Alice Martin, Art Intern, Stirling Smith Art Gallery and Museum

Initially the idea of curating and hanging my first professional exhibition seemed quite daunting but I soon realised that it was a fantastic opportunity to enhance my skills. I have truly enjoyed the experience of preparing the Vital Art exhibition and the responsibility that comes with it. It is difficult to realise how much work actually goes in to an exhibition until you actively become involved yourself. With the guidance of the collections manager we had to first dismantle the previous exhibition and store the work away carefully. I then began to lay out all of the new work in order to curate the show. I soon discovered that this can be a tricky yet rewarding task as it can be challenging to find work which compliments one another, when the work is so vast. After this we then had to space out and measure the art work so when it came to hanging the show it would not be such a mammoth task. This definitely made it easier when visualising how the work would look on the wall.  The key thing I have certainly learnt is that when curating a show you rarely stick with your first choice of layout, as you are constantly re-evaluating what works well and what does not. Sometimes you just have to take a step back. However all the challenges were definitely worth it as once the exhibition was complete I felt a real sense of accomplishment.  This will all be of benefit when I have to undertake my own degree show next year.

https://www.smithartgalleryandmuseum.co.uk/exhibition/the-vital-art/