I learned a whole lot from my first exhibition opening at the Kuala Lumpur Performing Arts Centre. Basically the centre supplied the space and advertised the show for me on their website, but besides that I was pretty much on my own.
1. Date: Most art show openings are on Thursday or Friday, but due to the venue (theatre performances on all other days) it wasn't possible for me to have it on one of these days and opted for Monday. I believe the number of people that attended the opening would've been slightly larger if it would've been on another day. I know myself, that I would rather sit on the couch and watch the tube on the first day of the week!
1b. Another key issue when planning an event like this which I will definitely remember for next time, is not to have the installation day on the same day as the opening day. We started too late in the day, and it requires a lot more time than you think. We had some issues with hanging the art, which made me feel hurried the entire time. Kind of like my wedding day! Ha!
2. Advertisement: I'm actually pretty proud of my advertisement skills but could've pushed myself a bit more. Perhaps, I was just a bit afraid of failure, so I held myself back? I did manage to create a flyer and handed them out to my friends and shops that sell my cards. My hubby sent them out to his fellow co-workers and even emailed the soft copy to the entire centre! I emailed everyone on my gmail account that lives here in KL and posted more flyers where ever I could think of. Next time I would like to write up a review and advertise in local newspapers.
3. Catering: I had the hardest time finding catering for my opening! The venue wouldn't allow me to bring drinks and food myself. I received a couple of catering companies to contact instead. That was fine with me, since I figured I could concentrate on my guests and someone else could serve the food and drinks. Two weeks before the reception I contacted a certain Rachel and we started our email exchange. 1.5 weeks later no word from Rachel, who wouldn't answer my phone calls, texts or email. Rachel had disappeared. On to my last resort. Mr. Eddie. He seemed very nice over the phone and when I asked him if it wasn't a problem that the show was 3 days from now, he said " I'm here to make you happy. Don't worry about a thing!" How delightful to hear that sentence. I waited for the quote and received it promptly the next day but with a big surprise. The quote was 18,000 ringgit! In USD language this is about 5000. May I add that this is a quote for just some snacks, free flow of fruit punch and 4 bottles of wine for 30 people. With that amount of money I could give all of my 30 guests a gold chain! Or how about I just give them my art work! I kindly declined their help and decided that maybe I wouldn't have refreshments for my guests after all. Now, what I eventually did I wouldn't suggest to anyone else, but an hour before the opening I dropped by the grocery store and picked up a few bottles of soda, wine and some deliciously cheap Malaysian desserts and snuck them in. My good friends helped me with handing out the drinks and luckily I didn't get in any trouble.
So, these are the main issues that I would like to work on next time to have an even more successful art show opening! You live and you learn. That what it's all about!
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