Summerhall Case Study
Summerhall is a multi-arts venue with 14 gallery spaces, 2 music performance venues, a cinema, a theatre, 10 fringe performance venues, events and a bar.
Summerhall was purchased and converted into an arts venue by Robert McDowell in 2011, with the goal of preserving as much of the building’s history as possible.
SummerhallArts is an independently managed charity that was founded in 2022 with the goal of becoming Edinburgh’s top arts organisation by fostering creativity, promoting cultural interaction, and enhancing lives through a lively and inclusive multi-disciplinary arts programme.
Creativity and innovation, community involvement, equality, diversity and inclusion, accessibility, excellence and professionalism, teamwork and cooperation, sustainability, and environmental responsibility are among SummerhallArts’ key values.
SummerhallArts’ funding options include trusts and funds, endowments, and patron programs.
The SummerhallArts curatorial material focuses on current social, cultural, and political topics such as neurodiversity, identity and representation, personal narratives, and environmental sustainability.
SummerhallArts is an artist-run program, the difference between the artist-run programme and the traditional programme is that artist-run programme focuses on practice and experimentation rather than traditional art creation. (Dan Brown et al., 2018). Artists enthusiastically share their creative processes with the public through exhibitions, seminars, talks, and other events, and these modern modes of art communication stand in stark contrast to traditional art creation’s concentration on work completion and aesthetic merit.
In contemporary art practice, artists are no longer just satisfied with making wonderful works of art; instead, they are anxious to share their creative notions, thinking process, and even frustrations and confusions in production with the audience through engagement. This new method of art communication not only broadens the meaning and scope of art creation, but also offers the audience a more diverse and in-depth art experience.
Individual Project Progress
This week’s personal project on the theme of food also researched a number of arts organisations and arts events.
In response to the high levels of food waste in UK households, my curatorial theme will focus on the environmental impact of food waste.
I. Concepts and Proposals
Theme: The Food Funeral
Core concept: In order to raise awareness of the food waste problem in the context of environmental protection.
Background: According to 2023, the average UK household throws away 28.1kg of food waste per month, of which 70 per cent is still edible.
Opening time: 4.22 Earth Day (All around the world people take part in events to promote climate action and encourage others to protect the planet.)
Creative notions: We believe that our “Food Funeral” exhibition will call people’s attention to the issue of food waste, as well as encourage everyone to participate in environmental protection efforts, value food, and protect the earth’s homeland.
Target audience?
The exhibition is intended at the general public who are interested in environmental, art, and food issues, as well as communities and organisations that want to take action to reduce food waste.
Connection with contemporary art?
The show is intimately tied to contemporary art and will invite prominent artists to take part in its creation. They use innovative artistic techniques to highlight the subject of food waste in a sophisticated and thought-provoking way.
II. Exhibition Layout and Zoning
The exhibition will be divided into three main spaces: The Farewell Ceremony, The Relic, and The Rebirth. In the first space there will be a farewell ceremony to remind the audience of the problem of food waste, while in the next two spaces there will be warnings about environmental hazards and demonstrations of food sustainability.
A selection of artefacts:
III. Promotion
To increase the exhibition’s influence, I plan to use the following communication methods: social media promotion, cooperation promotion and media coverage. Iplan to improve the exhibition’s visibility through multi-channel promotion.
