EMMA HARVEY at TEN:2

CHANGE OF PLAN AT CULTIVATE

Spent the busy weekend chewing all this over in the gallery while really enjoying the art and the positive response to the TEN:2 show that currently occupies our walls and plinths.  Feeling really good about the latest Ten show and really not feeling good about the forthcoming YOU show, 

We put the YOU call out, we deliberately made it as open as possible because you artists were complaining that your work wasn’t fitting previous calls. We expected to be excited by a lot of invigorating art, and indeed we did get lots of people responded to the You call, wasn’t feeling right though, the art wasn’t exciting us, the art wasn’t inspiring us. Of course we had some exciting art, and those artists we did invite after seeing their submissions we show their work at a later date  

LAURA BODO LAIBER at TEN:2

So, the YOU show that we were planning to open this coming week is now not happening and instead the current TEN show will occupy the gallery for an extra week.  

I really expected lots of exciting art to come in for the You show, the reality is, we had lots and lots of people submitting  lots and lots of work, and, well, not very much that was exciting us enough to want to hang it on our walls.   Now I could just go with it, just fill the gallery with work that doesn’t excite me and quietly take in the much needed money (and believe me we really do need the finance right now, we are fighting to keep this space alive on our terms!), or we could just say no, if it isn’t good enough then the show must be cancelled. And that is what we’re going to do. Can’t honestly run a show just to make money, we can’t hang a show we’re not satisfied with, can’t hold an exhibition  we’re not comfortable with, it wouldn’t be honest to go on with the show, I’d rather not run a gallery than run a gallery that hosts a show I’m not happy with.

YOU is cancelled, TEN 2 runs for an extra week… watch this space for the next moves, lots going on right now…. CAN? comes next….

LIMBO at TEN:2