8. Bringing it Together Piece by Piece

The process of piecing the Korean exhibition together happened gradually over a series of several months.  Monthly exhibition programming meetings took place over Skype between the galleries in Melbourne and Seoul.  In addition, I would meet regularly with the Gertrude team to discuss progress on sponsorship approaches, funding applications and approaches and discussions with both Australian and Korean artists we hoped to include in the exhibition.

I was constantly amazed at the Gertrude team’s capacity to manage multiple exhibitions and collaborations simultaneously.  The City Within The City project seemed to occupy so much of my thought and head-space and yet the other curators seemed to flit effortlessly between projects and stretch to meet the demands of all with relative ease.  I guess that sort of mental agility comes with practice and experience.  I am sure it is also typical of many small yet highly driven and ambitious art spaces.  In spite of inadequate funding, regardless of how under resourced these organisations are, institutions like Gertrude Contemporary punch well above their weight and launch and support the careers of artists around Australia and the world.