News & Notices

Barbican Visual Arts Team looking for an Exhibitions Manager and Exhibition Organiser to provide maternity cover from February 2021

The Barbican Centre is a world renowned multi- disciplinary arts centre. We are seeking an experienced Exhibitions Manager and an Exhibition Organiser to provide maternity cover for up to a year as part of the visual arts team.

We particularly welcome applications from candidates from people of colour as they are currently underrepresented in the Visual Arts department at the Barbican Centre.

The visual arts are crucially important to Barbican’s success. The Art Gallery is dedicated to the presentation of exhibitions covering modern and contemporary art, design/architecture and photography, whereas The Curve is devoted to the commissioning of large scale site specific installations by contemporary artists. The Barbican aims to serve both artists and audiences and excels in the presentation of exhibitions that are thoughtful and curatorially ambitious.

Exhibitions Manager 
Full- Time
Starting Salary: ÂŁ40,750 per annum, inclusive of Inner London Weighting (dependent on skills and experience)
Maternity Cover – minimum 6 months, with a possible extension of up to one year.

Exhibition Organiser
Full-Time
Starting Salary: ÂŁ30,080 per annum (inclusive of London Weighting) dependent on experience and performance
Maternity Cover – minimum 6 months, with a possible extension of up to one year.

For more information on both posts please visit
https://www.barbican.org.uk/our-story/our-people/careers

The application deadline for both posts is midday 25 November 2020. 

 

 

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Reignite – AHI Virtual Conference 2020

11-12 November and 24 November

Two days of engaging speakers and an additional follow-up day to
respond to the speakers.

Theme 1: COVID-19 the challenges and opportunities for interpretation.
Theme 2: Black Lives Matter and the response by heritage interpreters
Theme 3: A new-found engagement with the natural world? The benefits
and challenges of lockdown for interpreters

For full details and to book please click here.

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Request for Proposals for Online Exhibition Development

Founded in 2013, Journey to Justice (JtoJ) was constituted as an alliance of individuals and organisations, united in their aim of inspiring people to take action for human rights in the face of increasing inequalities. To date we have cross community partners in 17 English cities, 400 members and 50 volunteers.

When we launched, we identified the UK as a place of increasing income inequality with many citizens feeling powerless and disconnected while the concept of human rights was under attack. We felt there was a lack of public memory about past struggles in our communities for social and justice and human rights.

We aimed – through combining teaching less-told stories of ‘ordinary’ people who have taken action for social justice, the role of the arts in human rights and understanding social change – to galvanise people to take action in their own journeys to justice, from personal to global.  Find out more about our impact at https://journeytojustice.org.uk/impact/

As a powerful means of achieving our mission, our first project was a multi-media travelling exhibition focused on the US civil rights movement, its links with the UK and its wider impact.

This travelling exhibition programme has visited 15 towns and cities (with 2 others booked) and has made a tremendous impact. Over 180,000 people have visited the exhibition and an additional 7,000 have participated in our arts, education and training events since 2015.

Our travelling exhibition launched in April 2015 and we now seek a digital partner to help us create an online experience, a newly curated interactive version of the exhibition: https://journeytojustice.org.uk/the-exhibition/

For a copy of the RFP email:  carrie@journeytojustice.org.uk    Thank you

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TEG Receives Art Fund Grant to Extend its Professional Development Program to Digital Platforms

 

TEG is delighted to announce its successful application to the Art Fund for a professional network grant of ÂŁ4,750. The grant will enable TEG to expand its professional development programme to digital platforms over the next 12 months in three strands:

1. Five webinars taking place every other month from October 2020 onwards. Webinar topics will be developed in consultation with the sector. Every other webinar will include a 2-Minute Share Session where sector colleagues can pitch exhibition and project proposals to potential partners.

2. 1-2-1 Power Hour mentoring sessions with TEG Trainers for sector colleagues seeking support and advice to adapt their exhibition programmes to reflect new ways of working. Mentoring sessions will be available from November 2020.

3. Three of TEG’s existing Professional Development Workshops will be adapted to create online Touring Fundamentals Workshops, which will be delivered from December 2020.
Thanks to Art Fund support, the programme will be free of charge to TEG members and UK sector professionals to help you upskill, supporting you in creating effective exhibitions for public benefit. Online delivery will help TEG increase its reach, particularly in situations where training and travel budgets restrict engagement, or when physical travel or in-person is not advisable.

