Contract

Accidentally, again, we have decided not to go to Perth this time. We have concluded that it would be hard to bring enough audiences to the event if we manage it from a fat distance here in Sydney. We even did not have adequate budget to hire a person from Perth to take care of it. Less amount of job is good, but I lost an opportunity to go to Perth.

Now, we have got a contract to sign from the Exhibition Centre for venue hiring. It is my first time to examine this kind of contract. I have been dealt with several contracts with artists for our past exhibitions, but I have not involved with any venue hiring duty. The exhibition contract I have examined before helped a lot for me to check the terms and conditions of this venue hiring contract. Sometimes the contract seems to be pointless because I simply think if two or more people make a promise each other, they should conduct the promise naturally. However, people are not like that I believe. Which is a very sad truth.

While I am reading the contract, I felt that the venue hirer (us) is very disadvantaged. There are many limits that the hirer can conduct, although there are abundant rights that the venue owner can insist to us. I could imagine that the venue owner would like to minimise the risks that they will get from any misconduct of the venue hirer, but it seems a bit unfair.

The good thing is, however, most of the inconvincible limits that I have found from the contract could be negotiated with the venue manager. They provide us an enough space of negotiation for minor issues, such as restriction of taking photos, installing banners at the venue. I could see that they also would like to lease the venue to make profit. Simple economics.

The day is coming very quickly than I expected. I feel that I need to plan more and get ready well. 

Perth

We never know what’s going to happen in the future. Life is full of accidents.

At the beginning, we were struggling with hiring a decent venue for the Tae Kwon Do demonstration due to high expenses. We had never imagined that we could get more financial sponsorship at that stage, but it happened. Now, we are looking for other venues for the demonstration, even in another city in Australia, Perth.

It is a bit easier than when I started to look for a venue in Sydney. Experience makes everything easier. I have been researching some venues in Perth. There are great theatre style hall, such as Perth Concert Hall, but the hiring cost is higher than we expected. There is a decent hall in University of Western Australia, but we do not know how accessible it is for the public, so we are a bit intimidating to approach to it. The most irritating matter in terms of holding the event in Perth is I do not know much about Perth. As matter of fact, I do not know where the University of WA is at. I rely on the cutting edged technology, Google Map, to figure out the locations of the venues. (Actually, it is clear enough to get the hang of the geography of Perth) I also concern about some more hardships in terms of promotion, site management, and so on. I assume that it would be good to hire a person in Perth to coordinate the event over there. We will think about it after we assure the event schedule.

While I was looking for the venue in Perth, another accident had happened. I was talking with one of the venue managers and I tried to explain what Tae Kwon Do (Korean Martial Arts) is because most of the venue managers I had talked to before were not aware of it. However, the person I have talked to recently, have learnt Tae Kwon Do for four years. He definitely has more knowledge than me about Tae Kwon Do I assume. I realise that you never imagine who you will meet (or talk to) in the future, because life is full of accidents.

Money Does Matter

As all of you may know (or as all of you may be experiencing now), most of art organisations are struggling to be stable financially. I have heard that most of staffs at art organisations spend significant amount of time on filling application forms for grants programs from different funding bodies. We also have very limited budget to manage various programs. Especially, when we organise a big exhibition that requires artworks to be shipped from overseas, most of our budget should be spent on the transportation of artworks, and then other things should be dealt with very short budget. Maybe that is why I conduct much labour jobs when an exhibition is on the face. (I do not complain it. Sometimes, physical duty is fun and exciting, especially, it gives for me a chance to move my body in a very still office working environment. Physical labour provides me lots of energy after I move.)

Not only the exhibition, our Taekwondo demonstration also met a financial problem. We can afford very fundamental elements of the event, such as venue hiring, bringing performers, but the problem is, we would like to make the show more enjoyable. Kicking is the main movement of Taekwondo and it is very strong and fast. Yes, fast! Even one can hardly see the kicking motion with their bare eyes. To cover this disadvantage and also to maximise the dynamic of the kicking, we considered to hire a slow motion real-time replay video system. However, money was the matter. The estimated cost of hiring the equipment was very high, including technicians who will control the machines. We almost gave up to utilise the equipment and were seeking other ways to compensate it. Fortunately, we could find a sponsor who could support the equipment hire and all of us are so excited to see the kicking on the screen on the day. It tells money does matter.  

Communication

A significant time of working at the office is spent on the desk. Most tasks done on the desk is sending emails, talking on the phone or making documents. I think almost half of work is related to communicating with people. I have received lots of emails and calls from those who get involved with our exhibition programs or the Taekwondo demonstration event. Not only that, effective communication with staffs in the office is very important as well. Staffs share ideas, solve urgent issues together and make event schedules to avoid events clash each other. Communication skills are one of the key elements to complete tasks successfully. Sometimes I thank my Organisational Psychology lecturer for letting me know this with theories in the class. The lecturer kept saying that once I would apply the theories into my working environment and then the class is worth it. The theories can be applied very often.

While I am communicating with performers, artists, venue hirers or my boss, it is important to confirm the issues that might cause confusion in the future. For example, when we offer an exhibition with artists, we did not assure the location that their artworks hung. We informed the possible areas that the artworks would be hung and the artists agreed with that space. After we locate all the artworks in very specific positions, the artists came to the venue on the installation day. We decided to put one of the artists work in a certain area, which is within the space where we indicated to the artist before, but the artist was not happy with hanging the works in that certain part of the space. It took some time to negotiate with the artist and we finally ended up with satisfying location for both sides. Then, I realised that we could lessen all this time consuming if we had confirmed the specific location earlier with the artist. I hope this lesson will be helpful when we organise the Taekwondo demonstration event.

