Short Course Review: University of the Arts London, Central Saint Martin
In August on a beautiful rainy summer week in London, I attended the Contemporary Art Exhibition & Event Management short course from the University of the Arts London (UAL), in the famed Central Saint Martins campus. As I didn’t find any reviews of the short courses at UAL, I am writing this as a brief summary and opinion on the exhibitions visited.
The university is located right behind St Pancras/Kings Cross station, behind a newly redesigned and lively Granary square. The campus is a beautiful blend between a Victorian granary and high-roof modern steel and glass elements, that helps brighten the central hallway, which was decorated by reused road signs which I adored.
The course was held in 5 days, starting at 10:00 am until 4:00 pm, divided into two sessions with a break between them. Our course’s tutor, Ms Clare Fitzpatrick, was an experienced exhibitions and arts project manager, that has worked with several private and public galleries across London, and approached us with her realistic experience of the field.
Divided into 10 sessions, 2 on each day, the course at first went through briefly defining contemporary art and curation, before indulging to the topics of managing these contemporary art exhibtions — briefly summarised into the 3P’s: People, Politics, and Pounds. Wherein it was made clear that our task, as exhibition managers, was to bridge the gap between the artists, the curators, and the politics (press releases, company requirements, fundings, etc..). We were also given a handful mix of supporting materials and examples for a taste of the paperworks in this position, as well as a session of an artist talk by British ceramicist Emma Hart, where she shared the perspective of artists in exhibitions and the process and challenges that could be faced.
And on two of the sessions we had external site visits, the first to White Cube, a private gallery that was exhibiting Anselm Kiefer’s Finnegans Wake. It exhibited Kiefer’s sculptures, paintings and several large installation based on his struggle to understand James Joyce’s novel of the same name, as well as representing his childhood struggle in post-WW2 Germany. Here, the class and I observed and discussed the exhibition methodology of White Cube: It was clear how ‘unwelcomed’ the average visitor is in the exhibition, with an easily missed QR-only caption on a small stand at the entrance of the building, to an intricate press release that everyone struggled to understand, and a comically high reception table screen that hid the receptionists. A plus point was that the referred book could be viewed and bought from the reception. It was on-brand regardless; as the target market for this huge exhibition was to sell big-name artworks to big-pocketed art collectors.
If my understanding of modern art is how it stimulates your mind and emotions, then Kiefer’s exhibitions worked well into conveying Joyce’s ambiguous book; done with various sculptures and paintings that were huge, complex, chaotic, vague and nightmare-ish. However, I disliked the nature of the art pieces, while they were creatively complex, they were dark. I also find the use of such large ugly sculptures a waste of materials and transportation — and as one of my colleague also mentioned, his use of ‘large broken concrete in the middle of the gallery’ is an over-used type of shock art (if I may call it).
Our second site visit was slightly different. The Dear Earth: Art and Hope in a Time of Crisis exhibition in Haywood Gallery is inspired from a quote by the artist Otobong Nkanga: “Caring is a form of resistance”. As Haywood Gallery is a public gallery, it was clear how easy it was to enter the exhibition, with many invigilators that were eager to assist.
The exhibition shows various artists’ act of resistance towards the political climate crisis and different social activism across the world. And unlike the Kiefer’s Finnegans Wake, I found the artworks cleaner, inspiring, and has a harmonious mix of recycled materials. Regardless, into my path in understanding modern art, there was nothing to be felt here. While I found the art creative, I think we should stop targeting individuals, as we already know what is happening, and as much good as we do, it pales in comparison with the effect the regulators/councils could do if they target those companies that taint our earth for profit. The irony is lost that right out of the gallery door, you are faced with a large building flying the Shell flag, and a store that sells yet another ‘save the earth t-shirt’.
All in all, this short yet heavy course widened our perspectives and understandings of the full extent of exhibition planing, framework and all the complexities involved in the process, as well as the diffrences between the galleries. It has enriched my work experience as an exhibition designer and manager in the museum I work in — and provided a beautiful opportunity to live and commute in London for a week while studying within the halls of UAL’s Central Saint Martin campus.
