What makes a ‘successful’ exhibition?
Denise Keele-bedford
Searching through my files for some articles recently, I came across one that I had written for MSWPS in 2020. It was an unsettling time, of Lockdowns, feelings of insecurity, restrictions. A time when the thrill of the week was driving to the supermarket to pick up bags of groceries ordered online.
MSWPS Committee was doing its best to hold a society together, when we couldn’t meet, have events and everything was via Zoom.
We planned our first online Annual Exhibition. The below article is the result of my thinking at that time and has not changed much since.
How exhibitions are deemed to be successful has been a contentious issue on my radar for a very long time.
Virtually every time I show artwork in Australia and I am asked if the show was successful, my answer is yes, for in their way the shows to me are all successful. Generally the response is “how much did you sell?” OR “you must have sold a lot!”.
So what are the criteria for a successful art exhibition? Here is my view on this complex issue.
Has anyone asked NGV Director Tony Elwood if any of the NGV art exhibitions were successful?
I am sure he has been asked; however, he would not have been asked “How much was sold?”.
Why is that so?
Because the measurement of an exhibition’s success at the NGV is different to say the Camberwell Rotary Art Show.
The Rotary Art Show participants want to be asked how much sold as their focus is on the money made. It is one of the main reasons for the participants having the exhibition.
When I make an ephemeral installation, created on site then deinstalled at the end of a given period I want to be asked: Are you happy with the show? Are you pleased with the arrangement/installation? What was the inspiration, influence for creating the artwork? What was the response to the work? What were the discussions/dialogue around the work? Will you reflect on this into the future? How was your experience in putting this show together? None of these questions have anything to do with the monetary value of the work?
The Inaugural Online Melbourne Society of Women Painters and Sculptors (MSWPS) Annual Art Exhibition was deemed successful. Why?
It was successful for a range of reasons but mainly because our members participated. For many it was challenging: to understand the entry process, to understand labelling images, and resizing digital images of artworks, difficulty with photographing the works, and to have confidence with the selling process. Yet many came to the party.
Yes, a few artworks sold, and congratulations to those artists. However, it is not about the money, the sales did not prove that the show was successful. It was the participation, the interaction with the website to see the show and the positive feedback received by the artists.
One of my most successful art exhibitions was in George Paton Gallery at Melbourne University. It was an ephemeral installation that took three days to install, nothing was for sale. Why do I regard it as most successful? The exhibition was the culmination of three years of experimentation, investigation and artistic development. It was in the best gallery space most suited to the work. It drew in an audience intrigued with the presentation, who asked interesting and pertinent questions and spent their time engaging with the work. The deinstallation became a fun-filled event when students were invited to take it away. Installation documentation is now included in a publication on the history of the George Paton Gallery.
You could ask me the costs involved in putting that exhibition together, yet I cannot tell you the answer. Any expense is long forgotten even though as an emerging artist at the time, money was tight. The success of that exhibition lived on through the many invitations I received to recreate versions of the artwork that were not for sale and could not be sold.
Artists are always happy when someone else sees value in our creations. It is exciting when something created from our soul and through hard work is acquired. It is a thrill to see a buyer’s pleasure, who have parted with their hard-earned dollars, excited with their purchase.
Hopefully attitudes of like-minded lateral thinkers regarding what a successful art exhibition is will spread and educate within the public realm.
Sales are not the proof of a successful exhibition, to me, they are a bonus. If artists exhibit their artwork only in the expectation of sales, then our world will be filled with disappointed arts practitioners.
To end on a positive note, I encourage you to think about the questions you ask an exhibiting artist. You just may be surprised how much wisdom and insight that reverberates long after any issues of money have been forgotten.
Denise Keele-bedford and many thanks to Anne Hastie for editing.
Image: Winner of the MSWPS Inaugural Sculpture Award ‘Stormy Passage’ by Beatrice Magalotti