A guide to galleries:

During this lecture we spoke about the different types of galleries that exist and were given examples to look at, and how art dealers and gallerists represent and exhibit artists. We were also asked to speak about where we could see ourselves exhibiting our own work.

These included:

Commercial galleries such as 'Transition gallery', 'Oxo Tower', 'Brick Lane' and 'Surface gallery'.

Artist run galleries such as 'Bloc' in Sheffield, 'Blacklit' in Nottingham, 'Airspace' in Stoke, 'Spike island' in Bristol and 'Espacio' in London.

Major collections such as 'The Tate galleries' and the 'Guggenheim Collections'. These tend to have permanent collections and seem to be for either historical art or well established famous artists. 

We also spoke about 'regional flagships' which are galleries that are invite only, show international artists and are often partnered with organisations such as the Tate. 

Main regional galleries and museums such as 'Nottingham Castle', 'Derby museums' and Sheffield museums. These are either run as museums, trusts and publicly funded or as part of the local authority.

Art centres such as 'MAC' in Birmingham, 'CHAPTER' in Cardiff, 'Brewhouse' in Burton and '2021 visual arts'. These are multi purpose spaces and have much ore flexibility in what they show which would be more convenient an accessible for a young artist like myself, and there is no permanent collection to manage. 

University galleries which are curated public exhibitions and provide a cultural focus for the institution.

Another option for exhibiting that could be more affordable would be pubs, cafes and libraries. However, with these options you would need to discuss in advance about commissions, who pays for what and what would happen if something were to get damaged. 

Open houses and studios are organised events where the public are able to come into your workspace and look around, however, you would have to be comfortable with strangers in you personal and private spaces. An example of this is Nottingham open studios and Sherwood arts week. 

DIY venues and pop up shows which are empty shops and spaces that an artist can take over for an exhibition. 

Other important important advice was to get public liability insurance which is £45 a year, and to make sure that you don't get charged for things like business rates. 

Personally, I think the the least likely galleries I would exhibit in are the more high brow, elitist establishments of major collections and regional flagships like the Tate, Guggenheim, Nottingham castle and museums. As of right now these places seem out of reach and very exclusive and I don't believe that the work I'm doing would suit the aristocratic atmosphere. 

I believe that I would much better suited to art centres and artist run galleries such as ‘BACKLIT’ in Nottingham that are more easily accessible and open call. I think that these environments would be better for an up and coming artist like myself as they are more grounded and welcoming.