The programme will support those of you who have been, or still are, isolated by the work-from-home policy and are keen to find out how others are addressing similar exhibition-related challenges to the ones you face. The three strands of activity will also promote partnerships at a time when capacity and resources are stretched and new ways of working need to be found, as well as facilitating more frequent networking than is possible when travel to an event/venue is required.

TEG members will have a one-week priority booking window for all events, before they are opened up to the wider sector. Further programme details will be shared via the TEG website as they are confirmed and as online events open for booking.

For further information, contact TEG’s Professional Development Manager

Booking open for TEG 2020 AGM and Professional Development Webinar and Share Session

Wednesday 21 October 2020

This year TEG’s AGM (Annual General Meeting) will take place online.  The AGM takes place 11:30 – 12:00 on Wednesday 21 October.  The agenda and papers will be sent to all members very shortly.

We have combined the AGM with a professional development webinar and Share Session. Because the AGM is members only, it requires separate registration and has a different Zoom link.

Professional Development Webinar

TEG’s first sector support webinar will explore What will exhibitions, touring and partnerships of the future look like? followed by the first ever online Share Session in which a selection of TEG members will share their exhibition and project proposals with potential partners via quick fire 2-minute presentations.

11:30 – 12:00   AGM

12:00 – 12:30   Share Session 

12:30 – 13:20   Lunch Break

13.20 – 14.00    Webinar Session: Case Studies + Questions

Case Study 1: Exploring the curiosity of a city: a case study about collaborative exhibition creation –

Carmela Pietrangelo, Content Developer at We The Curious in Bristol will share a case study about Project What If, the first major science centre exhibition in the UK about the curiosity of a city. Over the past three years, over 10,000 questions asked by people in every postcode in Bristol have been used to shape an exhibition that delves into the creative, collaborative and inspiring world of science. With the help of community partners, staff and volunteers, the questions were whittled down to just seven, covering themes such as happiness, the universe, invisibility, illness and time. Each question will be explored through a ‘constellation’ in the Project What If exhibition space when it opens this autumn.

https://www.wethecurious.org/projectwhatif

Case Study 2: Making touring exhibitions Covid safe –

How can we make exhibitions Covid safe for different audiences as they travel? Alice Lobb, Exhibitions Manager at Barbican Art Gallery will explain the alterations made to the Barbican’s exhibition Michael Clark: Cosmic Dancer and how they are having to plan and adapt to changing circumstances. Michael Clark: Cosmic Dancer is at Barbican Art Gallery from 7 October and will tour to V&A Dundee in 2021.

https://www.barbican.org.uk/whats-on/2020/event/michael-clark-cosmic-dancer

14:00 – 14:40 Webinar Session: In Conversation + Questions

Speaker 1: Emma Thorne-Christy, LA-based exhibition designer and activist artist who works with museums, libraries and cultural centers to design imaginative learning environments that challenge and inspire visitors. Her work focuses on telling stories in three dimensional spaces beyond the book on the wall.

http://www.emmatc.com/

https://www.museumnext.com/article/in-defense-of-the-physical-exhibition-a-plea-to-not-move-exhibitions-online/

https://www.freethemuseum.org/

Speaker 2: Pip Diment, Acting Head of Exhibitions at Amgueddfa Cymru|National Museum Wales

https://museum.wales/

Share Session

We’re really excited to be hosting our first online Share Session this year! This is always a popular part of the annual Marketplace, with slots often fully booked well in advance! Thanks to technology, we can now offer you more frequent opportunities to share your exhibition and project proposals with potential partners. We will have twelve 2-minute slots available at each online Share Session, available on a first-come-first-served basis.

Slots for the October Share Session are now full. To register your interest in a slot at the February 2020 Share Session, contact us by email

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Lockdown Experiences, Case Study, Fedora

My Lockdown Story
By Glyn Edwards, Director of Fedora

Lockdown-on Sea website

At the point lockdown was imposed our touring exhibitions on Punch & Judy were fortunately just back from their jaunts, leaving only one item still stranded at Aberdeen Maritime Museum. We were, however, in the final stage of a two-year HLF-supported project about seafront entertainment in the 1920s and ‘30s and had an ACE application in the pipeline to work with a number of coastal museums holding seaside collections. We’d never heard of Zoom.

Being, however, a small arts and heritage charity comprising a loose collective of practitioners (the name Fedora is a convenient contraction of Federation of Regional Artists) the ethos of ‘the show must go on’ is very present in our DNA. If there’s a challenge, then there’ll be a creative solution to be found.

