Week 8: Summerhall Collective
In Week 8 we had our first collective meeting in the office space of Summerhall. Prior to this we arranged an itinerary to structure the time spent in the space. During our Week 7 online meeting as a collective we decided that Xi Sun, Xiaoyu Kang, and I would lead the session, and during the time between these meetings we created an individual MS teams channel to discuss ideas. As a result of this Xiaoyu Kang typed up an instructional text on what material each of us should prepare for appropriate discussion over 2 hours in the meeting space.
Group Meeting Itinerary, posted by Xiaoyu Kang (2025), Sourced From Terra Obscura Collective Miro board
Most of the meeting was focused on Part 1, presenting our updated projects, followed by any problems that we are encountering, and then time for the Collective to offer solutions. In this section I received solutions for my presented issue, as well as common questions.
My issue: I stated that I was having trouble finding emerging artists from countries outside of the UK.
Solution: I was shown apps and websites that that would be able to help in finding Chinese speaking artists. Additionally, we considered that it may be more feasible to include more mid-career international artists, citing the Celene Gallery, presented by Adam Jacob-Lewis in his week 6 presentation on the artist led organisation, where he discussed the capability of the small visual arts association as a space to introduce international artists to local arts culture.
Common Issues:
Budget:
- We questioned the amount of money that we should work within
- We decided that this should be within £2000 – £3000
- Ways of procuring funding
- Project/Creative Grants
- Fundraising – Events – Art Auctions – Screening
- Space Expenses
- University Spaces: Spaces that are a part of the University of Edinburgh campus would be a feasible location that would not require financial payment. (However, we would likely be subject to a stricter organisational methodology, with the possibility for thematic enquiry to be censored dependent on political/controversial content.)
- Volunteer spaces: spaces that are run by a volunteer team are likely to have lower hire rates, whilst still providing all the associated amenities of exhibition coordination.
- Residencies: funded curatorial residencies could offer space and financial opportunities (these are rare, and very specific).
- Shipping costs: JL mentioned government funding to transport international artwork. (This requires more research into what sort of art they are willing to fund the transport of).
Action:
Having noted these point of enquiry, as a group, we will develop follow up questions, posted in our Teams channel, that will be fed back to tutors for further clarification.
Miro Board:
