The Evolution of Our Fine Art Gallery During Quaratine

In early March, right before the shelter in place order, we had just hung a fantastic exhibition, The Mechanical Bride,  featuring fiber work by Sasha Baskin and Christina Humphreys. The show was set to open at the end of the month during the FATVillage Artwalk, an event where all of the artists and galleries in the area open their doors to thousands of interested visitors. Artwalk was, understandably, cancelled by the middle of the month. With a year of gallery programming planned ahead of us and no clear idea as to when we’d be able to safely engage with the public again, we knew we would need to pivot - and fast. We spoke with the artists in the show and leaped into action to create a virtual gallery experience that could convey both the intricate details of the work and the curatorial story being told by the show.

Our first priority as a gallery is to get eyes on the artwork. With zero foot traffic, we knew that pictures alone could not do justice to the gallery-goers experience, so we teamed up with professional videographer Johnny Zhang to transform the exhibition into a Virtual Gallery Tour. It took two full weeks of documenting the gallery space with a 360 degree camera, translating those images into usable files, uploading them into a virtual tour program and adding all of the navigational and informational elements to the virtual tour. Since its launch, our virtual gallery has received hundreds of views and has allowed visitors from all over the country and other parts of the world to enjoy the exhibition. 

The Mechanical Bride, installation shot, March - June 2020

To supplement the virtual exhibition, we had each piece in the show professionally photographed in order to offer a new Gallery Shop on our website. The new Gallery Shop breaks down barriers for interested patrons to collect work on view from the comfort of their own homes. 

Additionally, we’ve started a Gallery Insider newsletter which provides a deep dive into two to three of the works on view. While our general press release is great for letting people know what’s to come, our Gallery Insider newsletter is tailored towards collectors, friends of the gallery and anyone looking to uncover more detailed and thoughtful excerpts on work from artists directly. If interested, you can sign up for the Gallery Insider here. 

In terms of programming, our Crafting Visions: Artist Lecture Series has been a staple of our gallery since 2018. The series features an artist talk with our exhibiting artists during their opening or closing receptions and is funded in part by the Broward County Cultural Division, which helps to support our artists with an honorarium for their time. Previously, the Lecture series has relied solely on the participation of artists who are either local to our area or have the means to travel to our openings.

Mike Dillow presenting during his exhibition opening in September 2019

With The Mechanical Bride, we had planned for one of the artists, Christina Humphreys to travel to the opening from San Francisco, CA and give an in-person artist talk. With cross country travel out of the question, we quickly realized the potential in transitioning this series onto Instagram’s live platform. With only the challenge of competing time zones, we were able to have an artist talk, now with both artists, on Instagram, thus allowing anyone interested in tuning in the opportunity to watch and ask questions in real time. As Humphreys and Baskin shared their insights into individual works, I panned around the room and facilitated conversation with our world-wide viewership. While we will continue the lecture series in person once it’s safe for the general public, we find the new format hugely successful and are excited by the opportunity to connect our artists and audience more than ever before.

Previously, our non-local exhibiting artists weren’t always able to attend their exhibition openings or participate in additional programming opportunities, such as talks or guest workshops, due to travel expenses and busy work schedules. As we continue to fill out our 2021 gallery schedule, we find ourselves working with more and more non-local artists. Just this year alone, we plan to work with artists from North Carolina, Maryland, California, Texas, New York, Indiana and North Florida. While in the past this has limited the direct engagement between our audience and our artists, the virtual push has found us questioning - Why didn’t we start this sooner?

For our beloved local audience, we’re now keeping the gallery lights on 24/7 until we reopen to the public. This way, everyone can safely view the exhibition in person while practicing social distancing. I write this on the heels of our latest install for Rachel Livedalen’s solo show, Copy of the Original. We plan to launch our next virtual gallery tour for the ‘opening reception’ on what would have been the FATVillage Artwalk this Saturday, June 27th at 6pm.

