TBC Minutes 27 August 2010

Chair: Paul Mendez

Attendees: Beverley Bennett, Laura Davidson, Susannah King, Paula Lucido, Paul Mendez, Elizabeth Oniri, Charley Peters, James Tuitt

Love to Philip Weiner.

1. Announcements

• Sponsorship

Quintessentially Foundation have graciously agreed to sponsor the exhibition, private view drinks, the workshops, and 12 Pages (at least the first issue) amongst other things. Meetings await with them to negotiate timeframes, how money will be distributed, etc. PL, EO and AM to liaise.

• Business cards

We now have TBC Artists’ Collective business cards (thanks LD!) priced at £35 for 200 from moo.com. Members should still, however, have their own personalised business cards made in time for Delineation (for liaison with potential buyers, etc).

• Titles and Roles

It has been decided that core members of the group have business cards made with titles, such as co-director or treasurer, so as to maintain a professional front. Such core members are also identified as such within their email signatures. It is deemed distasteful to assume a title without prior discussion with core members.

However, as TBC becomes a more professional enterprise and NPO with a business bank account, scope for future expansion and for more members to assume CV-boosting executive roles is great.

• Website/budget update

338 hits since website launched

Business debit cards have been ordered

Certain funds asked for from Quintessentially will be freed up as money has already been spent out of our

Susi to action Information Packs and research branding

• Delineation

Jeff James Lindley, as installation coordinator, has made himself available on call for the entire duration of the two-day installation period of 25/6 October. He will draw up a timetable of when artists will be in the space to install and control how much time he needs to spend with them.

A date will be set for a final curatorial/installation meeting.

A space in the Crypt has been set aside for more collaborative, discursive work from within the group to be displayed. We will therefore test out our ideas for the Buddy Workshops on ourselves with a making session on September 8.

2. Curatorial Update

• Everyone who asked for a space has been given that which they chose. Health and safety and logistics have also been taken into consideration in allocation. Artists showing near each other should engage in dialogue to ensure their works sit well together

• ‘Drawing Dialogues’ space to be used to explore personal and collaborative relationships with drawing practices. Each artist to think about what sort of works they can show here

• Collaborative works to form an important part of this space, forming an ideal talking point for Artist’s Talk

• A workshop to test our programme for the Buddies can result in collaborative work for Delineation

• Text panels to explain different aspects of the show

• Curatorial meeting to be set up to involve JJ Lindley

3. 12-Pages Update

• Thank you all for your work

• Newspaper Club – 500 tabloid-sized, full-colour, twelve page papers for £500

• 500 copies can be distributed at galleries, arts events, private views, at the Crypt, and sent as part of the Information Packs to art-world bigwigs, and Wonderland Magazine (following us on Twitter – can approach them with Issue 1 to publish Issue 2 as in insert) and The Big Issue (can publish Buddy Issue as an insert to be handed out at street level)

4. Workshops Update

• Paul to contact Amy Tschudin (HoSB) to discuss buddy training, budget release and holding our making session at HoSB on Sep 8

• Sep 8 meeting to be split in two parts, half of regular admin to be chaired by Laura, half of workshops to be chaired by Paul, Alex and Liz

5. Blogs Update

• Snippets of 12 Minutes exercises to go onto blog

• Blog to be an example of processes of TBC artists, for e.g. the Buddies to reference

• Rotating blogger every month

• Paul to edit blog in September

• James to continue push with ArtReview blog

• Laura has set up TBC Artists’ Collective Facebook Page

6. Mailing List

• A ‘hitlist’ of important art-world/professional contacts to be uploaded to Paula’s Google Docs Excel page. These contacts will form the basis of the mailing list for every forthcoming exhibition/TBC-related event, and will be invited via tbcartistscollective.org. Deadline 27 September. Quintessentially Art to help with marketing and promotion

• Other friends/family contacts to be invited individually

• Charley and Bebe to action leaflets and e-flyers

• Laura to implement ‘join our mailing list’ option on website

• Publicise talk and Buddy Scheme

7. AoB

Allocation of extra/new tasks

• Information packs (SK)

• Laura to buy glasses

• Text panels – Paul/Charley

• Press release – Paul/Charley

• Name tags/text panels – TBC/Buddies/Dialogues – Liz

• Information Packs/Desk

• Comment book

• Publicise talk

• Red sticky dots

• Pricing (AGENDA)

Next meeting September 8, 6pm.

