Time to start another week, perhaps this one will be a little less crazy! Thus far we haven’t got any 3AM finished pencilled in, so we’re hopeful that we might start catching up with ourselves…
Last week was of course worth the long hours, late nights and, we’ll be honest, slightly overwhelming pressure at times. We got the Artizan Summer Open 2018 off to a spectacular start at our launch event on Thursday as we welcomed more than 250 people through our doors over the course of the night and celebrated visual arts with our 100 selected entrants and the kind words of Mayor Gordon Oliver. Most importantly, pretty much everyone was in agreement that the space was looking incredible, and it was extremely gratifying to see the reaction of artists who had joined us at the start of the week in a faded magnolia box that was somewhat lacking in character.
We need to take this opportunity for thanks once again because there’s so many people who have made this possible.
We’ve said it many times already, but it really mustn’t be forgotten that this whole event is only possible thanks to our venue sponsors Edinburgh House Estates. Their vision in allowing us to use the space has been incredibly refreshing and we’re privileged to be working with them. Locally, the Fleet Walk Management team who run the units have also been incredible as we setup into the early hours every night, their security team always checking in on us and have overall been exceptionally supportive as we’ve come into the space.
Then our two funding sponsors Torbay Culture and Torbay Development Agency, both of whom have provided financial assistance for the work we’re doing to support local arts and deliver additional opportunities over the coming month whilst we’re in the space. Also, Friends of the Gallery, The Debonair Group and The Training Partnership Ltd have made donations to the work we’re doing so thanks to them also.
Local arts organisations Torre Abbey and Cockington Court have very kindly provided us with contributions of display surfaces and installation equipment which have helped make the space look as professional as it does, so thank you to everyone here. Also, a huge thank you to our partner art societies Creative Coverage and Torbay Guild of Artists who have assisted us with exhibition PR and judging commitments.
And then there’s a long list of individuals who need special mentions so here we go!
Builder Paul McCann who got the space ready for us in record time.
Mark Hoyle who very kindly spent two days ferrying furniture from various sites to the exhibition venue for us.
Ziggy, our poetic pal, who assisted with the hang on several days and has now joined us in the space every day to steward and support.
Vikki Harvey, who grabbed a late shift with us before launch to help install our beautiful ceiling display.
John Tomkins of Emberlense Productions for filming our preview event and continuing to support the work we do.
Hollie Dennison who joined us in the final mad rush an hour before launch to tie up all the loose ends.
Mayor Gordon Oliver who kindly launched the event for us.
Alan Price-Roberts and Susan Cavaliere who helped us judge entries and narrow down the huge number of submissions we received.
Julie and I also both need to thank our respective partners Brian and Grace who not only put a huge amount of work into the space with us but also generally put up with us working ridiculous hours, being stressed, and all together not keeping on top of day to day life.
Finally, of course, and we’ve said it before, thanks to all the artists who took the time to submit work to this show and have helped to shape an incredible exhibition. There would quite clearly be nothing to show without your hard work and you did not let us down with the quality of pieces entered, with a diversity of art now on display that can’t fail to deliver something for every visitor who comes through the space.
We’ve probably rattled on long enough so all that remains to be said is remember to check out our full calendar of Summer exhibitions across both our venues this season. We’re now coming into the final week of Alan Price-Roberts show at Artizan Gallery which has attracted some wonderful responses as visitors have tracked his work across three July exhibitions he’s taking part in! You can now view his exhibition on our 360 page so make sure to check that out!
