Outcrowd Collective artists doing art at Supersonic 2008 – photo by Abrinsky
Today I had a nice chat with a guy whose name I’ve completely forgotten who’s putting on a one day music festival the name of which I’ve completely forgotten. (It’s been that sort of a month really. If/when the details emerge in my brain or in the comments I’ll add them here.) I do know it’s happening at the Rainbow Warehouse in Digbeth in, I think, September. He’s thinking getting a bunch of artists, in the non-musical sense, to do something. He didn’t know which artists and he didn’t know what he wanted them to do, he just thought it would be a keen thing to do in the space under the arches.
For some reason he was asking me for advice, I guess because I’ve been running a shop that has had artists doing things, although to be honest I’ve been reacting to artists wanting to do things rather than going out and asking them. But I gave it my best go. Here’s what I suggested.
Talk to the musicians. See if they know or like any particular artists who might be suitable. Follow those trails of recommendations.
Ask the artists what they’d like to do. Some might want to do a big mural over the day, some might want to sell their work from a table. Tailor the space to them rather than expected them to adapt to your vision.
Look out for a collective or similar of artists who might be able to look after the whole space themselves.
Think about the sort of people coming to the event. What sort of things are they likely to buy? Jewellery? T-shirts? Vintage hats? Kitschy novelties? Rare vinyl?
Talk to people who have played with this model before. I know Supersonic have artists alongside the festival and I think Shambala have done similar things (must go to the latter some time).
That was about it. I’m sure there are people with actual proper advice out there but, hey, that’s what I reckon.