On the
afternoon of July 20th, 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 24th.
As a
group the Slug Society had thought the exhibition would last ‘til the 7th
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 2nd.
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