Retrieving the final piece of the exhibition could wait until lockdown was over and HLF proved very supportive of our ideas on how best to amend the final phase of our heritage retro roadshow project. So what next? Out of the blue we were approached to do some skyped sessions on heritage skills to a class of university students on a puppetry course in the USA. This was very new to us but proved good fun.

After this we found ourselves involved with the transformation into a 24-hour online event of the annual Covent Garden May Fayre held in the churchyard of St. Paul’s (the Actors’ Church) and celebrating traditional entertainments. Our team members contributed some of the content and ran the May Fayre Online YouTube channel. A global relay of May Fayre Online page administrators ensured the event stayed live in all time zones. It clocked up 10,000 ‘engagements’ and opened our eyes to new possibilities.

Seaside Fedora Specials Postcard

Meanwhile ACE had announced that all applications were suspended while funds were diverted to a rescue plan, so we applied for a modest sum to cover loss of income from pre-booked schools visits; from activities linked to VE Day celebrations; and to keep our contacts alive with museums during lockdown. We were delighted to receive an award and set to work.

We soon discovered that with most museums closed and their staff furloughed this would not be a simple task. Zoom or no Zoom it was a fragmented landscape. So it occurred to us that creating a Lockdown-On-Sea website would be a way of retaining our profile and – hopefully – finding additional venues who might wish to engage now or in the future.

Not all our usual partner venues had any relevant online content, but we quickly realised that this didn’t really matter online. We could browse wherever we chose and ensure that Lockdown-On-Sea linked across to any external websites with material of interest. We could also create a dedicated YouTube channel and post our own short linked videos.

We wanted it to reflect a hint of the typical range of seaside attractions from piers and bandstands to museums and galleries. It wasn’t so much a meticulously thought-out project as an improvised response to being locked down. Something that found work for our suddenly idle hands. There was only so much time to be spent enjoying the glorious weather or binge watching Netflix.

We think of all this as creating a lockdown legacy. We’ve had some vertical learning curves whilst acquiring it but when we emerge into a ‘new normal’ we’ll still have our touring exhibitions, our project applications and a whole lot of new digital expertise to play with. And if anyone out there wants to join the fun we are always open to new initiatives.

Featured in: Lockdown Experiences

Lockdown Experiences, Case Study, Lumen Art Projects

My Lockdown Story – Bright Lights in Norway
By Carla Rapoport, Executive Director & Founder, Lumen Art Projects

Refik Anadol - Melting Memories

Refik Anadol – Melting Memories

As the world started to shut down and every exhibition, festival and commission we’d been working on was postponed, shuttered or cancelled, there was one bright light shining. It was the green ‘active now’ dot on our Skype link with Torill Haugen, digital curator of Sørlandets Kunstmuseum, Kristiansand, Norway. My colleague Jack Addis kept his Skype on too and throughout the days and weeks of uncertainty in March, Torill and Jack kept a conversation going.

Maybe the exhibition we were planning in late May, featuring two of our US-based artists, Sougwen Chung and Refik Anadol, could go ahead without any travel involved? Norway’s experience with COVID-19 was going reasonably well. A big Skype call in mid-April confirmed that a re-opening of Norway – and its museums – was likely by the end of the month – hooray! But would – or indeed, could – the artists adapt to the changing parameters? Happily, Lumen Art Projects specialises in art created with technology and neither work chosen for this exhibition was going to be physically sent to Norway. But both artists were scheduled to be at the opening and Sougwen Chung, was planning to perform with her robots live on the first night.

Happily, Sougwen had already been developing a telepresence version of her performance that could interact with a live audience as a way to cut down on her air miles before even COVID existed. Now, she had the perfect opportunity to develop this aspect of her practice. And Jack became adept at the remote management of the design and an installation of which involved a 5m x 5m LED screen for artist Refik Anadol’s work, Melting Memories.

The opening was scheduled for 18 June and as I chewed my nails at my home in Wales, Jack was on Zoom from his home in Trowbridge, UK, chatting live with Refik to the VIP attendees in Norway. The emails started to flow soon after – Torill was thrilled as was the audience. I poured myself a drink! Since then Sougwen has given two of her 5 scheduled telepresence performances, also live, beaming herself from her studio in NYC.

Having staged, installed and attended openings of our shows around the globe, it feels very odd not to have been able to attend this one. But Jack and I are thrilled that the show went on – and continues to attract visitors daily. Re.Memory remains on until early October and I really hope to visit it. But mainly, I’m just really proud of Sougwen, Jack and Torill for the flexibility, patience and ingenuity for bringing this off.

