Karen MacDougall
|
Unfortunately due to scheduling changes and last minute room-hires, the de-install was not quite as planned - but all went well as the NNP mitigated the problems. The FV team worked hard, packing up work that the NNP team had removed from the walls. We delivered the English Heritage items (Birdoswald poetry banner and interpretation for permanent display, Chesters votive plaques ready for installation at Chesters Fort and the Corbridge felted pots ready for display in Corbridge until Easter). The Senhouse altar is returning to Maryport for permanent display. Tullie House have their original artwork on display plus a photo of the second version for their website. I have negotiated with Segedunum to take the 1:20 scale model of a Roman barge sent to us by our Dutch partners, so this is going to Segedunum when I return the Arbeia face-pots to Hadrian’s Primary School at South Sheilds.
The GNM took down their installation this week after hosting it for 7 months and the Spotlight exhibition for 5 months - fantastic! Thank you. I will be collecting the work and looking for other opportunities to show this at other locations. We still have to re-install the gateway at Vindolanda but hope to have this up by half term in their Education room and the Fort Magna banner needs to go up in the classroom at The Roman army Museum in time for its opening in the spring. I still need to send the ISBN number to English Heritage for them to publish the artwork and poetry on their website……another legacy from the project!
0 Comments
The exhibition continues.
I now begin to organise the final online sharing event. This is for anyone who has participated in the project. We are sharing all the projects through digital links and then meeting to discuss the project as a whole and possible ways forward. This will be on Zoom to enable everyone to participate. Unfortunately too many people couldn’t make the date in January so we had to re-schedule for February 10th. Meanwhile, there was the exhibition de-install to plan and sorting out how to deliver the artwork to the partners so it can continue to be displayed beyond the end of the project. I reached out to Tullie House to see our artwork up in the gallery with the group who made it but unfortunately due to timetabling changes with their inclusive art group this wasn’t possible, which was a shame. December - lots of friends, participants and other visitors visited the exhibition. Members of staff and volunteers at the Sill loved the exhibition and said how many positive comments the exhibition was receiving and how well it fitted into their building. This is a first for them - where the exhibition runs through all their circulation spaces. The red Frontier Voices branding strip works really well leading you through the building. Had a good afternoon with Peter Wood of Hexham TV, looking at the exhibition and recording an interview for their Youtube channel.
Here is the link: https://youtu.be/BJ8mUqjf8kQ I was at the Sill first thing to meet the delegation from Ippse de Brugge and take delivery of the Roman Barge model. Nick Hine came from English Heritage and I took him round the exhibition and we talked and about the individual projects - looking forward to seeing his photographs soon. The issue with the printers was still not resolved and the booklet delivery was put back again to after 12 noon and I was worried that they wouldn’t arrive in time. Unfortunately Sarah Burn was ill on the day, but all the preparation had paid off at the Sill and we had a fantastic event that was really well attended. Our only casualty was the online part which ran into technical difficulties. The room was full, the film makers recorded the event and the booklets finally arrived with an hour to spare and look great. Thank you everyone who made this all possible!
This week has been snagging week and I returned to the Sill to add final pieces from the printers as they became available. It is so nice to see the exhibition up. The bright red and the logos works really well branding the exhibition throughout the building. The press releases have gone out to the various media organisations and I wait for take up. Hexham TV responded really quickly and a date was set to film at the Sill. The artwork at Tullie House was eventually installed in their Roman Gallery on 26th November, by the Tullie House team. Photos below: by Tullie House Early start as we had to be in the café before it opened whilst the art installation was put up by two National Park Rangers, then off to Vindolanda to hand over the original artwork for the Roman Army Museum project and banners for display at Vindolanda and on the gate at Fort Magna. We then collected the Vindolanda Gatehouse and whisked it off to the Sill where it was on display an hour later! Landscape looked really atmospheric as we drove between the two sites. Fantastic day today as the exhibition is now up apart from the items to be delivered next week, Sarah Burn and her team have been superb. It is so good to see all the work finally up! The pictures here show it all.                      The Sill have pulled a big install team together from their Learning and Engagement Team. Only Sarah Burn has done this kind of thing before so this is excellent CPD for everyone - ready for another exhibition at the Sill! They were amazing and all set about installing different artworks - many hands make light work. This is the first time the Sill have had an exhibition throughout their building in this way and my design and the colour links are working well. Additionally there is no hanging system in these spaces so everything has to be freestanding or hung with command strips so the walls remain pristine - another challenge!
Worked until 3am - who says student hours finish when you are out in the big wide world! I had to mount the rest of the copper and gold leaves onto the lines which was time-consuming but had to be done for the morning as I didn’t know when the NNP Rangers would be available to hang the work. Earlier in the day I had been working with Clare, making tweaks and small repairs along with preparation all the hanging materials - all these things make for a speedy and professional installation when the time comes. Clare was impressed with all the spreadsheets I shared during the project management.
Crazy busy bringing everything together! The exhibition layout had to be approved the the Sill, exhibition graphics pulled together, interpretation panels written and designed and artwork completed.
Then the booklet had to be completed, proofread and sent off to the printers so it would be ready for the celebration. This was a really interesting process and I learned a lot. We registered with a printing house so we could publish the work with an ISBN number and barcode and had to submit a copy to the British Library - another project legacy! Meanwhile I was collecting hanging materials for the installation. Parachute cord, special 3M sticky fixers approved by the Sill so we didn’t damage the walls, fabric to provide a backdrop to the pots, etc. Even though I live in a small village in Cumbria, using Amazon everything can come to me with the minimum of fuss, reducing my carbon footprint chasing all these items. Sunday: Today has been busy sending out invitations for our celebration event on 1st December and writing publicity information for distribution.
The Banners for Banna, banners are now completed ready for English Heritage to approve - hopefully tomorrow - then they can go off for printing. |
All photographs copyright
|
RSS Feed
|