CULTIVATE VYNER STREET AND THE ONGOING STORY OF THE OPENING OF A GALLERY

Well this running a gallery space in the middle of what is now, I guess, the East London art establishment, is proving to be very interesting indeed. One month in to the six month project now and we're having a very interesting time, Lots of positive reactions from artists, visitors, art viewers and such, and fair to say just a little touch of hostility from those engaged in the business of art around about us - bigger galleries who tell me there are set ways of doing things, those who seem to make thier living 'advising' artists from their Vyner Street offices and such. I don't know, if it was me on the street and a new gallery had opened and put on four really interesting shows in the first month or exisitance then I might just make te effort to cross the road and have a look and say hello? Let's not start off on a negative note though, so far we've had a very positive very interesting expereince and as we prepare for our fifth show opening and our second First Thursday event, we're feeling rather pleased with how it has all gone..

So yes, we got a little fed up with the way things were going in terms of having to crawl through financial hoops in order to show our work. The outragious prices a big proportion of the decenty placed galleries seem to charge for hire or commission they take. And so rather than just go on moaning about it, we gathered together everything we could and opened our own space right in the middle of it all and set out to try and do it a little more reasonably. Let's try and understand the reality of it all from the gallery people's point of view rather than just constantly complain about it all. Of course we have bills to pay, the landlord wants his rent payment at the start of each month, we have no funding, and we're certainly not rich kids. Trying to exist as artists in this city means we're on first name terms with bailifs and such. This is not a funded self-indulgence, we can't exist if we don't at least break even. We have to run this properly, this has to be a commericial venture

Been frantically good so far, we signed the paper work on a Wednesday afternoon, picked up the keys the next day, Thursday, the first Thursday of the month. We put the word out the nght before and put out a call for artists to come help us get a gallery open and a show sorted out and hung in 22 hours. The call went out at 8pm on Wednesday, the keys were our at 3pm on Thursday, the sapce was cleared, the old beds removed and a quick brush on the walls and such, thankfully the space had already been a gallery, the walls were white enough for a last minute show, so at 3pm a dozen artists started to arrive with paintings and sculptures (we found a plinth on the dump at the end of Vyner Street, clearly the art gods were with us as we rushed to open for First Thursday and everything that that involves in Vyner Street.

First Thursday was a buzz, we felt good about the art we had up, we had a constant flow of people all night, things got rather eventfuloutside our front door what with the unexpected band playing in the van and all the naked men covered in honey and red food colouring... Exciting start

One month is, tired eyes, blistered feet, loads of debate, lots of postive art, the work of around 30 artists hung on the walls so far. A show called What Price Art? where the public have named their prices and we've not had any say, another show Called 22 Hours that documented the opening and hung the work of the artists from that frantic First Thursday in a more considered way. A show called Interim where Steven Rawling invited debate on the process of making/showing art as he worked in the space for ten days.

This coming weekend myself and a painter called Emma Harvery will work in the gallery while our work and the work of others hangs on the wall and people are invited to come in and view/chat/sit... Then we hang our next show on Wednesday and we open again for First Thursday with Red.

I intend to blog about the last month and continue the gallery blog as we go along, lots has been learnt, lots of questions have been thrown up, lots to blog about

WHAT PRICE ART?

WHAT PRICE ART? A WEEKEND SHOW @ CULTIVATE, VYNER STREET.

Opening night, Thurs 15th Sept, 6pm – 9pm, then 11.30am – 6pm Fri 16th- Sun 18th Sept.

SEAN WORRALL invites YOU to take part in WHAT PRICE ART?
...
An invitation extended to fellow artists to take part and also for those who visit galleries and buy art to take control..


THE SHORT VERSION - A whole laod of art on the gallery walls, buyer sets the price and takes it away, pay as much or as little as you see fit should you wish to buy a piece...



THE LONG VERSION -

My intention is to pack the walls of our recently open Cultivate Vyner Street gallery space with both my own paintings and hopefully the art of other invited artists.

