MEETING WITH EMBASSY

This meeting with embassy gave me a more complete picture of what it takes to run a Scottish curatorial studio. The part that interested me most was the financial support for the studio. The members of the studio explained that they relied heavily on government funding and foundation support to fund their work, which is a bit different to the curatorial industry that I have known in China.

The curatorial companies I know in China are all commercial in nature. Some of them are companies that work in partnership with local galleries or museums. These curatorial companies are in charge of dealing with the owners of the exhibits and the artists, confirming the various exhibits, the location and a series of other processes, and finally presenting the exhibition. Of course, the themes of the exhibitions of commercial curatorial organisations are different from those of independent curatorial studios, as commercial companies are self-sustaining and basically rely on the profits from the sale of tickets and cultural and creative products to maintain their operations. Rarely will they receive financial support from official bodies. This is one of the things I have learnt.

Secondly, I had been struggling with ‘how to decide on the theme of the exhibition’ and then I found that Jake’s handy brainstorming card could help me. This card breaks down many adjectives and nouns and uses two different colours to differentiate them. Each time I can use a different coloured phrase to form a new phrase to inspire me to think about a different theme.