The Exhibition

Due to work commitments, I could only be at the exhibition on the opening Saturday (8:30am - 5pm ish, was early to help Mike and Sav finish some construction) and Sunday (9am - 4:15pm ish, early start again to help Mike and Adam tidy up before opening). When I walked in, I was impressed at what the people who were present on Friday had produced.

During the day Saturday, there were still some tasks to do which I was able to contribute to:

- Display posters on window
- Re-hang display boards more securely
- Laminate and hang the explanation boards
-We also hung some glitter curtains which were swiftly removed the next day!
- Setting up the projector which then refused to play the recorded DVD
- I also went out to buy an additional sheet to cover the video room door; paper to cover the walls and of course breakfast on Sunday
- Covering the walls with additional paper on Sunday
- Distributing leaflets in High Chelmer on Sunday
- Keeping the exhibition floor and backroom tidy. Didn't dare to empty the old fridge upstairs though, I draw the line at month-old sandwiches!


Team members also redecorated the right hand side wall, replacing a car painting with sketches of characters, and moved the paint splattered sheet to create a divider between the exhibition floor and our area at the back.



Above: Our area and some of the food which the Tesco voucher bought.

And of course, there were the visitors. Over the weekend, we received some good feedback from interested shoppers who commented on how well we had done without funding and left comments in the guestbook complimenting our work. I was also able to show friends and family around over the weekend, who were complimentary :)

The best part for me was the popularity of our drawing wall - people of all ages (most under 20 though!) took part in drawing everything from scribbles to love hearts to genuinely impressive pieces of spontaneous art... and of course their phone numbers!



I believe the exhibition has been a success as we've built something which not only showcases our work but also enables people to gain an insight into the course we did and take part in creating some designs themselves.



I took part in creating some art/vandalism myself by decorating a Vision Express poster left by the previous occupants...

What have I learned? It takes a lot of work to both create an exhibition and keep it running. The most enjoyable part was showing the visitors round and listening to their views - some people even took prospectuses for ARU as they have family who are interested in design, and one lady offered to buy a piece of Rob's work.

Fantastic job by all, I thoroughly enjoyed it and I hope this week goes just as well as the weekend. And I have no idea why some of this text is underlined either!