Building the show

The genesis of the Threshold exhibition was the award of a solo show at Cass Art by the jury at Bury Art Museum OPEN 2025 competition.

I had already been developing a series of work based around the 1826 weavers uprising for my final MA project and realised that if I moved fast, I could time the exhibition to precisely align with the 200 year anniversary of the weavers march and subsequent massacre at the village of Chatterton, near to my home.

I’d never attempted to exhibit on my own before, but decided to follow my general approach of repeatedly trying to bite off just a bit more than I can chew. Anyway, I like a deadline. It’s hard to put things off when you know that friends, family and in this case my MA tutors are all watching. The tutors eyes did raise a bit when I shared my plans, just a couple of months before the opening date and I started to realise just how much I had taken on.

If you’re planning to do the same

Here are some things I’ve learned:

1. It’s a LOT of work. Physical, mental and emotional work. Prepare yourself. And that’s not counting the work work, you know, the stuff that’s going to go on the walls.

2. Clear physical space around you. You will need to store pictures, frames, flyers, drinks, bubble wrap, and you’ll need to handle it all carefully without knocking corners and damaging work.

3. Clear mental space. I took concrete steps to try and manage my mental workload. I’ve cut out basically all alcohol since Christmas. I stepped back from some of my day job work commitments. I made time for exercise and, it sounds silly, but I stopped wearing a digital watch with all its irritating wrist taps. These things really helped.

4. You will need to rely on a LOT of other people. Be nice to them. Make friends with them. It will pay back hugely when something goes wrong and you suddenly need a favour.

5. Check, check and check again anything you send to print. I’ve lost count of how many expensive reprints I’ve needed because I got an address wrong or accidentally clicked A6 instead of A4 while ordering in a rush.

6. And yes, this whole thing is expensive. Your work might allow for more creative low cost options, but a lot of mine did not. Multiple layers of perspex meant multiple print costs for each piece and complex, expensive framing requirements.

7. Managing the chain from image to print to frame to wall was really complex in itself, and every piece had its own challenges. Wherever possible keep this as simple as you can, i.e. find somewhere that can print and frame in one for you. Maybe they’ll come to your show.

8. You will need to be your own marketer. What’s the point of putting on a show if nobody turns up? Seek out and use every possible route to tell the world what you’re doing. From word of mouth to flyers to online channels. Keep telling them, day after day.

9. The marketing has value in its own right. Even if you’re audience can’t make it to the show, they will have seen your IG posts, maybe received a personal invitation, or heard about it from their network. If they have, then you are on their radar - that effort is not wasted.

10. So make sure your online presence is in place for those who don’t turn up. Think of the publicity doing its work as a cresting wave ahead of the show and a slow ebb afterwards. It’s not a once and done task.

11. Remember to enjoy it. You knew that would be last didn’t you? But it’s true. It’s an amazing thing to put yourself through and you will come out the other side smiling and more confident than you can imagine. Maybe the next one will be easier.

    
    
    
    

Stuff…

Lots and lots of stuff.