Art Gallery Trip

We all piled into a minibus and set off to Leeds armed with our camera phones, flip cams, clipboards and our question sheets.  We took millions of photo's and videos of anything we could find that looked creative in Leeds including things in shops, signs, posters, sculptures, The Grand Theatre, Opera North and the Carriage Works.  When we got to the Art Gallery, we weren't allowed to take and photos and videos because of copyrights (we found this out from Amanda, the lady we interviewed).  We took lots of notes during the interview an here are the responses to the questions we bombarded on Amanda!

1. What types of audience do you appeal to?
The audience type can be different depending on culture, age, interests, etc.  There are 4 different stands; people who are familiar with Art and enjoy coming to gallery's often, schools and colleges and university's, audience development and bringing new people in who maybe haven't been to and Art gallery before or don't think they like art and general public coming in to use the toilet and cafe facilities and also weddings and conferences can be held at the gallery.
 How do you go about pleasing them?
Aim to inspire, challenge and entertain them.  Use many strategies like performances, changing exhibitions, sound, singing, reading, special events.  We lend Art internationally.
  What data do you hold on your audience and how do you collate it?
We have a mailing list and do periodic surveys.  Now data protection acts so we can't keep too much or any personal information.
2.  How has technology influenced how you work in the gallery?
Well I get bombarded with emails!  Good for faster communication but more stressful.  Hard to display and store.  Issue with collections, we have to keep them safe because we don't own them, we keep them safe for you to enjoy.  We have to keep up with all the latest hardware and software and it goes out of date too fast.
  Have you introduced new ways of advertising in recent years, for example facebook and twitter sites?
Well we used to have these big beautiful posters but we don't anymore.  We have fun with Twitter and depend on word of mouth.
3.  How do you connect with the different community's within Leeds and beyond?
Used to have n international connection but now anymore. Still lend out pieces of Art across the globe and maintain an informal connection.  We bear in mind the types of audience we're targeting when we organize an exhibition.  We also work with different agencies and community groups.
  The gallery is free to enter, how do you fund the gallery and its projects?
Rent the space from the council.  The council fund the light and heat bills and the staff salaries.  We try to find individual sponsors and the Arts council finds the exhibitions and new art coming in.  There is also a donations box in the gallery.
4.  What creative process is involved in creating an exhibition?
Everyone that works on the exhibitions are creative in some way or another, they're all problem solvers, risk takers and there is now a new process.  First, the artist/s or sculpts contact the gallery and request to showcase an exhibition there.  hen they choose the space to put it in  and discuss it with the exhibition panel and the artist.
  How do you contact the artists?
They generally contact us and if they don't, then it's through word of mouth, seeing something in a magazine or newspaper, private views and poking around a bit!
  What space do you use?
Depends on size, the vibe, theme of the exhibition, what's practical and creativity.
  How many different people from different agencies would be involved in putting on an exhibition?
Other partnership galleries, university department, a range of agencies and individual agencies.  There's no distinction.
5.  What merchandise do you have and how do you promote it?
What can be afforded and what will sell well.  I'm not sure whether the merchandise fits and it's based on perceptions on what people want.  It's not really promoted at all.
6.  How would you arrange workshops?
Have target to get at least 6000 school children in the gallery within the year and sometimes we have to have more than one group in at once to achieve it.
  Do you have an age limit?
Nope.
  How do you decide what to run a workshop on?
Strand one; When we go into schools to do a workshop, we give a 'menu' to choose a workshop off of.  Strand two; Contemporary  and funky themed.
Do you charge?  How is it funded?
All the workshops are free apart from the 'menu' option for schools which is £50.
7.  How do you know when an exhibition is a success?
Not certain.  Sometimes we get feedback from surveys.  We work off the vibe given and make judgements like if it's busy.
  What do you class as a failed exhibition?
When the technology fails or it's boring.  When we have lots of complaints and its not attracting people.

We then went back to the minibus (taking lots more photos on the way!) and headed back to Brigshaw!