New beginnings...

We met at the Morpeth on Wednesday to discuss and evaluate the last chapter of  the thegalleryistalking project- despite it being an evaluative session we actually had a really good time and chat about the things that were good and bad, we also had a very nice meal (which is unusual with pub visits). People were surprisingly positive about what had gone on and the plans for the next steps of the project- i think the discussion was mainly based around the opening and whether people got anything out of the project. I think i certainly did. It made me realise that i shouldn't take on too many responsibilities all at once, not just for the time ratio i have to do everything in, but also because i have a tendency to take over situations, which isn't necessarily good (Hopefully i will act upon this new knowledge- although it may be too late!). The meeting has also set the point for me as the end of the second year and the beginning of the third year and new responsibilities, partly for the responsibility of taking over the project but also because all of my projects left over from last year are finished.
I called a meeting on Tuesday with the three new people that were to be joining the project and us old members - the new people didn't turn up. I had the assumption that they would just come. But i have to realise that not everybody's mind works in the same way as mine (I would go to the opening of a letter!), not everyone checks their e-mails 15 times a day,  and some apologise after the event for not coming instead of giving warning. It's a shame because i wouldn't have minded arranging the meeting for a different day if i had known that they had their seminar that day. Also, it is probably quite daunting to go to a different studio as a new 1st year to go and meet up with a couple of dominating 3rd years. I'll have to make sure that next time they don't feel as if they can't tell me if they can't attend- perhaps we can meet in their studio? I miss the Blue room- such neutral territory.

Thegalleryistalking recruitment presentation

After last weeks 'sorry im late presentation' i'm worrying that i haven't put any useful information in thegalleryistalking presentation at all. But hopefully everyone got enough out of the presentation to e-mail me if they are interested. I'm still worried theough.
The presentation did go well- Mo told the first year's before thier lecture this evening that they should all come along because it is a brilliant project, which drew in about 30 students, and i got a couple of questions at the end. It looks promising that a couple of people will e-mail to be part of the project:, I suppose a lot is dependant on this though:

"The Gallery is Talking is a collaborative project that was set up last year between Tate Britain and Stage 2 of the BA Fine Art course at Chelsea

Established to increase accessibility of the existing in-gallery text for people with dyslexia to refresh resources at  The Tate Britain, the project soon engaged with wider issues related to art and communication and the very way we experienced and looked at the gallery.

During this first year we discussed at length what actually makes a text accessible and engaging, and if text is in fact the best way to reach out to museum visitors. The participating students devised a series of resources aimed at people who don’t usually rely on text during their visit, but who would like to access the ‘gallery’s voice’ through other media.  After a year we have made a large amount of progress in resources produced.

Last summer, towards the end of the first year of this project additional students were recruited to the project by the course, this included Stage one students with the hope of developing the project this year.

As the remaining participants from this group we would now like to expand on and evaluate our ideas further. This, we believe would be done best opening up the project to other disciplines and students, to maintain it fresh and relevant with some new members, fresh ideas and a new outlook.

Now I am going to briefly talk about the work we have been doing and our progress so far.

The Map concept is something that took a lead within the paper resources made during the year. It was keenly worked upon because of the problems that the group felt the existing normal Tate map contained. Small things like stairs not being logical to the structure of the gallery, to not having any visual reference to where you are on the map. E.g. ‘Room 15’ does not help us know where we are as much as a landmark such as a stained glass window would.  The actual production of the map was quite complex, It is something that was incredibly difficult to manage and to make, but the success with this resource is that the Tate now wish to trial the map on the main information desks of the gallery. 

The website that has been developed by Sam has become a hub to share our learning and resources and opinions.  It is linked to the Tate Britain website and can be accessed by anyone that goes onto the Tate website through a link. We have already had some interest from a museum asking about our progress due to the originality of the project.

Please take a note of the website: www.thegalleryistalking.org and perhaps you can look in more detail after the meeting has finished about what we have been doing. 

