Free Range

For the end of the course we had the opportunity to show our work at an exhibition that involved multiple universities and had a multitude of industry professionals as well as the general public coming through to see all the work on show. In the lead up to the show we had to raise money to pay for the show. Unfortunately we didn't start this till after the Print Auction which put us on a strict deadline. I tried to put on a fundraising event but it ended up falling through on the day and it ultimately failed. After that I insisted on more people helping out for the fundraising events. The next plan was to have a few bake sales to raise as much money as we could. We made over £100 for the first bake sale so we carried on having bake sales as often as we could before the deadline for the exhibition.

Fig 1: Jeffries, L., (2019). Bake Sale. Photograph. Photographer's own collection

As it turns out there were only a handful of us showing at Free Range we each had plenty of space to show so we needed to print big so we would use the space wisely. We had to consider what we needed to set up at the Truman Brewery to display our work. In the build up to the event we had to decide what we were showing as well as the sizes of the prints and how many. I decided to print twelve prints so that I could decide which ones I would hang when I was there. With the help of Martina Rooney, I chose four of my abstracts to hang back to back for people to view.

Fig 2: Jeffries, L., (2019). Free Range Show. Photograph. Photographer's own collection

We were also given the option to have prints and books to show and sell on a table that we constructed for people to walk around and have a look at what was on it. We also had business cards for people to take, my business cards had one of my best Dartmoor images on it to remind people of what I do.It took us a couple of days to set everything up before the opening night. For the opening night the show was open till ten and each university was offering drinks to encourage people to come into our area and hopefully see our work.We each had to work shifts on the bar and supervising the show during the open days. 

Fig 3: Jeffries, L., (2019). Free Range Table. Photograph. Photographer's own collection

This meant that if there were any problems with the installation pieces that there would be someone there to remedy the problem. Having people there also meant that if any of the prints or books sold then there would be someone there to take the payment and record the sale. There were several industry professionals walking around and I had a couple give me a business card to pass on to people who were showing their work but weren't in London. At the end of the show, when we had everything packed away, they announced the people who won prizes for their work. The first place won an exhibition at the Truman Brewery on another occasion.

Print Auction

As part of our course we needed to raise money for the Free Range exhibition that would be held in London. In order to raise this money we were given the task of putting on a Print Auction which the hope was it would raise a significant portion of the money needed to put on the exhibition. For the Print Auction we were teamed with the second years with the intention of maximising the profits made. We then split into different groups to complete the preparation for the Print Auction. Each group was a mix of second and third years so there would be a fair division of the work as the proceeds of the Print Auction would be split evenly between the two year groups.

I nominated myself to be a part of the fundraising group and when we had a meeting with just the fundraising group I suggested that I be the head of the group as I had only nominated to be in one group and could take on the responsibility where the others were in two groups, they agreed to this. I then assigned everyone tasks for fundraising, I gave the second years the responsibility to create a fundraising video as there were more of them than the third years. There were a few difficulties working with this group of second years that were not resolved before the Print Auction which reduced the amount we made from the event.

As the weeks progressed I kept asking the 2nd Yrs for updates on the video, ideas that they had come up with, how the filming was going. Unfortunately I got hardly anything back from them, and when I did it was vague. This culminated in them going to Jan lying about the communication between us saying that they had been coming up with loads of ideas and I had been turning them down, apparently demanding that we only do bake sales and bingo nights. This was resolved with me showing the project managers the group chat proving I was innocent and that they were lying. I was also informed that these particular people had caused problems last year as well. After this I carried on trying to get information from them (I got more information about what they were doing and researching from Jan), and asking how the filming was going. Despite chasing them up, they didn't start shooting till after Christmas and this dragged on until the week before the Print Auction when it still wasn't finished. The decision was made to not have the video the week before the Print Auction. When I confronted the 2nd Yrs, they were unconcerned as they planned to use it for their third year fundraising.

One of the fundraising events we did was a raffle and everyone had to take shifts to sell tickets leading up to the draw. I made the second and third place prizes which was home made fudge and the first place prize was a large bottle of prosecco. Unfortunately we were limited in the fundraising opportunities as the project managers restricted us to only photography related fundraising events. However we made just enough to put on the event and we had enough prints to auction off. We not only auctioned off our own work but we also had to acquire prints from other photographers which would get potentially more money than our own prints.

On the night itself the room was packed full of people who were interested in what we had to offer. We even had the Mayor of Plymouth at the event and he bought quite a few pieces. The night was busy and most of the pieces were auctioned off with a few that were sold after the auction had ended. As the event was happening I was in charge of marking which print had been sold to whom and sort the prints out at the break and at the end of the night when people came to pay and collect the prints that they had purchased. Although the night wasn't a massive success we did make over £800 for the third years which went straight into the account for Free Range.

Fig 1: Coath, L., (2019). Mayor. Photograph. Print Auction Team Drive

Fig 2: Coath, L., (2019). Print Auction. Photograph. Print Auction Team Drive