The idea of a pop-up gallery in Appleton is to benefit both the Lawrence University art students and local artists who could sell their art and the community members who would like to sell their space. It gives opportunities for presenting the rentable space and for increasing interest in students and local artists’ art works.
We first started to look for properties in the Appleton downtown area. There were a lot of businesses which closed in the last few months so it was not a problem to talk to the landowners about lending their space for our show. In addition, the farmers’ market is opening next month, so it would be a great advertising opportunity for the audience to see both the art and the property.
However, securing insurance has been the biggest problem we have met so far. We have been trying to talk to Lawrence University for an umbrella policy to cover the insurance of the property that we might decide to use in a later time, but we have not yet heard back from them. An umbrella policy refers to a liability insurance policy that protects the assets and future income of the policyholder above the standards of their primary policies. It is necessary to insure both the artworks as well as the safety of audience for a gallery which is open to the public. We have sent the necessary letters but never heard back from Lawrence University about what they would be willing to cover. Gary gave Sydney the contact information for Jennifer Stephany, the director of Appleton downtown. Sydney wrote a letter asking if she were interested in our endeavor and told her that we had a letter for interested storefront owners. Within 24 hours, Jennifer replied with a list of landowners who she thinks might be interested in our project. We followed up with these new contacts immediately, the response we got was from Dave Allen, who owns the property of 207 West college Ave. However, we did not have enough time to carry out our plans, but we hope to continue our project next term. This is a learning progress and it takes time and energy to negotiate, and this is where we left off.
Even though our dream of Appleton’s own pop-up gallery has not come true, we would like to share what we have prepared with people who would be interested in taking on this project in the future. We have finished a couple of very thorough budget statements, with the potential exhibition time lines from one week to one month. We have a shopping list ready of everything we need to curate a show from nothing. We have a list of rentable spaces for consideration, which includes all the address information and phone numbers of their owners. We have a few methods of advertising that are already set up, including a blog, a Facebook page and a potential website for updates.
Dropping the idea of actually putting up a show has been painful because we love our idea of creating a pop-up gallery for the Lawrence students and the community. However, it takes more than what we expected, negotiating with landowners and trying to find insurance have become our biggest concern. We hope that one day our dream will be realized: that there will one day be a place for local and students artists to show their works to the larger community, as well as a place for landowners to present their properties and secure a sale.
We first started to look for properties in the Appleton downtown area. There were a lot of businesses which closed in the last few months so it was not a problem to talk to the landowners about lending their space for our show. In addition, the farmers’ market is opening next month, so it would be a great advertising opportunity for the audience to see both the art and the property.
However, securing insurance has been the biggest problem we have met so far. We have been trying to talk to Lawrence University for an umbrella policy to cover the insurance of the property that we might decide to use in a later time, but we have not yet heard back from them. An umbrella policy refers to a liability insurance policy that protects the assets and future income of the policyholder above the standards of their primary policies. It is necessary to insure both the artworks as well as the safety of audience for a gallery which is open to the public. We have sent the necessary letters but never heard back from Lawrence University about what they would be willing to cover. Gary gave Sydney the contact information for Jennifer Stephany, the director of Appleton downtown. Sydney wrote a letter asking if she were interested in our endeavor and told her that we had a letter for interested storefront owners. Within 24 hours, Jennifer replied with a list of landowners who she thinks might be interested in our project. We followed up with these new contacts immediately, the response we got was from Dave Allen, who owns the property of 207 West college Ave. However, we did not have enough time to carry out our plans, but we hope to continue our project next term. This is a learning progress and it takes time and energy to negotiate, and this is where we left off.
Even though our dream of Appleton’s own pop-up gallery has not come true, we would like to share what we have prepared with people who would be interested in taking on this project in the future. We have finished a couple of very thorough budget statements, with the potential exhibition time lines from one week to one month. We have a shopping list ready of everything we need to curate a show from nothing. We have a list of rentable spaces for consideration, which includes all the address information and phone numbers of their owners. We have a few methods of advertising that are already set up, including a blog, a Facebook page and a potential website for updates.
Dropping the idea of actually putting up a show has been painful because we love our idea of creating a pop-up gallery for the Lawrence students and the community. However, it takes more than what we expected, negotiating with landowners and trying to find insurance have become our biggest concern. We hope that one day our dream will be realized: that there will one day be a place for local and students artists to show their works to the larger community, as well as a place for landowners to present their properties and secure a sale.
