Exhibition projects emerge and develop when two or three elements come together. It is important for projects to emerge from a shared interest - of a curator, venue, institution, artist, audience, etc. - to give the project the momentum needed to bring it to fruition. This page explores ways to expand, test, strengthen and develop your project idea.

Discussion

When developing a project its important to test its validity and potential with your peers and colleagues. Discussing the ideas and motivations behind a project can help you explore how it would make sense in a broader cultural landscape. For any project you have to ask why now? why here? and why this work? Exploring the reasons and arguments is an essential part of a project as it is both fundamental to the way you will make your case for support and funding but also how you will articulate the attraction of your project to a prospective audience. When discussing about your project explore the following issues:

• Has your project idea been or is it being carried out by someone else?
• What are the precedents for the project?
• How does your project relate to current exhibitions and critical trends?
• How does your idea relate to the wider social, political and aesthetic arguments?
• Is there evidence of interest in the subject or content of your project?

Where ever possible discuss your idea with a wide range of people to get their initial response. It is useful to be able to talk with peers active in your area but its' also important to discuss your idea with people outside of your immediate peer group to see what they may make of the project.

Expanding the breadth of project

When embarking on your research, make sure to allow room for your project to respond to outside influences. These can range from your conversations and reading, to current artists’ work and exhibitions as well as historical research.

For research to really function well it needs to be directed but open to influence. Research enables you to explore your ideas and test your arguments so don’t be shy about questioning what your starting points and interests as this can lead to developing and strengthening your arguments. Scrutinising your ideas will allow you to shift your plans and approach to the artist[s], the work and how you plan to show it. This is an essential process for the development of the project.

In order to explore the parameters of the project explore the following resources and techniques:

• Discuss and consult colleagues about your project take and get their feedback and input
• Research past exhibitions and screening to see how work has been presented in the past. Search online for similar projects and explore the documentation of past exhibtions at the British Artist Film and Video Study Center, BFI library or Tate Reading rooms.
• Research and explore critical or historical writing on your area of interest.
• Explore international perspectives on work and concepts. Look at how the work has been presented abroad as it may provide a different perspective
• Explore distributors catalogues and directories to find other work related to your interests. You can explore the LUX thematic catalogue online or the BFI’s printed catalogues such as ‘Art and Design.’
• Consult with distributors/archives about their collection of work, ask for advice on other work or areas to explore.
• Talk to artists involved about their work and your plans on how to show it.
• Think laterally about your project and explore how your ideas are explored in different contexts and in relation to different disciplines; from music, literature and the visual arts to science, philosophy and critical theory.

Write an initial proposal

Writing a proposal is an essential element to pitching your idea to the various individuals and organisations who you will need to approach. A proposal is a useful tool as it enables you to clarify your own plans and ambitions for the project and gives you a document you can reuse to get feedback on your project and inform people of your intentions and what it is you are working on.

The proposal should outline the impulse and ideas behind a project; its basic rational. Proposals should answer these key questions: Why this work? Where here? Why now? These questions will emerge in many forms throughout your project from corresponding with potential partners to raising funding to writing press releases. Having a clear and well argued rational will help guide the project and it will be an essential tool throughout that you can refer back to again and again.

The most useful proposal will be short and precise with details about what the project will encompass (the artists’ featured, type of work, amount of work, etc.) and how its will be achieved (information about where work will come from, other collaborators and support for the project). It is also good to include a time line indicating how the project will develop, the stages involved and when you hope to hold the exhibition.

The complexity of proposals will vary depending on the nature and scale of the project but its useful to prepare a long and short version. In the longer proposal you can have more details about the project for key participants / collaborators to give them a broader overview of the project. This long proposal should expand on the projects various components to include budget outlines, biographies of key participants, details and texts about the work that will be featured, a detailed timeline, a list of project partners/funders and information on the organisers. Make sure to clearly lay out the information and be as clear and succinct as possible.

The brief proposal should be kept to one or two A4 pages and should be clearly laid out so people can quickly reference the relevant sections. This brief proposal will be useful to include when writing or e-mailing people about the project. It should aim to give a short introduction to the project, its components and timeframe.

Project title - what is in a name?

The title will be the first part of your project that people will come across. A good title can intrigue people as well as guide the way they approach and receive the work. The title is just as important for venues, organisations and individuals you might work with as it is for the potential audiences you hope to attract. Titles define work to a certain degree and even possibly restrict its appeal. It’s important that titles are succinct and give an impression of the project and the perspective that it takes. Be weary of long or overbearing titles that are too prescriptive. An effective title should be relevant to your project, be memorable and intriguing. Be aware the associations your title makes and what people might deduce about your project from a distance.

Here is an example of an effective project and its name. The project is:

Touching Politics:

This is simple but evocative title, both enigmatic and intriguing as it positions two subjects that are not usually associated. The project that it adorns interestingly is a historical curated survey of work from the Freunde der Deutsche Kinemtheque in Berlin with a strong argument looking at the connections and relationship between various traditions in artists film and parallel movements in documentary and film essays. The project also carried the following subtitle:

Experimental Films from the Freunde der Deutsche Kinemtheque, 1923-1994.

If this project had this as the only title it would have a very different impact. This is a very specific title that designates the project of interest because of:

• It is Experimental film
• It is work from Freunde der Deutsche Kinemtheque
• It is work produced between 1923-1994

These areas have their appeal but they do not communicate any argument or express any other way into the work except these fixed categories. A title that reads like a tick list risks like this suggests the work is only of interest because of these defining characteristics without giving a sense of what the work will be like or that there is an argument behind the presentation. Together the two titles both manage to be both evocative and informative. For more information on this project visit: http://www.fdk-berlin.de/en/

with any copy be honest and clear about what type of work your are presenting and provide prompts on ways people can approach it. When showing artists work in venues that are not very familiar with this area it is important and to your advantage to champion the difference and make it clear that this is a different kind of experience to what the venue usually provides. A good title should be balanced between being intriguing and descriptive in order to position the project most favorably in the context in which it be used.