Work Placement Report - 1st Draft

Ba6 Work Placement Report – Smiths Row Art Gallery

As part of my thinking behind the purpose of our work placement for BA6, the key idea I wanted to gain was as much information about the design world as I could. This maybe a sector of the market that I could soon be entering, and as a result, I felt that having a wider placement would allow me to make more informed choices.

Whilst researching the different placement opportunities that I could undertake for this part of the project, right from the start I was clear in my thinking. The placement must be able to offer me the most in terms of learning for the amount of time I spent there. The placement would be short, but I wanted to get a lot out of it. Because of the placement, I would be missing valuable contact time out of this important project, so I had to make sure it was interesting and worthwhile. In response to these criteria, I therefore looked for a placement that was able to offer me a wider view of the design world. Where better than an art gallery, offering me a peek into the artist, designer, curator and teaching side of textiles.

Personally, I am unsure of my path after university, torn between teaching and design work, so I thought that if I could get a placement which offers me a glimpse into both workplaces it would be more beneficial for me. For this reason, Smiths Row was an amazingly positive choice with a clever balance between the workshop, tutoring side to the business as well as being an established art gallery. It was a placement that could offer me the best of both worlds.

Smiths Row is an art gallery in Bury St Edmunds, based on the concept of exploring contemporary art and bringing it to the local community. Although it is small gallery, they have a wide variety of exhibitions supporting which aim to support the local art and design industry as well as introducing new and upcoming artists.

In the wider area, Smiths Row is well known for its learning and workshops, with an aim of connecting the community to the art. There are regular talks by established artists, and the team often run workshops in schools in the local area. The team at Smiths Row are always open to lend a helping hand with their vast knowledge of their areas of art specialism, helping inspiring and well as established artists to develop their work and support them through funding processes and areas of further learning. Their artist surgeries and one-to-one tutorials are a well-established part of the local community. “One-to-one surgeries for artists to talk through their artistic practice with one of the Smiths Row team to receive critical feedback and discuss professional development” - Smiths Row Website.

The Gallery has a vision to bring contemporary art to the wider community. The Gallery offers a form of escapism from the industrial mind set of our work centred economy, where people work and sleep. The purpose of the artwork is to break this cycle and to evoke feelings and interpretations which bring something new to the viewer’s mind set.

As an art gallery, Smiths Row makes their business through the sales of artwork; however most of the gallery’s work is funded through the Arts Council. Artists have to pay to display their work in the gallery, a great form of advertising for local artists. However, a large bulk of Smith Row's business is from their workshops and shop, which largely pay for themselves. The shop at Smiths Row, contains a large variety of handmade objects, prints and artwork from local artists. Smiths Row is well known in the local community for these connections to the sales of local artwork and crafts. "Our contemporary Craft Shop showcases affordable work by the very best British makers, including ceramics, jewellery, textiles and printmaking, alongside artist-designed cards and wrapping paper." - Smiths Row Website.

As a local art gallery, Smiths Row is greatly publicised in the local and wider community. Their many exhibitions are advertised in the local paper, through flyers and on their website, http://www.smithsrow.org/,  which even contains an exhibition list for the whole year. As a public service, funded partly from the local council, art gallery’s exhibitions and workshops are always well advertised.

Smiths Row prides itself for the promotion of contemporary art is the east and work both with artists and the public the help to make art accessible to everyone. In this sense, the art gallery is extremely successful with its wide variety and extensive list of exhibitions. However, I also think that the gallery is successful as a business too, generating profits through their services both to artists and students alike, selling work and providing tutorial style surgeries for aspiring artists.

Although my time spent on the placement was not what I had first envisaged it, I did a great deal a learnt a lot about the things that go on behind the scenes of an art gallery. One of the main things I requested from the placement was more of an overview of how a gallery works, instead of just one position. I hoped that this would give me the opportunity to see a variety of roles and how an artist may fit into the environment.

