DUBLIN SKETCHERS EXHIBITION
For the last few years, the group have had an exhibition over the summer. And we'll be doing the same this year! Last Sunday, over coffee, we talked about the possibilities for the exhibition and people threw around ideas. Here's an overview of what ideas developed.
For the next two Sundays (18th March and 25th March) we'll keep sharing ideas, so that the exhibition can take shape. Do come along, hear what's developing, and contribute your ideas.
What? Dublin Sketchers Exhibition 2012
When? Friday 22nd June (opening) to Sunday 24th June.
Where? The Drawing Project studio opposite the DART in Dun Laoghaire, which operates under the auspices of the Dunlaoghaire Institute of Art Design and Technology. Brief Description from their Facebook page - drawing is the "analog hub" for all of the visual disciplines. Drawing is bespoke, hand-made, responsive and reflexive. The Drawing Project will focus on “Critical Drawing”. The Drawing Project will seed and grow interdisciplinary collaborations in Art, Design and Media.... They like drawing!
How Much? The fee for being in the exhibition will be somewhere between €10 and €40, depending on how many people want to be involved, and what the costs are (hanging, flyers/posters/opening night. We'll pin these down in the next month. The actual studio space is free!).
Background - The Drawing Project studio approached the group last October to invite us to put together a show there. Keith, Stephen O'Reilly and James went to visit. The Curator is interested in our group because we do what they love - draw and sketch! They want us to reflect that in our show.
So, the emphasis this year will be on the drawings/sketches/paintings that emerge every Sunday at the various locations we visit.
Last Sunday, the group threw in some suggested locations for the next few months with the exhibition in mind.
Dublin Zoo (we can see if we can get a group discount), Print Museum, Natural History Museum (Dead Zoo), Farmleigh, The Maritime Museum (Stephen C says it opens in April), The People's Market in Dun Laoghaire, Aqua Centre in Bray (we'll need to ring about price), The Quays area near the famine ship, Grand Canal Dock, Collins Barracks, Henrietta Street, Botanic Gardens, Glasnevin Cemetry, Flea Market near Cork Street (last Sunday of month), Sandycove/Forty Foot/Martello Tower, War Memorial Gardens (near Heuston), Dalkey Island, Dalkey Quarry, Howth (which has a Sunday market), Guinness Tower (Rory McC thought he might be able to get us in free!), Sweny's, Pearse Museum, Cafe En Seine, National Concert Hall (is it Catherine who might be able to get us in there during a rehearsal?), National Library, area round St Patrick's cathedral and the Iveagh Trust Buildings, Dublin Castle/City Hall/Chester Beatty/gardens,
People were interested to hear if anyone knew of an old or abandoned property, industrial area, factories where we could go and sketch. It would need to be a safe structure and we'd need permission to be there! If anyone has any ideas......feed them in!
Drawing crowds - if anyone has ideas for good places to draw crowds or people spotting, send them in!
Gerard mentioned that he lives in an apartment block near Pheonix Park over looking IMMA and Kilmainham, with great views. He said he could host us one Sunday - he has a balcony, and the apartments also have a private garden on the banks of the Liffey. We'll have to check in with Gerard, but a possible date for that is 15th April.
Someone suggested Davy Byrne's sometime as a good place to go for coffee after sketching, as it's spacious.
Practicalities and Possibilities
We talked about how to present our work - perhaps we could group it according to location (eg, work from Botanic Gardens presented together, work from Print Museum, etc) rather than arranging it by artist. That way it will tell more of a story about the group. Most people liked this idea.
So, we might end up with work grouped around 10 locations, with space for work from other locations. You might even have something from a previous year from a Dublin Sketchers location that you would like to include.
How to present the work? Rather than framing each piece in a full frame, we could present them in mounts, or stick them to board, or pin them to the wall.... This will help to keep individual costs down. Cream mounts were suggested as a good colour. Do we need to have standard mount sizes? Eg, A6, A4, A3, A2....? It depends a little on what the Drawing Project's facilities are.
The room has four walls! It was suggested that we could present 3 walls of drawings and sketches from locations and then, if people were interested, have a final wall of finished pieces, worked up from initial sketches so that we present the story from initial sketch to finished piece. These might be fully framed and priced for sale.
Some people seemed very interested in having their work available for sale, while others were less motiviated by that.
Showing our sketch books - there are display cases in the studio. We can present our sketch pads - either open on one page, or perhaps available for people to look through. This will really show what the group is about, and really interesting to look at.
Suggestion - people can start to work on loose leaf sheets on Sundays, in preparation for the exhibition. Volunteers can start to collect these loose leafs at the end of each week, keeping them ready for the show.
How many people / how many pieces each? Because it's a large studio space, the exhibition should be able to accomodate something of everybody's work. Available space will become clearer once we've visited the gallery again and looked at wall space more critically.(Measuring tape required!)
Visiting the gallery
We will put up the date and time when we are going out to view the space so if you wish to come along and be part of the planning please do so.
Work in Progress!
The exhibition is very much a work in progress, so do come along on on the next two Sundays to join the discussion. If you can't make it, then either contribute by email or facebook or blog. Once things are firmer, we'll send round another email with information.
Dublin Sketchers get together every Sunday afternoon in Dublin to sketch. We go to a different place each week. Check here before hand to see where we are off to. Come along if you fancy it! We start sketching from 2pm and meet at 4pm for a drink and chat. We are part of the global Urban Sketchers community.
