The Promised (Threatened?) Cartoon

Short Report on the Allotted Project

On the afternoon of July 20^th, David Jackson was at the CVS Forum enthusiastically and energetically promoting the various allotment societies’ initiatives, the Bolton Onion, Leek and Vegetable Show, the programme of Society Shows and Open Days and of course, the “Allotted” exhibition.

The following morning Maggie Hargreaves and Margaret Jackson came into Gallery27 to be told that the exhibition had to close on the evening of July 24^th.

As a group the Slug Society had thought the exhibition would last ‘til the 7^th August but the wheels of Commerce grind ever on and Moorgarth (the owners of Bolton’s Market Place) had found new paying tenants and they needed access to the space in the shopping centre instantly.

There’ll soon be a new store in the unit formerly occupied by the exhibition and Moorgarth have found new premises for the neo:gallery. They’ll be ready by mid-August, so Neo’s Print Prize 2016 exhibition will be fine, but there was no room at the inn for the Slug Society and so it was ‘Goodnight and Goodbye’ for “Allotted”.

So, what’s it been like as a project, this co-operation between an allotment federation, a group of visual artists and a team of writers?

What has gone well? What hasn’t worked? What have we achieved? What have we learned?

The writers took charge of fundraising and publicity (or at least the majority of publicity). They were successful in getting some £800 of financial input from two sources – the Bolton Arts Forum (BAF) and the National Allotment Gardens Trust (NAGT).

This ‘split’ in funding (or to be more precise the lengthy time gap between the two ‘approvals’) lead to the abandonment of an initial plan to create a single combined volume of text and images and to go for a visual catalogue and a writers’ booklet.

The project was then effectively split into two streams.

The BAF funding was allocated to the visual artists and the money was spent on creating and printing the catalogue of works, printing posters (both for the gallery and to distribute) and on the launch event.

The NAGT funding was allocated to abas and was used partly to create and print “the back of the seed packet”, a booklet of essays, stories and poems about allotment life and partly to fund the creation of a range of promotional materials to support the activities of the allotment community over the summer of 2016.

The section of the publicity drive concentrating on allotment and local media had some notable successes – a half-page in Allotment and Leisure Gardener, virtually a full page in the Bolton News and a half column in the ‘Angela Kelly’ feature in the Bolton News. There was also an appearance by Margaret and David Jackson on Bolton FM’s Community Corner and mentions in news briefs in Kitchen Garden and Lancashire Life.

A proposed visit from a TV crew from Granada which was to have concentrated more on allotment issues than art and was to have been filmed on an allotment site was originally abandoned when the weather broke and after another attempt the TV company moved onto other issues. This was very disappointing.

Our attempts to get publicity in the arts media appeared far less successful although there was an entry in ‘Artists News’.

The launch event

The launch event was held on July 2^nd.

It was attended by 187 people (not including the participating artists and writers or neo:artists personnel.)

A feature of the launch event was the provision of a range of ice cream made with allotment fruits. This proved very popular with the visitors

To turn to the exhibition itself.

The participating visual artists are used to putting on exhibitions. They put their paintings, photographs and prints onto the walls, their sculptures go on plinths, their installations fill alcoves and hallways and their fabric hangings dangle and twist from the ceiling.

We are including in the term visual art the photographs and the videos which (especially with their local connections) proved a major draw. The sound pieces (the voices of local allotmenteers) were also successful.

The results in the case of the “Allotted” exhibition were extremely successful. The exhibition comprised some 71 works.

The exhibition was well attended and (up to its premature closure) was heading towards its target audience figures. In all the 17 opening sessions attracted 806 visitors. A particular feature was a visit by 60 Chinese students who were taken around the gallery by Jason Simpson of neo:artists.

The exhibition attracted a varied audience – there were those who regularly attend neo: exhibitions in the Market Place, those interested in Allotments and a number of casual visitors who came in from the main mall out of curiosity.

Some visitors had travelled a considerable distance, the furthest recorded being from Harrogate.

A number of comments were entered in the visitors’ book.  A keynote phrase used by many visitors was “accessible”.

What wasn’t quite as successful was the ‘written’ element. The participating writers aren’t used to exhibitions. Many aren’t really used to working in teams, writing is usually a solitary profession. But the group felt that the writers should be part of the end result, part of the exhibition.

The first idea was that some of the written work could be displayed as ‘text art’, and indeed a couple of pieces of work by Ros Davis and David Jackson’s ‘100-word’ piece ‘Rabbit’ made it onto the walls. ‘Rabbit’ has moved at least 2 tender-hearted visitors to tears.

The writers also wanted to keep their involvement in the exhibition going, so each week they wrote a piece called ‘Gallery Thoughts’ recording their experiences of being involved in the exhibition. Every Friday morning this was ‘white-tacked’ up on the far wall of the gallery and then ‘posted’ on the project blog. The project blog is http://allotted2016.blogspot.co.uk it provides a running commentary on the progress of the project. The ‘Gallery Thoughts’ sheets in the exhibition gallery were read by many visitors.

However it was the visual art that dominated, that’s what made the impact.

What’s gone well?

The posters etc. that accompanied the exhibition were very well regarded as a piece of design in their own right and were effective in getting the message over

The exhibition was a success in its own terms. It attracted a wide and appreciative audience into the gallery. It provided a base from which participants could engage with visitors whether they were primarily interested in the art or the allotment aspects.

The local (Bolton) publicity worked well, both Press and Radio.

What hasn’t worked?

We are not sure about the degree to which we integrated the two teams – the visual artists and the writers. As we have said it was the visual art that dominated visitors’ experience. Simply putting the poetry on the walls (although it worked for some pieces) isn’t quite enough. We are not sure that having two publications (the catalogue and the booklet) was a good idea.

We do not feel we got promotion to the ‘arts’ community right.

The premature closing of the exhibition (over which we had no control) led to a number of initiatives planned for and already started to re-promote the exhibition during its last two weeks being wasted.

What have we achieved?

A very accessible, well presented and well received exhibition which appealed to a varied audience beyond that which normally attends events in the neo:gallery. We would hope that neo: retains at least an element of this new audience for its future exhibitions.

A platform through which a group of local artists have been able to display their creative output.

An outlet for three local writers.

What have we learned?

Integrating words and images needs more thought. It was a mistake to abandon our initial plan of producing a combined volume of text and images to accompany the exhibition.

That although the generosity of commercial groups such as Moorgarth enables groups like neo:artists to provide gallery space for exhibitions like ours in prime sites, the nature of the relationship between neo: and its benefactors does lead to insecurity for the voluntary groups who are running events. If a commercial opportunity comes up, then the main landlord has to take it and there is nothing we can do. Until and unless there is a dedicated exhibition space (of comparable quality and location) in Bolton accessible to smaller creative groups like Slugsoc this will continue to be a problem.

Finally

We would like to thank:

·         The Bolton Arts Forum

·         The National Allotments Gardens Trust

·         Neo:artists

·         The Association of Bolton Allotment Societies

And a whole host of individuals

For their support for this project

David & Margaret Jackson

on behalf of the Slug Society