Why By Rascal Flatts

Well, I wrote this for my school’s reflection journal and a reflection journal is basically a question the teacher asks us online and we must answer it, that’s what a reflection journal means basically.

The aspects of managing arts venue include the artwork itself, research, venue, marketing, sponsorship & interior design. Of these aspects, I would say that marketing is the most important aspect in most visual arts exhibition. The main reason is because the artwork will still be an artwork if the other aspects are not present though of lower quality & most of the other aspects depend on marketing.

The aspect of artwork itself includes things such as the type of artwork, freights, condition report, loan contract & insurance. Now, if the artwork isn’t there, and when I mean that the artwork isn’t there, I do not mean that there is not artwork at all. What I mean is that the type of artwork is not considered, no insurance and such. So, if there’s no artwork, it’ll still be able to be put on display but just taking a bigger a risk with no insurance and all & the quality is compromised. Though one might argue that international artwork will greatly dampen the arts scene here, because there is no freight, we always have our local artist.
Research, one of the lesser known aspects is an important aspect. This is because it gives you all the information you need about the artwork & the artist. This heightens the quality of the exhibition because when you know you’re product well, selling it becomes subconscious behavior. Now if research isn’t there, same thing, quality of artwork is compromised.

Venue is the next aspect to be covered here. The main thing a strategic venue does is that it basically ensures a large audience. So if the venue sucks, before even reaching the venue, you’ll already feel negative because of complicated directions, traffic jams and so on & this negative emotion will hinder you from what the artist intends you to feel as art is a platform to incite emotions. So, if venue isn’t there, your artwork quality won’t be compromised, but their experience will be.

Marketing! We’ve reached that aspect at last! Now when there’s marketing, there are people, when there are people, there’s money, when there’s money, and you can basically cover all the aspects mentioned in this reflection journal. It’s that simple. Basically, from what I see, money is the fuel for progress be it the arts or other areas. What makes it worse is that art will always remain a luxury even if you like it or not & this means your target audience is usually restricted. So, when there’s no marketing, you can expect yourself to be running a non-profit exhibition or even an exhibition that can’t support itself financially.

Now moving onto sponsorship, intellectuals will say that sponsorship also brings in money and so that aspect should be more or equally important but I stand on the grounds of disagreement. This is because when sponsors sponsor, they expect something in return such as brand awareness, driving sales and such. So, in order for them to do that, they’ll need people. Where then do this people come from? Do they magically appear from the sky? No. They come from the extensive marketing. So if there’s no sponsorship, the exhibition can still run by itself but it will not sustain itself as such, I would say that sponsorship is the second most important aspect.

Education & outreach is important though I would consider it one of the least important aspects. It is important because it enables us to understand the arts better & develop a sense of appreciation for the arts. So, if there’s no education & outreach, the audience experience will be compromised.
You’ll be spending all your time in the exhibition during your visit and this is WHYthe interior design is important. Interior design includes the layout, be it chronological or what have you, lightings & some catalogue & wall text. I’ve went to a museum for Creative Concepts module & I eavesdropped on a tour guide & that enriched my experience over there because now you know more about the relation between the artist and the artwork. So, is there isn’t interior design, your experience would be compromised.

If I am not forced to choose which the most important aspect is, I would say that all of them are important as all the above mentioned aspects are designed to be in synergy as they are closely related to one another. A balance of all these aspect is absolute important. Imagine this, since I’ve said marketing is important & you’ve done your extensive marketing but too many people turn up and due to that, your venue can’t support that amount of people and their experience is downgraded. Before I end off, the above mentioned aspects are just general and different situations require different priotization of aspects. Example is, your sponsor is also helping your marketing, as such, marketing is now not the most important priority.