📚 Learning Applied: Budget as Critical Practice

From W4 and W11, I began to rethink budgeting not as an administrative task, but as a curatorial decision-making tool.

In W4, Gabi’s session on relational ethics challenged me to consider:

Who is being paid? Who is contributing without recognition? Who has the power to say no?

This directly shaped my approach to volunteer honoraria, where I included line items for cross-school collaborators and student assistants. Rather than assume goodwill, I translated co-labour into financial and material recognition.

From W11, I drew from our discussions on “scaling through tools” instead of scale through budget. I chose platforms like Woolclap not only because they were free, but because they aligned with the values of open authorship, anonymous contribution, and decentralised control.

The budgeting process became a way to embody my values:

  • Transparency over spectacle

  • Collaboration over outsourcing

  • Access over exclusivity

By the end, every cost wasn’t just a line item—it was a reflection of curatorial ethics in action.

I kept my budget strictly within £2000, guided by a resource-sharing ethos that prioritises low-threshold access, intra-school collaboration, and sustainability.

📊 Budget Strategy: Resource-Conscious, Ethically Aligned

Funding comes from three key sources:

  • 🏛 EUSA Development Fund (£500)

    “The Student Opportunities Fund supports students to deliver events, activities, and projects with community impact.”
    EUSA Funding

  • 🌍 Creative Scotland Open Fund for Individuals (£1300)

    “Supporting a wide range of activity initiated by artists, writers, producers and other creative practitioners in Scotland.”
    Creative Scotland Funding

  • 💡 Own Contribution (£200) — allocated toward zine printing, design materials, and micro-gifts.

Infrastructure, Not Decoration

The exhibition’s physical and interactive design was shaped around necessity:

  • The site—ECA Main Hall—is an open-access, in-kind supported venue.
  • TESOL & Inclusive Design students designed multilingual signage and accessibility prompts.
  • ECA Bookit resources (recorders, polling boards) and digital screens were integrated, avoiding extra rental costs.
  • CAP student works form the core of the exhibition content—no artist fees required.

Shared Tools, Shared Authorship

Interactive systems were built with open-source platforms like Woolclap, allowing anonymous input, multilingual co-writing, and slow-tech responses.
Equipment such as cameras, screens, and sound systems were borrowed within the school ecosystem.
The exhibition is digitally inclusive without becoming digitally exclusive.

Cross-School as Co-Labour

Collaboration was budgeted as co-authorship:

  • 5 cross-school units were supported (Design, TESOL, Education, Art History, CAT).
  • Volunteer honoraria and co-creation materials were included to ensure commitment was recognised.

Micro is Sustainable

Rather than scale through money, I scaled through imagination and alliances.
No hired install crew. No designer fees. Instead: a network of student collaborators and shared responsibility.

The budget became a curatorial medium—reflecting my ethics, values, and sense of what must be shared, and what can be let go.

Approx. £450 of this is in-kind support (space, equipment, co-curation labour).

24.3% of the budget reflects shared resources—not as a compromise, but as a commitment to an open, collaborative curatorial ecology.

(ECA Request Flow Diagram for ART/DESIGN/ESALA requests)

Selected Budget Breakdown

Category Description Cost (£)
🟡 Exhibition Design & Space Infrastructure materials: paths, sound corners, book walls, naming stickers, maps, feedback boards 300
Printing multilingual guides & signage (designed with TESOL/Inclusive Design students) 100
Sensory alternatives: carpets, cushions, tactile zones, quiet signage 100
🟡 Interactive & Co-Creation Tools Woolclap platform use (free) + setup costs: QR codes, stands 100
Polling wall, co-writing sticky notes, voice corner setup (recorder rental, feedback system) 100
🟡 Promotion & Design Social media visuals, copywriting, scheduling 50
Print guidebooks & resource kits (for Art Ed / TESOL school tours) 100
🟡 Post-Exhibition Outputs Curatorial Zine printing (co-written texts, audience quotes, 80 copies @ £2.5) 200
Data visualisation + Participation Trends Report 50
🟡 Personnel & Collaboration Support CAP student install/travel support 100
Cross-school volunteer honoraria (10 x £20) 200
Trained facilitators for blind/deaf visitors, water points, seating 100
🟡 Public Programme Public Talk Setup + Tea Reception (“On Shifting Curatorial Power”) 100
Materials for “co-curation” workshop + print souvenirs (e.g. postcards) 100
🔵 Contingency Emergency repairs, tech replacements, on-site staffing 150
💡 TOTAL £2000