Chaired by Paul, Alex, Liz and Laura

TBC Minutes, NPG, April 27, 2010

Attendees: Beverley Bennett, Susannah King, Paula Lucido, Paul Mendez, Elizabeth Oniri, Charley Peters(c), James Tuitt

Agenda by Charley Peters

1. Confirmation of The Crypt exhibiting artists

Beverley Bennett

Laura Davidson

Susannah King

Paula Lucido

Alex McIntyre

Paul Mendez

Elizabeth Oniri

Charley Peters

James Tuitt

Antonia Pilgrim Ward

Philip Weiner

Each exhibitor is due to pay £31.82. It has been suggested that if each member can find, for example, £100, including the fee to exhibit, it would constitute a good basis for a budget, in which case we would have to discuss seriously the idea of opening a joint TBC bank account with all members as signatories.

2. Consideration points for the exhibition after attending a PV at The Crypt last week – Laura and Charley

• Private view catering

• Exhibitor information pack – press release, price list, artists’ statements, business cards/postcards

• Philip suggested as installation technician

• Exhibition to be linked with The Big Draw; extra funding can be gained through participatory events with Camden council – Elizabeth to investigate

• The Campaign for Drawing (http://campaignfordrawing.org/bigdraw/awards/aspx) awards £750 for the most outstanding Big Draw activities in thirteen categories, representing a great chance to bolster our funding and image

• Eleven individual artists exhibiting in a space or TBC filling the space? A combination of both?

• The catalogue – Kate Hatton, an art/design historian, has offered to write an essay. Given the emphasis on drawing, who, and what else, can be included?

• 12 Pages – explore Print on Demand/PDF on TBC website, and printing, in which case, an ISBN number (which can be bought) would enable us to register any publication with Amazon, Gardners, etc., and with the British Library. Moreover, the publication can then be referenced at any point, enhancing its academic credentials

• Mailing list – Paula to co-ordinate

• Sponsorship – Paul to manage

• Branding – Bebe, Charley, James and Paul to liaise on possible branding concepts. It would be preferable that we agree on a branding strategy and style before canvassing sponsors, for example, with a TBC letterhead. This ‘look’ would homogenise anything to do with TBC and The Crypt exhibition, lending extra professional credibility

• The group, together or in fragments, must visit the site as soon as possible. Aside from everything else it is inspiring

2ii. Feedback

All members to think about:

• Possible title: ‘Drawing Through Conversation’. Discuss

• Ideas for participatory events – start discussion circle

• A draft proposal to send to potential investors

• Shortlist of suitable contributors to the exhibition catalogue

• Ideas for branding, and a corporate ‘look’

3. Proposals for the exhibition and title/online presence

• Start a discussion circle on a suitable title for the exhibition

• Beyond the theme of drawing, what common ground can we find within our relative practices?

• Look into who has funded the Big Draw in the past, as potential investors in what I might, in the absence of a name for the show, refer to as TBC@TheCrypt

• All members to come up with a short proposal for the exhibition, with a suggested title, for the next meeting

• By the next meeting – Wednesday 12 May at the House of St Barnabas, 1 Greek Street, London W1D 4NQ – we should also have a brief for the branding to move forward with

4. Allocation of administrative tasks

This is a provisional allocation of important projects to be taken on by individuals and small groups in the lead-up to the exhibition, but should nevertheless be initiated as soon as possible.

• Print and book-binding liaison – Susi

• Gallery liaison – Bebe, Charley

• Finance/budget – Laura

• Branding – Bebe, Charley, James, Paul

• Mailing list – Paula

• Sponsorship – Paul

• Publicity – Bebe, Charley

• Private view catering – Paul

• Events and Participation – Elizabeth

• Catalogue – Toni

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Agenda by Beverley Bennett

Publishing and Online Presence

• Press release – this needs to be written as soon as possible. The Guardian and New Exhibitions expect submissions two months prior to the opening, i.e., by the end of July, so branding and publicity have to have hit the ground running well before then

• A blog on AN could feature a countdown to the exhibition. With the blogger blog and projected Webbly site we should have a decent online presence, which should satisfy potential investors

• Blog on AN, ArtReview to publicise our work in the lead-up to The Crypt, within these communities

• Research stockists and independent book publishers

• NING blog – Bebe has set up a TBC profile on NING, a Facebook-esque site for artists and art groups. It is by invitation only and is an ideal structure for sharing ideas and displaying work only for each other, away from the public gaze

AOB

• TBC is a year old this month. Happy birthday to us!

• Thanks to Bebe, Laura and Charley for their agendas and handouts, and Paul for the minutes

• Toni’s Private View, Linea di Fuga, Space 2 Gallery @ Watford Museum, 6pm, Thursday 6 May

• Next meeting – 6pm, Wednesday May 12, Quintessentially Soho @ The House of St Barnabas, 1 Greek Street, London W1D 4NQ. Tel: 0207 183 3900

Next meeting’s agenda, to be led by Paula Lucido:

• Run through our 150-word proposals for the exhibition and possible titles

• Discuss the brief for the branding of the exhibition

• Fill in a google calendar with deadlines for admin tasks to be completed

• Updates on ideas for events, sponsors, catalogue content/format etc. On this point, if anyone has a PDF of a book they want printing by lulu or blurb it would be a good chance to check out the quality of their publications.

