand out

Start to write critically - practice this skill

Create a CV - show in Cv you’re serious and making things happen

Be relatable and energetic

Open calls

Artrabbit - opportunities

Visual arts South West

Photographs are personal 

Balance of personal work and fresh practice 

A photo editor - the freelancer across multiple publications, worked for financial times weekend, runs Splash and Grab a magazine

Finds the images for magazines to match the words

Personal work spilled across magazine making and reembracing photography

Whilsting for Owl’s - childhood memories and the link between photography and memory in general

Quiet ethereal images 

Whistling for Owls WIP

Work exists more in books than on a screen - laser printer and double-sided tape

Always trying to engage with the next generations of photographers

How did I start the magazine?

Started on Tumblr

Working for other magazines gave him a better understanding of how to create a magazine himself 

Photojournalism degree 

How photobooks operate in the world - wrote about photobooks in masters

The idea of the photonovel - comic made up of photographs 

Focused on Asian countries photography language instead of well-known Europeans and Americans 

Asia-Pacific photobook archive - gets donated photobooks and buys them - goes to photo festivals 

Wasn’t just as an archive - its books that are created by smaller publishers that wouldn’t be seen due to racism, economics, politic.

Wrote for ‘Voices of Photography’