IS Projects gallery at night

As artists ourselves, we understand the instability that this pandemic holds for our community right now and with that in mind, we are doing everything that we can to make sure that our artists feel supported. If you are interested in exhibiting with us, you can find more details on submitting an exhibition proposal on our website. If anything, this experience has shown us just how much potential there is to reinvent the gallery experience while broadening our connection with the world-wide arts community. 

Stay safe and stay tuned!
Sammi

How to Run a Printshop at the End of the World

For the first-ever IS Projects blog post, I thought it might be fun and potentially helpful to write about how things have changed at the studio since we closed our doors to the public two months ago. As a business owner, the COVID-19 crisis changed all of my plans and sent what was going to be our year to blast off into what looked decidedly more like a tail spin. Now that it’s starting to feel like we’ve got a couple of good things going for us, perhaps it’s the right time to share how we’ve been coping. 

This new blog is an attempt to document behind-the-scenes stories of what goes into the prints, the presses, the workshops, the books, and the art. This particular post is meant to give us a little space to share, in a time when natural, deep conversations are scarce and to give you something to read, a voice of encouragement and, hopefully, some insight into how to run a printshop at what feels like the end of the world.

1. Breathe and Take Stock

When I opened IS Projects over 5 years ago, I never would have expected that right as the business was truly hitting its stride and expanding to where I had always dreamed it would get to, the entire world would go through a massive setback that it would bring everything I was working toward to a screeching halt. In the beginning, I was in a daze while printing the last few orders for the foreseeable future. It’s okay to let yourself feel the heartbreak of an international tragedy and sit with the feeling of despair and dread that come along with the responsibility of running a business which supports not only yourself but all of your employees. 

Eventually, what I found helpful to moving past the deep sense of loss was taking stock of what resources (staff, knowledge, community, etc) we had to help us weather the storm. I am so grateful to have a team that has been so supportive, understanding, flexible and encouraging throughout the crisis. They handled the transition to working from home with ease and came up with incredible and thorough to-do lists of ways to improve our web presence, tasks that could be done from home, and new digitally oriented projects. Amongst the event cancellations and postponements, my inbox began to receive a steady stream of emails from family and friends offering help and suggesting resources as well as our regular clients reaching out to let us know that they weren’t going anywhere and would send us projects as soon as they realistically could. The energy of the team and the encouragement from the community were a huge morale boost and made it possible to begin to imagine the next steps.

2. Learn All You Can about Available Resources

Our team worked together with determination and compassion to find new ways to adapt and exist in quarantine. After the stay at home order went in place, we spent the first couple of weeks delving into all of the resources available for financial support and increasing our virtual presence. We learned as much as we could about platforms that could help amplify our virtual efforts and make us easier to find and interact with online. Knowing how many other artists and businesses were in a similar position, we created an artist resources page on our website in hopes of creating a succinct space for artists (and ourselves) to more easily locate opportunities.

3. Find a way to share knowledge, provide a reprieve, and see your people (online)

As a public-access studio, the adjustment to quarantine is hugely felt. Not only do we miss our patrons, but so do our presses. Typically, we run anywhere from 4-6 workshops in a given month, and with our expansive collection of equipment, we teach everything from beginning to advanced applications of screen printing, letterpress, book binding, etching, monoprinting, relief and more. Our equipment is also normally available for artists to use through our studio rental program so we have grown used to a constant hum, and sometimes clatter, of print related activity during open hours.

Since going virtual, we have taken a new lens to our offerings, asking ourselves ‘What doesn’t require a press?’, ‘What affordable alternatives can be used in lieu of our specialty tools and supplies?’ and above all, ‘How can we make printmaking and book arts accessible from home?’. With this in mind, we made a plan to transition our workshops into an online format. We decided to run our workshops through Zoom, so they can be easily accessed no matter where you are and at a ‘pay what you can’ rate so that affordability isn’t a concern while so many are struggling financially.