Good communication and confirmation is the way to work effectively and successfully.

Planning..Planning.. Planning…

I am getting realised that a planning stage is very important to organise an event or an exhibition. Sometimes it ends up with unexpected results, but mostly it is in the track of the plan. We are planning different things for the Taekwondo Demonstration and the first thing we should figure out is managing the venue facility.

The stage of the Auditorium in the Sydney Exhibition Centre where we will hold the event does not have a backstage area, which is kind of necessary facility for a performance. Therefore, we are looking at other options, such as using the Hall area connected to the sideway of the stage as a backstage for the performers. However, the additional cost of using the space and the availability of that space is holding us to decide whether we chose that option or not.

The second thing we are planning is creating a chance to engage Taekwondo with the locals. We have known that there are many Taekwondo gyms in and around Sydney, and there are a good number of people learning Taekwondo. We are trying to invite them to see the demonstration. In addition, we are also planning to have an Australian kid’s Taekwondo demonstration before the main demonstration by the national team. Researching Taekwondo learners and contacting them to invite and have a short demonstration of kids won’t be a simple task, but it would be the best way to make the event most successful.

On top of that, there are many other things we should take care of such as arranging hotels and transportations for the demonstration team, inviting VIPs for the event, promoting the event for the general audiences, and etc. Even we have this kind of map in our mind, we do not know how the event will look like till we put up the show on the stage. Checking every possibilities and accidental elements and clarifying every single ambiguous points regarding holding the event will minimise the unexpected incidents near the event day. I think this kind of job requires lots of experience to predict every possibility and handle unexpected situations at times. That’s why we are putting lots of efforts in planning NOW!!!

This time.. about exhibition

The recent task for me was to check the collections of traditional crafts donated by Cultural Heritage Administration, Korea. We have got around 40 traditional crafts which are highly valuable. The job I was asked from our headquater in Korea seems to be described as a job of registrar and conservator. I should provide the condition of the crafts by sending the photo of them how they are stored or exhibited. I assume that this kind of regular checking of the crafts condition is very important and necessary to conserve the crafts always in the best way. In addition, it also keep awaking us to seek a way to expose the stored works for the public in somehow in near future. This process also reminds me of the basic functions of a museum. It is not only exhibiting the artworks, but also conserving them.

Working in a small art institution provides us very diverse experiences because a (or two) staffs there should conduct various roles at the same time. The should curate a show, register the artworks, promote an exhibition, take care of the transport and insurance of the artworks, also conserve them, and so on. I think it is a good opportunity to learn the different roles at once, but at the same time I feel it is overwhelming job. To complete a good exhibition, curating a show itself is very big job. The more time and efforts you put in curating, the better show will come out at the end I reckon. I am sure many of you will agree with this. However, it seems small galleries and art organisations are just too busy with keeping up with their exhibition schedule. I know that different organisations have different characters. Some might want to have many shows in a year, but others would like to have good quality shows a few times in a year. I think galleries are able to keep open solely because of the enthusiasm of the gallery owners or staffs in the arts.    

Yes, I mean we are doing very important job!!

Where..Where..Where

The visit of the National Taekwondo Demonstration team was settled early this year. Since then, we have started to research a suitable venue for the event. Starting from the commercial theatres in the CBD area, such as Capitol theatre, as well as Townhall, The Concourse, etc., we were planning to expect more than 1,000 audiences for the event, it was a bit challenge to find a good venue with a limited budget.

The first thing I have found through looking at different venues is that it is way too expensive. I totally understand very high living cost in Australia, but I feel it is unreasonably expensive to hire a decent venue in the CBD area. Most of the venues' hiring fee is over $12,000!, and they will even charge additional fees for hiring and using extra facilities and staffs for a performance. I think I have naively expected a generous mercy for a non-profit from a commercialised world.

The other thing I found out is that there is not many big sporting venues in Sydney. The one in the Olympic Park (State Centre) is the best and affordable one in Sydney. The others, for example, Entertainment Centre or Uni Sports facilities are either expensive or incapable to have more than 800 people.

It has been tough to discover a good venue in Sydney but we ended up with holding the event at the Exhibition Centre in Darling Harbour. It was pricey, but as we have concerned the uniqueness and the value of the event, we have concluded that it was worth to put a good financial effort for that.

Next step, Promotion!
We have a venue now, and next thing we should focus on is promoting the event!
I am happy to know about any ideas to attract people to the event.
Please let me know the best way to target Sydneysiders interested in Martial Art!

Commence an adventurous journey to performing arts

I have just finished (last week) an opening of the Korean contemporary art exhibition, Hello, Stranger, which features 7 Korean artists from the National Art Studio, Korea. (If you are interested in, please come to the Korean Cultural Office (KCO). The exhibition is till 16 Nov. Just find me at the reception, and I will give you a quick guide tour!)

Now, it is time to start my internship journey to make a performing art happen in Sydney in late Nov or early Dec. We are planning to bring a Korean martial art national demonstration team here in sydney and have a demonstration for the Australian audiences. There are many tasks I am facing to at the moment such as venue hiring, managing the visit of the demonstration team (about 20 people), marketing and etc. It is my first time to deal with performing arts, but I hope it works as a good opportunity for me to learn some other fields rather than exhibition. I have contacted several venues already and will try to finalise as soon as possible. I will let you know once we have decided.

Please leave me any comments or suggest me any ideas to make the event successful!!