Being an artist comes natural. Living as an artist is one of the greatest challenges a man or woman of artistic nature has to face. We all dream of exposure, but at the same time we fear rejection and criticism – artists have to pay this toll. On top, artists have to fight their way into artistic cartels, beg for a spot on a gallery wall, and adjust their art to client requirements. Unless they have another career to fund their needs, and pursuit the big dream on the side. Which is not the ideal way to live a dream, but it is a decent effort to approach a goal.
But art needs to be exposed and exposure requires a gallery, a curator, a sponsor, technicians, wine, waiters and of course Guests! As an unknown artist, you have at least three options.
OPTION A: You send your portfolio to the various galleries and wait for their response (success rate low, risk low, CV effect high)
OPTION B: You join an art school or enroll to courses, which include a group exhibition at the end of the year (success rate high, low risk, CV effect low)
OPTION C: You self-organize the exhibition (success rate unknown, risk high, CV effect depends on the aftermath)
Personally, I’ve done all of the above and more, and I have experienced equal times rejection as success. But I am an excitement junkie and I’ve never experienced such excitement as I did when I decided to go down the path of OPTION C.
In order to moderate my risks and decrease my costs I did the following:
I collaborated both on management font and on artistic front. So I had friend, new artist, to co-organize and co-manage the logistics, and then we brought on board other artists to split the costs and increase the number of guests.
We then picked a variety of artists in terms of art craft and level of experience. This is usually a no no for traditional exhibitors. Everyone will say that you have to have a theme. However, when you undertake such a project diversity is everything.
Still you need to have a Title and a Concept . We baptized it the Art Party. And decided this would be FUN. No heavy cultural bullshit, we would have an open bar, a DJ, food and really cool environment.
So we needed to pick a really cool place. My friend told me about this fantastic villa-turned-gallery in one of the most beautiful suburbs of Athens, which was owned by the municipality. Why would they give it to us?
We had a purpose. Being kind and noble always brings good karma. So why not help others too? We decided to bring on Medicins of the World who supported refugees at Lesvos Island. We would donate proceeds from sales of selected artworks and we would give them a spot where they could collect donations and inform about their campaign.
Of course after they were on board the Municipality was on board. They didn’t give a cent, and on top they made us put their logo on every promoting material we published, HOWEVER they undertook to publicize the event. They were promoting themselves so we soon had a pretty long list of officials in the guest list.
Then we had to design the promos and leaflets. And in some cases glue the posters too. Well I did all the designs, my friend did the ordering.
We also had to take care of the catering, the bar, and the music – which is extremely demanding when you can’t really know how many people will show up but I used to be a party animal when I was younger, so the fruits of that experience came forth.
AND FINALLY and most importantly, you have to prepare the actual exhibition. From splitting the walls to the participants to deciding among the traditional hanging style or something more alternative, you have to clean up, carry things, think, combine and try and fail and correct … and do all this until the opening party.
Somewhere in between you have to find out what you are going to wear.
No matter how frustrating it may sound, it can also be a lot of fun if you are collaborating with people you appreciate. I got my mother onboard and a couple of really good artists friends of mine, one of which is quite a successful photographer, as well as a couple of old classmates who had followed the art road. So to me, this last exhibition of mine was completely exhausting but also one of the most rewarding. We managed to raise a serious amount of funds for our charity, plus with all this music and alcohol my friends got to finally enjoy art!
Below you will find photos from the Art Party (May 2016)
