The Creative Stars Curation Team spent 2 days in half term shortlisting artists and coming up with an exhibition theme. One of our documenters joined them on the 2nd day of the selection process and on the 3rd day when the Curation Team presented the exhibition to all of the Creative Stars . Here is Paddy’s account of the process:
Day 2
On Wed 26 October, I was documenting the curation team as they, with the assistance of Workshop Facilitator, Jason Minsky and Cornerhouse staff, went through various progressive stages in planning the January exhibition.
Having shortlisted artists and artwork, the team went upstairs to Cornerhouse’s Gallery 1 to plan out the basics in terms of orientation and spacing for the exhibition. Each individual contributed their own ideas as to how they envisaged the layout and everyone demonstrated great creativity.
Bren, the Visual Arts Programme Manager at Cornerhouse, joined us after lunch and the team further discussed the pieces, elaborating on themes and fine-tuning the selection.
Day 3
The full Creative Stars group met up on Thu 27 October for a feedback session with the curation team regarding their plans for the exhibition. The general feeling was that the pieces were well chosen, thought provoking and fitted together well as a whole. A few questions were raised regarding some works, but the curation team managed to provide fitting persuasions to criticism and were determined to include all the chosen work.
The various teams then split up, as different people from different teams worked in pairs to discuss their feelings and attitudes towards the exhibition so far. We also each chose a title for the exhibition, which we thought would work best; and then voted for the one which would prove the most effective. We chose Lost Is Found as the official title, yet runners up included Totems Of The Modern World and Progression, amongst others.
Written by Creative Star, Paddy Johnson (November 2011)