Structure of Manifest

Today I would like to talk about the structure of Manifest. As I have mentioned in previous posts, Jason Franz is the Executive Director and Chief Curator at Manifest. Ultimately, everyone answers to him, and he is also one of the founders It might surprise you, however, that he is a volunteer. There are, in fact, only two paid employees at Manifest. Tim Parsley is one. He is the Assistant Director and the Drawing Studio Center Program Coordinator. Tim also oversees the interns and coordinates our activities. Joanna Vance is the Administrative Assistant here at Manifest, and she frequently gives small daily projects for the interns here.

The Board of Directors is also an important part of the structure of Manifest. This body of decision makers includes the directors and founders. Jason is the president of the board.

Because part of Manifest's mission is to involve and motivate students in the community, the interns really play an important role in maintaining the gallery day-to-day. A lot of the responsibilities of the interns have already been addressed in previous posts. At the lower echelon of the organization are Gallery Interns and Academic Gallery Interns, who are like gallery interns but receive course credit for their working hours. After obtaining a certain numbers of service to Manifest, you may be promoted to Senior Gallery Intern at the discretion of the board of directors. And after still more time, you may be promoted to Gallery Assistant. With each promotion comes more responsibility and input into the organization. For example, after some time, an intern may become a part of the jury that decides what work to include in an exhibition, and at the Gallery Assistant level, application for junior board membership is also possible.

The ability for an intern to grow within the organization is one of the things I really like about Manifest. If my schedule for the fall semester allows, I would love to continue at Manifest in the hopes of learning more, gaining more experience, and advancing within the organization.

A record at Manifest!

Last week I wasn't in the gallery at all because I was on vacation with my family, but I came back to exciting news. The two current exhibits, Nude and Seeing Red (Nose), are on pace to set a new record for gallery attendance. It is so exciting to be a part of Manifest especially at a time when it is growing rapidly and really drawing attention from the community.

A quiet week

This week was a fairly quiet week at the gallery. I worked my two usual shifts on Thursday and Saturday, today. During the four weeks when the shows are open for viewing, it is the job of the interns to keep the gallery space looking neat, greeting visitors, processing sales, and keeping up with any other special tasks we are assigned.

It is also during this time that I get to talk to visitors, which I really enjoy. I like to hear their take on the exhibits and what their favorite pieces are. Sometimes these conversations are brief, but sometimes we really get talking. After talking to one visitor today, she suggested I check out another blog www.designspongeonline.com that's really quite interesting. It discusses various topics from interior design to crafts to photography to cooking. The website also had information about something called The Sketchbook Project. She brought up this project while we were talking about Chris Sickels' sketchbooks which are featured as a part of his solo show (and are really amazing!). Anyway, The Sketchbook Project is a program anyone can participate in. You choose from a list of themes and are mailed a sketchbook. For six months, you work on filling the sketchbook with sketches, ideas, quotes, etc. When the six months is over, all the sketchbooks are mailed back and then they all travel to exhibitions around the country where they are displayed. I just thought it was a very cool idea, and I'm thinking about becoming a part of the project. And all of this came from talking with a visitor, which truly is one of my favorite parts about this internship.

For more about The Sketchbook Project go to: http://arthousecoop.com/projects/sketchbookproject/?utm_source=designsponge&utm_medium=ad&utm_campaign=designsponge-ad

Gallery Opening

Last night was the opening of Nude and Seeing Red (Nose). I worked the beginning shift which meant that I arrived about an hour before the opening began to help set up and stayed until about half way through. The job of the interns during an opening is to help Elaine in any way that we can. Elaine was an intern at Manifest for a few years, and although she is no longer in an official intern position, she still does almost everything for our openings here. So Elaine helps Tim and Jason (the directors of Manifest) by freeing them up during the openings, and we help Elaine by setting up the table of refreshments, replenishing the food and drinks, helping to process sales when necessary, and keeping track of the number of people who attend.

One of the things I like about the openings is hearing and observing people's reactions to the work we have. People were really gravitating towards Chris Sickels' work last night. He was there for the opening, which was great because people could talk with him and have him sign their books. It's always nice when some of the exhibiting artists come to the openings because it allows for a discourse between the artist and the public that almost enlivens the work presented. Overall, I think these exhibits will be very successful.

Transitions

During the two weeks between shows, there is a lot to do around the gallery. On the Saturday after Magnitude 7 and Guidebook ended (last Saturday), I took down most of the pieces in those exhibits and began packing them up in the same way they were delivered to us. This day is also usually the day when the new owners pick up the pieces that were purchased during the exhibit.

In the next week, most of the work from Magnitude and Guidebook was shipped back, and we began receiving work for the new shows. When we receive new work, it's important that we unpack it carefully and take notes on how it was packed so that we can ship it back in the same way. I realized how crucial this is when I began packing up things and the notes were not thorough or too vague. We also began wall prep in which we removed the hardware, filled the holes, sanded, and painted.

It is also during this week, that we began promotion for the upcoming shows. Interns are responsible for distributing postcards and posters that advertise the new exhibits in different areas. Austin, the other intern from Miami, and I discussed where we should put them in Oxford and distributed them accordingly. He took places on campus such as Rowan Hall and the Miami Art Museum, and I took places off campus and uptown such as Bill’s Art Store and Kofenya.

Now that the walls are prepped, we can begin hanging the new show next week. We will also be doing a lot of organizing and cleaning to get ready for the opening of Nude and Seeing Red (Nose), which is less than a week on Friday, July 9^th. As the title suggests, Nude is a collection of 25 works that explore the nude human form in any size and medium. I can tell from the works we have already received, that there is a lot of variety in this exhibit. The pieces range from traditional to experimental, realistic to abstract. In the parallel space, we will also have a solo show by Chris Sickels, a noted illustrator. We just received his work earlier today, and I’m very excited to see the exhibit put together. It encompasses his entire creative process from sketches in his sketchbooks, to model construction, or puppets, as he called them, to photographs, to video animation.

For more information about these artists and the upcoming exhibits, Nude and Seeing Red (Nose), visit http://manifestgallery.org/about/schedule.html