Look at Me! Look at Me!
Wednesday, 21st March 2007Posted under: struggles ,
It's all about getting attention.
I finished my animation in early 2004. At around the same time I discovered that Questacon was developing an exhibition about the science of music, to be opened in 2005. Brilliant! I already worked there as a Gallery Assistant, so I lined up a meeting with the concepts department (who were in control of the exhibition's development) to show them my work. The meeting went well, they were impressed with my animation, however, it turned out that all the funding for the exhibition had been allocated in November the previous year. Too late! There was no money left to integrate my animation into the exhibition. But not wanting to miss out on such a good opportunity to have my work exposed through such an exhibition I decided to take matters into my own hands. I lobbied for support from management at Questacon and then negotiated all the appropriate approvals from the relevant government departments to erect a dome tent outside Questacon in which I could screen my work as an artist's contribution to the exhibition. I developed a business plan, researched, sourced and costed all the equipment I would need, dome tent, projector, screen, soundproofing, laptop and a host of other peripherals. I spent hours inside the galleries doing market research to gauge public interest and investigate appropriate pricing structures (ie entry fee, which incidentally, was set at $1 for kids, $2 for adults and $5 for families).
It all seemed to be going so well. Then I approached my local government arts funding body to see if I could get some financial support for my hair brained scheme. Now, our arts funding bodies have particular requirements (called key arts fund objectives, back in 2004 they were called something else ) to guarantee that the meager crumbs left over for arts funding are utilised to their maximum effect. My inquiries into the possibilities of funding were fruitless. I can understand the reluctance to fund an artist who has popped out of nowhere with some innocently naive claim to a great idea, however, I was told that my plan was too commercial because it was riding on the back of an exhibition in a major institution. Considering one of their key funding objectives at the time was for artists to develop means to be self sufficient, I would have thought that the whole idea was to engage in efforts to commercialise ones work in any way possible. Despite the fact that this was a self funded proposal with no financial commitment from Questacon, the contradiction introduced me to the wonderful world of arts funding.
So what now. To cut a long story short, I sold my soul to the underworld of debt and went ahead with the idea all on my lonesome. What is it that warrants such faith as to follow such a precarious path......
The result is what you see above, the Dome, setup outside Questacon. 2005