New Beginnings
Norman Rea Gallery has changed! The committee of 2020/21 would like to formally announced our rebrand as a multi-platform gallery. Our team has established that this year will focus on the following:
Representation with the gallery
Political and Social Issues
Engagement with our members and artists
Career opportunities for our members
In rebranding, we aim to give heightened priority to our blog, actively promoting our talented student writers. In a time where our physical events cannot go forward, and where the world is experiencing discussion and change, digital content and reflection is being prioritised. Previously, our blog existed alongside our main website, rather than the sites being integrated. Our amazing blog team have been working to consistently provide a wide range of engaging topics, and more than ever we are collaborating with artists we have worked with in formats beyond physical exhibitions. This deeper emphasis on the blog allows us to engage with our members and the art world beyond our in-person events, and provide more opportunities for our members to get involved. This has in large part been a response to Covid-19, which has increased the necessity for a digital presence and for us to be able to provide content and methods of engagement for our members in ways other than physical events and exhibitions.
The website accommodates our new medium: digital content and exhibitions. With this move towards the digital, Norman Rea Gallery has become an international gallery. We proudly debuted our first digital exhibition, CHANGE, on the new website. In the first 24 hours, we had 798 visitors from over 20 countries, while representing artists from all over the world. We feel that this vast engagement from all over the world is something we are very proud of, especially in our aim to amplify the black artists voices and artistic responses to the Black Lives Matter movement. Since CHANGE, we have come in contact with dozens of new, exciting artists that we are proud to now represent. We look forward to engaging deeper with their content, and engaging with social issues through artwork.
Norman Rea Gallery has a history of providing imaginative and thought provoking blogs from our members and committees. We want to be able to highlight these more on our platform and promote the work of not just the artists we exhibit, but also of our student writers. All of these articles will continue to be available on the archive of the old blog website.
Another change is our new logo, now featuring a photograph of an installation piece exhibited with us during our retrospective exhibition: TEN by an artist we have frequently worked with: Florence Goodhand-Tait. Through working with our archives of images and new committee position, Resident Photographer, we hope to further elevate our branding through the integration of artworks.
We started a new series called "Artists in Lockdown," in which we engage with artists and their lockdown journeys. We have been posting this series throughout our social media channels in the form of photos, interviews, videos, and more. The series engages with some of the artists we have worked with in the past, asking them to responding to how their artistic practices have changed in regards to isolation. This has been an amazing way for us to build relationships with artists and provide other forms of content.
We are also working with the University and YUSU to build a stronger relationship with the University’s Art Collection. Did you know that the University of York has over 500 pieces of art on campus? In this partnership, we aim to promote the arts within the University, as we feel that designated cultural spaces on campus are so important, and it is an aim of current Co-Directors, Senah Tuma and Faith I Weddle to establish more of these spaces on campus.
In our engagement with the University's Art Collection, we have become keenly aware of the lack of POC representation reflected in the collection itself. We are in constant dialogue with the University to fundraise to secure artworks for the collection that we feel represent the true diversity of the University of York and its students. We aim to use our new website as the hub for our fundraising.
Simultaneously, we would like to collaborate with more societies and local institutions in York. We feel inspired by fellow artistic societies and projects on campus. We are really keen to make the gallery as open as possible and involve the members at every opportunity, it is really important for our current committee to further establish the gallery be a collaborative creative space. We also aim to provide more career opportunities for our members in the form of continued alumni talks and workshops, as started last year.
Format of the blog from our past website.
Just after Easter, we asked our members for feedback and have since been actively working to respond. On our return to campus, we aim to offer more member exclusive opportunities and in response we have begun working on a Members Exhibition. The concept is to have members submit their exhibition ideas and give the opportunity for all our members to vote, democratically narrowing down the options to determine one of our Autumn exhibitions. We felt that this would be a way for the members to get involved and have more agency in the gallery’s exhibition programme, with one member having the opportunity to make their exhibition idea a reality.
During lockdown, we sent out the YuStart Rewards in the form of T-shirts and posters, thank you to everyone who donated! Featuring the new logo, we were so impressed with the designs that we might launch some merchandise available to members in the Autumn Term - keep an eye out! In Spring Term of 2020 we successfully fundraised £1k to support the future of the gallery, specifically in regards to the physical space, which has taken damage over the years. The money and our attention is already going towards repairs in the gallery, and Co-Directors Senah and Faith are actively working with the University and YUSU to fix up the space, which will include improvements to windows and implementing measures to combat and repair areas affected water damage.
Despite any Covid-19 barriers, Norman Rea Gallery are going to provide a year full of opportunities, activities and engagement for our members.
The new and improved website.
This website is brand new, so if you do notice any faults please don’t hesitate to contact us, your feedback is essential to our progress. If you are interested in reaching out to work with us, as an artist, collective, society or an individual, please use the website to find out more and if you have any further questions please feel welcome to contact us directly at normanreagallery@yusu.org. Thank you!
