The previous year at an event held by Arcade in the gardens of Woodend Gallery in Scarborough, I spoke to an artist Lou who had just exhibited for the first time in The Scarborough Fair Summer Season 2024. She shared about the process and was optimistic and encouraging about it.   I mentioned that I had some paintings, but would want something different to a Gallery space to exhibit in, somewhere contemplative and quiet, and she suggested things like the buddhist centre or a yoga or meditation space…

Subsequently, at the meeting in the library, Scarborough Fair Director Julian Caddy stated that anyone could do an exhibition and that to do so, one must find their own venue and then register through a system called Eventotron..

So off I went.

St Peter’s Catholic Church, Scarborough, was a place I often visited and sat quietly and that I really liked the feel of… so I gave them a call, and they asked me to come in with some paintings and my idea and have a meeting with father.

Father Gubbins and Liz were very supportive and excited for the idea and from there Emergence was born..

I have had much support along the way. Practical support from festival co-ordinator Catherine Goble, curating support from Joel Hague.. as I had to learn from scratch about the process of curating an exhibition and how to get clear about my purpose and aims….

Lizzie Skyhall art offered her support and encouragement and gave me a good list of questions to explore initially.

There was also the challenge that the space was not an exhibition space, so i needed to think about how to display the art, and easels seemed to be the easiest way. I am hugely grateful to Rob Moore and The Old Parcels Office for the loan of these.

And then all the pieces, creating flyers, printing, transporting things, mounting the pieces, thinking about how I wanted people to move around the exhibition and use the space, any resources I needed, how to write and create an introduction which I now know to be called an”interpretation board” to set the scene… and how to design it to be contemplative, participatory, reflective, responsive and to make it as conducive as possible for what I wanted to demonstrate

So all in all it’s been a huge learning curve and and really positive experience, culminating in the creation of something I really had no idea i could do

🩷

Read more about my Exhibition here in the Scarborough News.