Galleria ideas 1 - tour guide, purpose, outline, brainstorming

What is a tour without a tour guide? This can be both a person and a brochure or map so you can self tour or if you would like you can rely on the more face-to-face human experience. Art galleries are quite interesting and they are not all the same. Some art galleries have the purpose of selling the art...others have the purpose of preserving it and showcasing it. A purpose for the gallery does seem to be one thing that must be clarified. One purpose may also be to entertain and lift your spirits or inspire you to be creative and grow in your own particular field. Art can be mind-opening and it can be controversial. A tour guide can help to frame the tour by providing the purpose of an exhibit and to provide relevant stories and background on the artwork and the artist.


What shall my purpose be for the art gallery? I think I will need to experiment first with some different purposes. The purpose of my first art galleria of the Swans is to entertain and to open your mind to possibilities of your own creativeness. I'd like this art 'show' to be like a little experiment in virtual touring. I think that I've mentioned before some of the themes I've discovered associated with swans that could be pulled into the framing....the fairy tale of the ugly duckling, the Swan Lake Ballet by Tschaikowski, Black Swans, Mute Swans, The Swans of Lost Lagoon in Vancouver, swans in glass and pottery, ....and more.....narrowing down the themes to maybe three that compliment each other would be good.....

In setting up the Swan Galleria I find that I must capture the final three ideas to get started....It must be three areas of focus where I have photographed swans in some way...here is the preliminary framing that I will work with for now:

1) Swans of Vancouver's Lost Lagoon

2) Glass swans of crystal and hand blown glass

3) Swan planters

There will be the original art, the pop art, cartoon art, glitter art, and associated stories, poems or quotes and of course a collection of associated cards to match.

One possible outline:

Welcome and intro of where the tour will take you - video and brochure

Three beautiful entry ways to take you to:

- The Lost Lagoon
- The Glass Menagerie
- The Swan garden planters

In each entry way will be signs and paths to take you to the original creations, the colorful pop art spinoffs, the cartoon art posters, possible glitter and animated creations or slide shows and billboards with poems or quotes....with a secret window allowing you to look back to the beginning if you would like to take a different path with a different focus.

An extraordinary ending would be one that brings all three together in a sublime and beautiful way..whether as a collage or a slide show or something else...then offering something that would lead you to come back and find new discoveries not seen the first time through.

The goal at the end is to have experienced the galleria and come away feeling refreshed and amazed...at both the photographs and the process of the virtual tour itself.

I'm writing these thoughts so I can brainstorm better.....I'm beginning to envision this galleria a little clearer which means I'm getting closer to putting it all together.....outlines always do help to get things started.

What are the next steps?

• Gather the photos into themed folders corresponding to the simple outline I shared earlier.



• Begin the design of the entrance and pathways to link to the photos and other information for the blog......... A storyboard so to speak.



• I will start with the photos I have in the three areas and then create the other interpretations over the next few days...the previous entry gives an idea of the Pop Art and the Cartoon poster art....but then I'm getting ahead of myself...One Thing at a time...

Selecting the original photos to use is really the first major step...the vision of the layout will inspire me as to which ones will work the best...I may find I need to take more photographs which might mean this galleria may evolve even past what I may unveil in the first presentation.

The way these blogs work I will most likely start at the end so I can link things sequentially coming to the beginning in the last blog I create....working from back to front...so that I may have several blog entries leading to one master Grand entrance. ...which will be the beginning.... I can create the entries as under construction in draft form and have an unveiling when they are all completed by publishing them all at once.......logistics will be important. The links will be important and the guides will be crucial.

Once the framework and method are developed I can apply it to other photo art gallerias. It may result in a website eventually being formed rather than a blog....but that remains to be seen.

Eventually, the photos may become something of value beyond the galleria....transcending the setting and framework and rising out of the setting into someone's separate and unique experience or interaction with the Photography. When that happens it will be like magic. If magic happens I will be most happy.