There are also other resources that have been made to expand The Gallery is Talking to its visitors. Chatterboxes were made as a way for people to talk about art in a way that is recognisable and fun. Audio questions was a way of finding opinions about traditional gallery forms i.e. Curatorial statements and text; who writes this and what are they trying to say- talking to people about the gallery within the gallery. Finally, the active forum, a way to produce conversation around all of these subjects I have been speaking about. 

The opening was a way of showing the public what we had been doing with the project, and was a great way for us to get some feedback. It launched the website, introduced our resources as well as giving visitors on the day some ‘only on the day’ events in the site specific environment that was so necessary for the launch.

For example, we had a digital comments board that visitors to the Tate could add to by text messaging, and of course our map making workshops right in the centre of the Tate. 

If you would like to know more details about the project, please send me an e-mail or have a look on the website. Otherwise if you would like to be a part of the project please send me an e-mail with your name and a brief explanation of why you would like to be involved. I’m happy to take any questions you have now, or if you would prefer, I will be staying behind here for about 10 minutes.

Thank you for listening and I hope some of you are interested in taking part.

Any Questions"

 

 

 

 

thegalleryistalking -Chapter two

I forgot to mention in my previous blogs that there was a meeting on Wednesday to discuss the next steps of thegalleryistalking project. Unfortunately only 3 of us turned up to the meeting, which suggests that nobody else wants to carry on with the project this year. Also, sadly, the link that we had with the Tate Britain has been shaken up because of the staff cuts. The lady whom we have been working with up until now is involved in this shake up- so there is no real certainty for the project. The only way forward really for the project is for it to become student led, with minimal input from the Tate until things are sorted out. We have been told however that the bosses in the Tate liked the Map and would like to put it out on the gallery information desks.
The decision that we came to at the end of the meeting was that, one of us would not continue after Christmas because of other work commitments, our website man would stay in the production of the website and still work on the project but he is going on exchange for three months after Christmas also. This means that it ha been put into my hands to guide thee project through the year and try and keep it going on recruiting new members, Joe has also said that he will be part of the group this year. So we would be looking to recruit a couple of first or second year students to carry on.
I'm now in the process of organising a slide show presentation for those interested and hopefully we will get a good response. I would like the project to continue because it is a new development for art galleries to realise dyslexic access, and i am really interested in the resource making aspect of the project.

www.thegalleryistalking.org

www.thegalleryistalking.org

The galleryistalking launch this afternoon was recieved well by the public, as we were placed in the octagon there were lots of visitors walking through and they were interested to see what we were doing. Unfortunatly i missed the labour intensive morning of constructing maps in one of the Tate rooms, but i think my fingers were pleased after constructing about 50 maps at home the previous week in preperation.
I had also arranged a couple of events that day in conjunction with the opening of the website and the map. One being Notate which was a piece of work made by myself and Joe as part of our working collective 'No'. It is a work intended to question the usefulness of accessibility solutions by letting individuals make thier own mind up about how they visulise things. It isn't a critisism of the work that has been produced within thegalleryistalking, more of an exploration from an outsiders perspective of the resources that have already been made.
To read more about this go to:

http://thegalleryistalking.org/notate

Infact, go to the website for an insight into the whole project, there is a forum, writings about the website and project, downloadable resources and lots more. There should also be photos of the launch coming soon. I'm quite ecited about where the project can now be taken as the first step has been very successful and i dont think there are or have been any preconceptions as to where the project could and will go.

thegalleryistalking- getting ready for the launch

I'm slightly apprehensive about the launch of thegalleryistalking (A project raising issues around dyslexia and the gallery space between Tate Britain and Chelsea College of Art and Design BA Fine Art) there are many maps to be made and things to arrange. I am starting to feel as if i have taken a little too much on. I have also recently found out that not only will i have to be at the Tate Britain as early in the morning as i can but i also have an important rehearsal to attend with AgeExchange on the same date, from 10am until 4pm, and as i am only getting back from Norway on the Wednesday before, I'm a bit concerned about when i will have time to eat sleep and live from Thursday until the end of Saturday. O dear.