Building An Exhibition

What started as a university brief quickly became something much bigger.

Being a part of a group of second year students, were were challenged to create our own exhibition from scratch. Not just the work itself, but everything that comes with it; finding a venue, securing funding, organising logistics and shaping a concept that felt relevant and meaningful.

It was equal parts exciting but stress inducing.

The theme provided was ‘climate’, which being honest, I was over the moon with as I had previously done work in the past based on climate - in which during that time I had ideas I never completed, so now was my time to shine. In addition to this, climate felt impossible to ignore which made it even hard to approach in a way that hadn’t already been done. We didn’t want to create something that just showed the problem, we wanted to explore perspectives, responses and the overlooked details of environmental change whilst also challenging ourselves to keep it climate friendly too!

Finding a venue was our first real challenge. Not only did it mean reaching out and fearing rejection but also who really would offer a venue for 4 days on a student friendly budget? Well, to our surprised and help with our course leader we were able to secure a space in a shopping centre with the premise of decorating it however we liked, even better!

Funding came next. Via gofundme and photography walks we were able to raise a feasable amount to fund for our supplies.

The idea was becoming something real now.

Then came the work itself… each of us applied the theme of climate differently - some focusing on natural climate and others on human impact. I myself focused on the human impact.

Bringing all of it together then came the fun part! Painting. Hanging items. Creating the final result.

Looking back, the exhibition was more than a university project. It taught us how much goes on behind the scenes, how ideas turn into something physical, how collaboration shapes outcomes and how important it is to stay calm when things don’t go to plan haha! Most of all it showed me that creating something meaningful takes more than just creativity.

It takes persistence, communication and willingness to figure out things along the way. From concept to final display, we built it.

And that’s what mattered.