Exhibition Update 2: Need a Venue!

So maybe I jinxed myself the other day. Despite us all falling in love with the venue we saw the other day, it may not be for us after all. When I went to book the dates I was informed (as an "Oh by the way....") that for that particular space they are hoping to get a longer rental as an office so if someone wants to rent it for longer than us then they will move us to a different space or cancel us altogether up to 2 weeks before!! Can't help thinking it would maybe have been nice for them to mention it as they were showing us round - or in fact not show us it at all if they want to rent it as an office?!?! There's only really 2 spaces that are suitable for us so I don't really want to risk booking it only for them to move us somewhere we don't want. They've been unwilling to keep the second space free for us either - have been advised maybe to book our space for an entire month to secure the booking - £600 for a 12 day exhibitions - I don't think so!

So all in all I think it's a no on that one. Which brings us right back to square 1 - looking for a venue again! Good times! This business with the venue has (as you can tell) put me in quite a bad mood. It's just very stressful as we are on such a tight schedule. Today is 15th Feb. The only possible dates for us are around the 23rd April. Due to Easter holidays, I won't have kiln access for over 3 weeks which means the deadline for my last kiln firing is around 22nd March - that gives me just over a month to make: new body of work for AIR exhibition, all work for selling at SOCK craft fair (a 2 day event), pieces for a gallery order AND all my work for an exhibition that will start during the time we're hoping ours will be on. This is on top of finding venue,booking venue, getting sponsorship, marketing and promoting event, getting website sorted. In short, a lot of work just to keep my head above water. Don't get me wrong, I work well under pressure and I'm excited that I'm busy enough for it to be a problem. I just wish things would start working out with the exhibition. Once that's under way I can really start to focus on my work.

Today (with help from Enterprise Inc) we drafted a letter asking for sponsorship. That was always going to be a toughie as none of us had a clue where to start or what to say, so I'm just glad I got something productive done today.

Over and Out (for some 'recovery chocolate!')
Jenny