The Show's Over

That title refers both to my placement, and the event that I have been working on for the past 24 days, Art in Bloom. Technically I finished my placement last Thursday, but that was the opening night for Art in Bloom which proceeded over Friday, Saturday and Sunday, so I was the gallery helping out over the weekend. I’ll admit it was a little bit sad on Sunday when I left. All the volunteers helping on the day were so lovely, thanking me for my hard work (even though mostly I’d never met any of them as they were just volunteering on that one day!). But the ladies I did work with throughout my placement we’re sincerely appreciative – several of them offering to write me recommendations for the unit. It was nice to hear my efforts had been noted and appreciated. But back to the goodbyes later, first I need to pick up where I left off and talk about the lead up to the opening of the exhibition.

Last week was definitely one of the busiest I’ve had – it felt like I was barely ever at home! With less than a week before the opening of AIB there was much to do, though most of it not very exciting. I was in charge of writing, cutting and laminating plaques to be placed next to the flower installations on the day. A very uninspired task, yet when I walked around the gallery during the exhibition it made me understand how sometimes it is the trivial tasks that are so important in orchestrating such a huge event.

On Thursday (Installation day – where all the participants came in to assemble their flower arrangements in the gallery), everything ran smoothly. Almost a little too smoothly, it seemed. Apparently the 2008 set up was a little panicked and rushed, with participants not planning their arrangements beforehand, and some trying to bring in ‘illegal substances’, which in Art Gallery terms refers to living things, things that could impact on the artworks etc. So when I came in at 9 (the day started at 6am), there wasn’t a lot for me to. It was lovely that things went so well – clearly shows a great deal of planning ahead as a result of 2008’s evaluation.

So, on Thursday, we again persevered with the media, calling any that hadn’t responded with a definite yes to try and persuade them to come down during the day and capture some of the set up as a story. I realised while mostly I felt confident with my progress with the media, there was many of them that I hadn’t received concrete responses from, saying they were ‘interested’ in the story, but never confirming if they were writing it. I spoke to the Gallery marketing manager about this, and she said it happens all the time. We invited reporters to the opening night and the Sunday Times still hadn’t gotten back to us; the marketing manager said they never do, someone will either turn up or they won’t. Having studied journalism and PR, I know that’s not just a journalist thing – I constantly have sources say they will speak to me and then never call back. Being unsure, especially when it comes to the publicity for your event, is never fun. Luckily on the Thursday I was able to confirm two more media outlets to come to the gallery and write a story. Unfortunately, I don’t have any examples of these stories, as I wasn’t the one monitoring the media for our coverage, and I never got to find out how it went. That’s something I’ll have to ask when I go back in for my goodbye morning tea!

My biggest frustration was the facebook page. At the very start of my placement they asked me how to attract visitors ‘my age’ and my immediate response was ‘with a facebook event’. I was told the lady in charge of the website was taking care of this, but two days before the event when I remembered about it and asked how it was going, it turned out there had been an event created for the big gala opening, but not for the 3 day public exhibition. I was sure facebook would be a great, and free, way to inform the public and get our attendance numbers up, so I asked to be made administrator, and set the event up the day before the opening! It was disappointing that no-one had mentioned the event hadn’t been established as one day isn’t really long enough to send out event invites. I only hope our attendance numbers were up from last year so it doesn’t matter too much!

I feel like I could ramble on about the exhibition forever, but I’ll try to sum it up. Overall, it was really great seeing everyone’s hard work pay off – the gallery looked absolutely amazing. Hopefully my media efforts also paid off, I’ll have to wait until the monitoring is done and the final figure of attendees is counted to know how well we promoted the exhibition. All in all it has been a really worthwhile experience, and as sad as it is, I’m going to miss going into the gallery with my little desk and computer that never let me sign into my curtin email account, seeing the lovely ladies of the FRIENDS council and feeling stressed about things that weren’t PR related, simply because those around me were stressed about them.

I hope everyone else’s experiences are going well. Now all I’ve left to do is finish my final report – wish me luck!

Goodbye (for the last time)

Michelle :)