4. Ask for Help

We wanted to make sure we could offer virtual content that matches the standard of quality we expect from our in-person programming, so we teamed up with Johnny Zhang, a professional videographer, to film and produce all of our virtual workshops and create our virtual artwalk and gallery. We pre-filmed the workshops with a three camera setup and professional lighting, enabling us to document even the smallest details of the technique being taught so workshop participants can get a clear view of how to do each step. Johnny documented the entire studio and gallery with a 360 camera and helped us load the resulting images into a virtual tour platform that allows viewers to virtually walk through the space and investigate the details of artwork, presses, items and more. As traditional printmakers, who regrettably lack interest in a second career in videography, we would not have been able to produce virtual video content that fit our expectations without Johnny’s help. It’s easy to get caught in the DIY mentality, especially when funding is tight and uncertain, but it can be beneficial to take a step outside that mindset to examine other options and reach out for help when necessary. 

5. Reach Beyond Your Usual Geographic Boundaries

We’ve since created four workshops - Suminagashi Paper Marbling, Drum Leaf Binding, Monoprinting with Gelli Plates and Accordion Book Binding. We are also offering two fiber-based ‘Visiting’ instructor workshops with our exhibiting artists in Bobbin Lace and Pixel Pattern Embroidery. Our visiting instructors will be teaching from their homes with Christina Humphreys in San Francisco, CA and Sasha Baskin in Baltimore, MD. Before going virtual with our workshops, we would have never thought of a way to have the distance learning and collaborative opportunities that are now becoming the standard. Overall, the reception to our virtual workshops has been amazing. Not only have we connected with familiar faces in our classes, but we’ve been able to meet new people from across the nation and world, allowing both a creative and social outlet for all involved.

Throughout our time in business we have maintained close relationships with local universities and art schools with strong printmaking programs throughout the country. When these schools started to close we received a wave of messages and emails from students looking for options for how to continue and eventually display the projects they had been working so hard on throughout the school year. As a studio full of former art students, we were horrified at the reality that all of the art students who were set to graduate in May were going to have to move their thesis exhibitions online. So we decided to do what we could to help get their work seen by as many eyes as possible and feature student work in our Instagram stories during our Virtual Artwalk programming every Artwalk until higher education institutions are able to reopen and conduct in person exhibitions.

We’re in talks with several artists and arts institutions to discuss potential future collaborations and guest appearances that we never would have thought of before and look forward to being able to share a mountain of new content very soon!

6. Oil the Presses

Any printer will tell you that a press that goes unused is a press that deteriorates. Jim Sherradin from Hatch Show Print coined the phrase “preservation through production” which was drilled into my head when I was just a newbie printer studying printmaking in college. Throughout quarantine our job shop, Nocturnal Press, has remained open for custom printing orders and while the stream of orders has slowed to a trickle, we have made a point to keep the presses oiled and cared for. We have made progress on some long backlogged in-house projects and printed custom orders with fervor. It’s a mini victory each time we’re able to set up the press for a project, so we’ve made it into a little ritual: oil the press, set up the press, print, clean the press, celebrate the successes.

7. Assess, Adjust, and Keep Going

We’ve received a pretty fantastic response to what we’ve done so far and we’re so thankful to have the incredible support of our inky community. As the situation evolves, we’re focused on providing whatever we can to be helpful in whatever way we can. We’re continuing to develop new workshops and ‘stay home’ friendly activities. We’ve completely overhauled Nocturnal Press’ website and released a line of Semi-Custom Wedding Stationery and online business card ordering to make it easier to get quality stationery without having to leave the house. We’ve made several improvements to the IS Projects’ Exhibitions page with lots more web-based updates on the way. We’re making plans for the next exhibition to be virtual and also drive-by friendly. It’s been heartbreaking, challenging, interesting, revolutionary, eye-opening, terrifying, and encouraging all at the same time so we’re doing our best to take it in and turn whatever we can into something positive, like this brand new blog adventure!

Thanks for making it to the end, let us know what you think or if there’s anything you’d like to read more about.

Stay safe!

Ingrid