On arrival on my first day, I was first given a talk about the art gallery, a brief history and a chance to look around their current exhibition, ‘Sound Matters’, to help me get a feel for what the gallery stands for, bringing art to the public eye. The exhibition was based on the connection between sound and the visual arts with a variety of pieces, and although I found it a little hard to grasp at times, because I had not seen an exhibition like this before, it made me think about my work. Sometimes as students we lock ourselves into our little university world and do not get the opportunity to see what others are doing. I feel it was extremely useful as a reminder of how open the arts are. We, as students always compartmentalise our work, but many artists and designers are a lot freer in the way they think and work. In relation to practice, I think that means that I need to be a great deal less forceful in the direction of the project, allow it to flow more. I need to question my work more and go into more depth and detail in order to produce patterns and pieces which are informed and tell a story, a progression.

There were discussions over a new set of three exhibitions based on a connecting of fine art and craft, looking to explore the boundaries and connect the two concepts through a range of artists’ works. In the discussion process, it becomes difficult to decide which artist’s works to exhibit as because the space is so limited, we are limited to the amount of work. One of the main difficulties with this exhibition is that while researching artists, from their personal artist statement it suggests that they are interested in experimenting with materiality, but their work does not display this passion. To be displayed in the gallery an artist’s work must connect, visually and textually. This allows them to fully explain their reasons behind creating the work, even to member of the public, who do not necessarily have a lot of knowledge in terms of artist context. These exhibitions will be taking place next year, as everything needs to be planned and explored thoroughly in advance. This has shown me the importance of putting yourself out there and creating an online presence as an artist is important. But everything that is posted or displayed by me must reflect the way I think and work.

Whilst on placement, I also completed a great deal of ‘office’ work, which involved a lot of phone calls and gaining contacts. Sitting in the office for a couple of hours did make me think that in the real world, creating designs and experimenting is not everything. Even if you are a successful art gallery you need to advertise yourself. Designing is only half the battle, it’s getting noticed and selling that’s the rest. This is why places like galleries exist, as a platform for the public and art lovers to view and buy artwork. In relation to textile design and pattern creation, this points out the importance of trade shows in recognising new talent, and has perhaps made me think that I need to make the effort to attend more of these valuable and often free sources of contacts and visual inspiration.

I was also involved in a large research task which was based on showing the government the importance of the craft industry for society. This was an important task which I loved researching and talking through with the director Alison. I have really missed the textual side of the way I work. I must play to my strengths and one of these is my writing, so my blog is a must as a way of to collating my project thoughts and research together with the visual side of things.

I was involved in the discussions of the setup of this exhibition, which mainly consists of jewellery. This is a hard thing for the gallery to display because it is just one large open space. On top of this we have to display the work in a way which is appealing, showing off the work to its full potential. We chose the colours pink and grey as accent colours for the exhibition to tie everything together and to highlight the main pieces of the exhibition. I enjoyed this part of the placement a lot. Sitting and doing research all the time is not something I enjoy, I am definitely a mover. It was good to get stuck in and find out the importance of the display of artwork and how that affects the way it is viewed.

This placement has affected my work a little, but I feel it will be more useful in the future of my work, next year. As I completed the work placement towards the middle of BA6, everything I learnt is hard to put into action straight away. I have used my blog as effectively as I can to put my written skill to best use and I hope to employ the skill I have learnt to my dissertation in my third year. I have also realised the importance of the presentation of my work. Looking at the gallery exhibitions has made me re-think how I develop my work, and there is evidence of this in the progression out of my sketchbook. Moving out of the sketchbook onto boards has allowed me to experiment further and focus my ideas and the progression further.

I enjoyed my work placement at Smiths Row and learnt a great deal about what goes on behind the scenes at an established art gallery. Although I am glad of the experience, I do not think it will be a part of the design industry that I will be joining because of all of the computer based work. I like the mix between the research and design, but I am glad that I have found this out now. Having said that, I have experienced a great deal which can help with my work in the future.

Following this placement, I would like to complete another placement to gauge more understanding of different areas of the design industry. Whilst in conversation with the gallery manager, she mentioned an interior design business in Norwich who would be really willing to take people on for placements. Design House Norwich is a specialist furniture and design shop in the heart of the city centre aimed at high end interior design based around client’s needs. I would very much like to contact this business to secure a placement with them, to gauge a different area of the design world.