This gallery we went to visit has been there for a few years after being set up in an old empty shop to show local artists work. Recently it’s had loads of new art works including a teacher that used to teach here at John Willmott School. When we arrived at the gallery we saw loads of artists work, including a teacher named Fran Vere and James Ware.
Before we arrived at the gallery we prepared questionnaires for the artists and the art work we were going to be see. This was interesting and fun because we learnt about the works and artists behind the pieces.
Once we arrived, we instantly started looking around at all the funky artworks and chose some that really interested us. We chose one piece made by one of our schools retired teachers (Fran Vere), and another piece by John Tedstone who we don’t know personally but whose work really caught our eye. We then used our questions guide to help us analyse the images. Fran’s work was digital photography and using photoshop but John’s were paintings. There were lots of other art forms which was used by artists including detailed drawing, sketching, painting, photography, 3D sculptures out of different materials like metal and wood, some interactive displays like writing a message and shredding it. There were many unusual things we saw as group, the art gallery had a mixture of different art works ranging for different fabrics to all kind of paints and stuff. Overall I didn’t really see anything that I would be surprised about.
I have done this before not professionally but in a fun environment with my mom and at school at few years ago. The similar things we did was annotating the artist work. It was quite informal which meant we could go round how we wanted and talk and write about things in our time. It was good there were some tables and chairs we could use.
What I also thought was good is that attitudes of the people who ran the place for the day was very welcoming and helped us out a lot near the end when we have to answer a bunch of questions. We then asked the curator of the gallery about his job and career in the arts industry. The questions were involving how and why he is involved in the art work.We also spoke to a college student who told us about her work.
Overall there wasn’t much to criticize the gallery including the paintings and everything in there. The only thing I would criticize is the outside of the place as the place could be so much more appealing than it is to encourage more people to go in. All in all a great experience.
I have learned from this experience that art has a lot of meanings behind them and why they were created. I also learned exactly what to ask someone if they are displaying or showing me their art work. The thoughts/ ideas I will take away is the knowledge of the artists we asked questions on and also what you need to do to set up an exhibition.
Sounds like you had a really great time! What sorts of questions did you ask the artists?