And most importantly, we all need to wear something red.

Minutes by Paul Mendez and Charley Peters

TBC Minutes, Whitechapel Gallery, April 15, 2010

Attendees: Beverley Bennett, Laura Davidson, Susannah King, Paul Mendez, Charley Peters, James Tuitt

At another landmark meeting, we acknowledged the fact that the operating TBC blog, 12-Pages, is not being adequately utilised. It was suggested that it should document minutes for each meeting, review shows that we visit either as a group or as individuals, and be used by individual members to show their work, either finished, or in progress and at a stage to be debated. It will contain a link bar to the other blogs and websites of members, and so all members should submit their web and blog addresses for inclusion. The blog is a fantastic resource for artists as a means to archive and present their work in progress, and encourage debate, which should help improve the work, which, as has been previously expressed, is the core reason for TBC; it should be thought of as an extension to the meetings.

The Blog, Blogazine, Website and Magazine

• The magazine will launch to coincide with the exhibition

• A website, or ‘blogazine’ can be launched in advance, as a PDF, or to utilise print-on-demand technology, as a precursor to the print version

• The blog will serve as an archive for meetings; individual members may post work or links to their own blogs as and when they wish, but with the exhibition just five months away, it is important that we all commit to filling the blog with content – the more we get used to this the more likely we will identify key themes and common interests

• The next meeting, TUESDAY 27 APRIL, 6PM, will be used as a blogging session, and a discussion of how the blog can be supplanted by, or work alongside, a website

• Think of the blog as an unedited, dynamic archive, and the website as a fixed capsule of TBC philosophy

• Indexhibit and Webley to be explored as potential access tools for a website

The Exhibition

Charley graciously prepared information packs for the attendees regarding the space at The Crypt and a list of rules and regulations pertaining to our application for its use. She pointed out that, as a member of AN, she is in reception of Public Liability Insurance, which should cover the building in which she exhibits her work against any unlikely event, and may be something for us all to consider.

It is becoming a pertinent issue that we finalise the number of exhibitors, as we have now been invoiced by the venue. It has been suggested that the fee – of just £350 – should be divided equally between the eight-or-so core members, who attend most meetings and have thus proved themselves committed and reliable.

The exhibition will open to the public on October 27, on the evening of which our Private View will take place, and remain open for five days, with the de-installation on November 1. We have the two days prior in which to install but exhibitors should prepare their work mindful of the fact that the building is listed and very tight hanging restrictions are in place. The space is considerable and does not have to be used in its entirety; certain areas can be cordoned off but the potential volume of exhibitors, amongst other variables, will have to be considered when allocating space.

Jobs have to be delegated, and we are in agreement that only those who are prepared to put in the work will be invited to show. There was a suggestion, which will have to be discussed further, of whether there should be an open call for submissions, to be debated, eliminated and curated by the core members. We have already allocated Saturday 21 August for a curatorial meeting, possibly at the venue, and Friday 27 August as deadline day for submissions, to end with a viewing by the group. Could a member open their studio for this purpose? The final pre-exhibition meeting will take place on 22 October.

Tasks

• Flash advertising – Gagosian gallery, The Big Draw, Frieze Art Fair, Zoo Art Fair (could we exhibit and sell work and prints, tote bags, T-shirts, a TBC 12-Pages calendar for 2011, Stupendous accessories, etc., at Zoo, or on a stall in Brick Lane Market, or somewhere, to raise funds and awareness for the Crypt show?)

• Gallery liaison (Bebe and Charley); branding (Jamesy); print liaison (Susi); budget (Laura)

• Publicity and marketing needs to commence at least three months in advance of the show; adverts could be placed in AN, Time Out, The Guardian Guide, Frieze, New Exhibitions, Art Rabbit, Art Monthly, Art Review

• Thursday 27 May – branding meeting – concepts, marketing, themes, exhibition and magazine content. Everyone should create a proposal of what they feel the exhibition should be, having seen the space

• Visit the space during one of their private views

• Invigilation, sponsorship, logistics, catering, transportation of works, music and catalogue all need to be discussed

Other issues – future meetings

• Tuesday 27 April – blogging session, (venue to be confirmed)

• Wednesday 12 May – Guest speaker Louise McKinney, Head of Development at Serpentine Gallery (to be confirmed)

• Thursday 27 May – branding meeting. All attendees to submit a proposal for their vision of the exhibition; titles and themes to be discussed in full

• Wednesday 15 September – Susi’s graduation show, University of Middlesex