Following on from the 22 Hours show that took just under a day to pull together and that officially opened the new Vyner Street space this week, this new show is being pulled together at the start of this week and will open on the evening of Thursday 15th September. The show runs until 6pm Sunday 18th Sept (at which point we start putting Steven Rawlings’ Interim show in for Monday 19th and his eleven day working residency)

The whole Cutivate Vyner Street project is based a small group of artists questioning how galleries work. We’re doing this by running out own gallery space right in the heart of things in one of the most significant art streets in East London. We don’t have grants or funding for this, we’re as short of money as most any other working artist, we have to make commercial decisions to keep this space alive and financial survival is as much an issue for us in these tough times as it is for any gallery space. Rent must be paid or the doors close. We’ve taken on the gallery for six months, we opened on September First Thursday with 22 hours notice.


WHAT PRICE ART?

What Price Art? is about exactly that - gallery prices, the way things work, the vulnerability of the working artist in terms of survival, in terms of paying the bills, in terms of the way things work with galleries. The show is about the pricing of art, about art in galleries, about leaving art on the street, about street art, about the art dealers, the collectors, the price tag and people’s reactions to that tag, about how people interact with commercial art galleries. Who buys art? What is the point of a commercially run gallery?

The gallery will be full of art for three days, I hope that there will be more than just mine - people can just come and enjoy it, view it, explore it, or if they want to, they can buy it. The buyer sets the price, the gallery and the artist have no say in the pricing process. They buyer states the price, the piece is taken off the wall and the transaction takes place, the buyer takes the piece away and a new piece goes up in place

What’s going to happen? Will artists be brave enough to join me and put their art on the walls and plinths? If they do will it just be their throwaway pieces that they attach little value to? Will it just scribbles on cardboard – perfectly valid if that’s the case – or will it be the big expansive pieces they’d show at other galleries in a ‘conventional’ way with a ‘conventional’ price tag? Things they do attach more value to? What will I do when it comes ot hang? Will any other artists want to take part or will that just want to know what happens? Can it be pulled together in a week anyway?

And what of the viewers, the visitors, the people who come to galleries? Will they be comfortable with setting the price? Will they take away a big piece and pay just a penny? Will they offer ‘normal’ gallery prices? Will they just reject the whole idea, or will they just not want the art on sale anyway? What’s going to happen?

The whole event will be documented, buyers will be given the chance to opt out of the documentation if they wish.

Artists are invited to come be involved. We will, as a gallery, be as picky as we would with any show. We will invite artists we already know to come be involved and allow them to bring whatever they wish, artists we don’t know or haven’t worked with yet can contact us and if we like what we see the invite will be extended for them to bring along anything they wish to include. The gallery will charge a 20% commission on all sales (unless a piece sells for less that 5p). I have no idea what will happen, what price art? 

www.cultivatevynerstreet.com 

RIGHT SMACK BANG IN THE MIDDLE OF IT ALL

Well now, blog neglected again since those piano adventures... Let me see, there's been Red Italian Show paintings at the London Fetish Fair, more art left on walls and streets, more leafgrowth, te big Vins and Eva piece in Vyner Street and we opened a gallery...

Right smack bang in the middle of it all in East London, Vyner Street to be exact. It all happened very quickly. We managed to get the doors open for September First Thursday. We got the keys at 3pm on First Thursday and managed to clear out the gallery, get a show up and open the doors on time at 6pm for First Thursday. Since then there's been no time to sleep...

The gallery space is called CULTIVATE, VYNER STREET. We officially opened on September 8th, right now I'm doing most of the fronting/running of the space. I see it as an ongoing evolving art piece in itself. We followed the First Thursday events with a show about the opening adventure. The show, 22 HOURS officially opened the gallery on the evening of September 8th, that show is replaced this week with a show called WHAT PRICE ART

Lots more in a bit...