And looking ahead here in the UK, we’re excited to be talking with a range of new partners who want to know more about art that can arrive in their exhibition space without the need for couriers or on-site installation. Digital art, it seems, has come of age.

Featured in: Lockdown Experiences

Touring Exhibitions in a Socially Distant environment

During this challenging time we at Warren Elsmore Ltd have been keeping in touch with all of our customers and suppliers on a regular basis. We’ve been working together to see what route there is for our sector, back to some semblance of normality. We know that this crisis will pass – but when restrictions are eased we also know that we must maintain a safe environment for both our staff and visitors.

Talking about the situation over the last couple of weeks, it became apparent that our experience in both touring exhibitions and extremely large events could be put to good use. Whilst the build of a 30,000 square meter exhibition space might not seem relatable to a local museum – in these strange times, the logistic challenges are not too dissimilar.

As we face these all challenges together it would be wrong not to share whatever we can, so I’ve written a white paper on ‘Social Distancing in Touring Exhibitions’. This documents not only the new procedures we as a company are putting into place – but also best practise guidance we’ve gathered from around the sector. It’s available now as a free download from the link below:

Download the white paper – Social Distancing in Touring Exhibitions

Please do feel free to distribute this within your organisation if you wish. Similarly, if you have extra materials we can add to this, or any other comments – we’d love to hear those as well. Please email me and I will make sure to keep the document updated.

2020 is going to be a tough year for us all, but we will get through it. Please stay safe,

Warren

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The Tiger Who Came to Tea – a facsimile exhibition from Seven Stories

We are looking for tour partners for our new Small Stories exhibition

Our first exhibition celebrates Judith Kerr’s classic title The Tiger Who Came to Tea.  Due to the success of  the pilot version, currently touring National Trust properties around the UK, we have opened a second Tiger tour which has two remaining slots March/April and May/June 2022

The exhibition consists of:

– 10 framed pieces of facsimile artwork from the book,
– a reproduction of Sophie’s kitchen for little visitors to play in, complete with its own cuddly 5ft Tiger!
– 3 interpretation panels
– copies of the book
– bespoke dress up
– toys

The hire fee is ÂŁ4,000 +VAT for a two month loan.

The exhibition has enjoyed tremendous success at all of the venues it’s toured to thus far, visitor numbers are up – so much so that Quarry Bank had a 20,000 visitor increase from the same period last year.

Visitors have been on social media praising the exhibition:

‘More events like the tiger who came to tea for the families, linked to affordable keep sakes that are relevant to the theme’.

‘Great little exhibition for my two, and clearly very popular’

For this second tour, we will need to fill all of the available slots before we can recommission the creation of a brand new Tiger, set and props for this second round of the tour.

Each slot includes a school holiday period

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An Update to Our Community- COVID-19

Dear Colleagues,

Like all of you, the Touring Exhibitions Group have been following the challenging and changeable news regarding the global Covid-19 and Coronavirus crisis.

In light of current government advice and the likely long-term effects, we have decided to postpone the TEG Marketplace and Seminar that were due to take place on 30 April and 1 May 2020.

We are looking at options for holding the Seminar in October and another two-day event, including the Marketplace, in spring 2021. We are discussing this with our hosts at People’s History Museum in Manchester. If you have already purchased tickets, they will be valid for the re-arranged events and in support of TEG and our community, we hope you will by happy to attend on the rescheduled dates. Should this not be possible, we will of course offer refunds. Please bear with us for now, while we make new arrangements.

We understand that calling off the events is going to cause disappointment and disruption but I am sure that you understand why we have opted to do so. We will keep you informed about new arrangements for the events as soon as we have information but in the meantime, If you have any questions please direct them to Andrew Deathe, TEG Coordinator.

Nicola Coleby, TEG Chair and the TEG Committee

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Royal Photographic Society – Photography Exhibition for hire

Due to a change of circumstances, The Royal Photographic Society’s International Photography Exhibition 162 is now available for hire for some dates in 2020.

The exhibition consists of 100 framed prints of various sizes and is derived from our annual competition, which is now in its 162nd edition and is the longest running exhibition of its kind in the world. It is selected by a panel of respected industry leaders and showcases series work as well as single images, from photographers and image makers worldwide.

See more info on the TEG website here

For more information, contact the RPS Exhibitions Dept

 

 

 

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Notification of AGM and Call for Nominations

Notification of AGM and call for nominations for new ordinary members

The 2019 Annual General Meeting of the Touring Exhibitions Group will be held on Friday 3rd May at 12:30 at Thinktank, Birmingham Science Centre.

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