I spent this morning setting up my first solo exhibition. With two teams of two it took about two hours, which was better than expected for 40 or so paintings. I thought I'd blog what worked in case anyone else is in the same situation.
Things That Worked
-I planned the layout well beforehand. That saved lots of time and trouble. The fact that I number code my pictures helped too so that people who don't know which painting is which can still work out what goes where.
-My mum suggested taking a ladder and it proved to be vital for some of the out of reach areas.
-Our teams of two system worked well. I'm glad that I bought two cheap spirit levels just for the job and also glad that I put the screws in two bags.
-The delivery van was great. I used a company called Vanana who insure the load. The van arrived exactly on the dot of when I asked and the driver was as friendly and helpful as he could have been.
-A powered screwdriver did help prevent blisters.
-The exhibition walls consisted of 12mm M.D.F. wood panels. For those, 16mm screws were chosen to ensure they went right in and it was a good choice.
-A spike and hammer to start the screw saved lots of slips and wasted effort when screwing.
Things That Could Have Been Better
-I stapled the price and information cards on the wall. A powered stapler would have made it easier. As it stands, many of these cards are rather untidy and were marked by the stapler.
-I didn't tick out the paintings as they were loaded and unloaded, or even the night before when I set them out. As such, one painting (which it turns out I didn't even have any more) was missing and caused a temporary panic.
-Some frames were damaged by rough handling. It's amazing how many knocks and scrapes go unnoticed when handling heavy paintings at high speed. The slight feeling of rush perhaps contributed to this, and so a calmer and more logical way of laying out the paintings near the place to be hanged, or a fifth person acting as foreman might have helped.
It is the opening event tomorrow I'll make more notes after that.
