the OddTones Band

The OddTones Exhibition

Preparation:
Idea/Concept – Main idea is to organize an exhibition for ODD musical instruments (those are, for example, the trump, the didjeridu, the djembe, the clackamore, etc.). These instruments are not that well-known, and my idea is to bring these instruments to one place in Hungary, to the Godor club in Budapest. Besides that the OddTones band would support us, and perform at the exhibition opening, closure and supervise the audience during the workshops at the Godor.
Budget ~ 1 000 000 Huf.
Timing – 4 days long event
Location – Budapest, Godor club
Date – 20 – 23 May, 2010 (Thursday – Sunday)
Title of the exhibition – the OddTones
Research – we are set with the performing band, the OddTones. However, we would need to find partners who would be responsible for finding same musical instruments for our sale. Plus we are planning to get the objects for our exhibition from local collectors of these musical instruments.
Search/invite fund raisings – main funders are the ministry of culture, t-mobile, erste bank,
Selection – no selection needed
Additional equipments – musical instruments for sale
Contracts – contract with our visiting band, plus all the sponsors
Lists – we would need both the price list and list of works (objects – instruments)
Labels – simple labels, readable, understandable, in two languages (English, Hungarian), include some history of the instrument.
Descriptions – some words about the band OddTones, and the main focus on these odd musical instruments.
Insurance – for the artists, for the musical instruments being exhibited, as well as for those which artists use at the performances (their own ones), could be also made for the whole event (to prevent failure)
Transportation – main problem will occur when we will try to transport our musical instruments, both local Hungarian from collectors, and the musicians’. We will use a safe truck for local ones, and an airplane for the musicians’ as they are coming from America.
Security – is necessary mainly for the collectors’ musical instruments, we will try to arrange this with the managers of the Godor club. Plus would be useful to use some kind of security for our coming band.
Restoration – might be needed for the old instruments taken from collectors.
Layout, mock-up – in short it will look more like the installations at the museums, like small boxes with a glass on the top.
Interactive panels – at the exhibition there will be an area where people could sit down on a sofa and listen to some music (being played on these instruments, of course)
Audio guide – no need
Website - www.godorklub.hu/
Invitations – to our partners and sponsors, plus collectors and the band’s friends
Catalogue – no need

Preview
Opening
- Sb. who opens the exhibition – could be a representative of our organizing group, or rather one of the collectors who donated his instruments, who would speak about his close relationship with his instruments, about their history, something more personal.
- Events/ performances/ concerts – our performing band
- Food and drink, catering – provided by the Godor club (the bar)
- Photo, video, technical stuff – only one tv in the exhibition room with a sofa
Events
- Other events in other galleries/museums – no other venues
- Workshop – our band will be supervising those people who bought a musical instrument in our musical shop at Godor, lasts for 3 days.
- Symposium – no symposium
- Guided tours - no need
- Museum education - none
- Talks & discussions – visitors are free to have a conversation with musicians as well as collectors.
- Finissage – a small performance again from the band, plus some people from the audience can participate in this event standing on the stage.

PR
Sponsors – ministry of culture, t-mobile, erste bank
Press release – nothing much
Conference – no need, but if the artists wish that, we can arrange that. Could take place right at the Godor club, before or after the opening.
Advertisement, publicity (radio, tv, internet) - exit, funzine, duna tv, jazzy radio, www.godorklub.hu
Poster, banner, flyers – no need for spending much money on this, as many people visit the Godor club quite often, especially our target group (16 – 26 years old, both ganders)
Gifts in the Museum shop – no free gifts, but a merchandizing, selling shops at another big room at Godor.

Installation
Preparation of the exhibition hall (cleaning, repainting, display panel, interior designers) – no need for repainting the walls, we don’t need any fences or walls as it’s not about paintings, but musical instruments, so we will need quite a big space, the furthest room will be enough for us. We will build big platforms by the walls, and display huge instruments. For smaller ones we will put some black boxes with glasses on the top.
Arrange the artworks, set up the exhibition – the huge platform will be most probably in the very centre of the room, all the other small boxes will be situated around, by the walls.
Lighting – there is a good lighting in the club, but if necessary we will put some more
Technical equipments – tv, microphones, headphones, speakers
Stickers, labels, descriptions, prices – no huge text on the walls, but short interesting notices. No information about prices, they will be available at the shop.
Guest book – at the entrance, we could ask for the Godor club’s guest book

After the exhibition
Documentation – photos, video, sound recordings
Take down the exhibition – sell the platform to the Godor, and small boxes to someone else (museums, galleries)
Wrapping – packaging the musical instruments (all of them) - cases
Transportation – same way (airplane, truck, minivan)
Archiving – we’ll save it on our hard-drive, bought specially for our archiving events we organized
Attendance – we would be asking people at the entrance to say their name if they were invited, and ask which company they represent, then we’ll see who came, who didn’t. Counting visitors every day.
Draw conclusion – main aim is to collect as many people as possible, and sell more of the musical instruments. We will have a contract with the Godor club, which will carry a certain minimum number of people visiting our event, and with the distributors of the musical instruments we will have another contract, which will talk about some percentage we get from the sales. This is not a free-entrance event, so we will get money from the ticket sales as well. So aim is to raise money, sell instruments, promote our artists, and promote these odd instruments.

GÖDÖR KLUB
Cím: 1051 Budapest V., Erzsébet Tér
Nyitvatartás: Vas-Csüt: 10-02 | Pé-Szo: 10-04
Központi info: +36 (20) 201 3868 | info@godorklub.hu

Flat Galleries

Molnár Ani, Godot, Inda, Knoll - all these galleries are located in the center of Budapest, on Pest side, and common thing between them is they are all flat galleries.
There are both advantages and disadvantages of having a flat gallery, instead of a usual gallery on Falk Niksa utca, for example.

Advantages:
- no renting payments
- they can have an attractive yard
- it's more comfortable inside
- they can have good storage rooms
- and they usually have staff's own room, where they have a kitchen, table and chairs. They can easily have a rest there.

Disadvantages:
- not many people know about these places, only those who are really interested in this field
- they spend a lot on PR
- most of them are new, will take quite a long to attract customers
- usually no good security, they rely on neighbourhood mainly

A very new and quite shocking information for me today was that from a sell of a painting a gallery gets 50% of the profit, and 50% the artist. I thought galleries get much less, like around 20%.

Fine Arts Museum

Two absolutely different exhibitions:
"In praise of women" of Alphonse Mucha and "The land of Myths" of Gustave Moreau.

Main differences were the following:
- No good security in the first exhibition (Mucha's), only old women.
- However the first one was much better in a sense of design, the walls were dark, and the whole emfasis was on paintings and graphics, unlike the bright blue and pinkish walls of the second exhibition.
- But bad side of the first rooms is that they were too dark, it made people feel sleepy
- Moreau's rooms were not attractive, first, then you feel strange smell, and it's much colder than in Mucha's.
- First: thematically good structured,
- Second: didn't really recognize that

Museum of Applied Arts

I liked the architecture of the building itself first of all.
I didn't know that was of an Avant garde period.

The exhibition itself was quite boring, but the structure was ok.
The floor was separated into two, and u have to make a circle to see the whole exhibition.
I think that's a good solution considering the fact that they didn't have much of space.
there was no special lighting and no security alarms and cameras, just old women watching after visitors
couldn't find any mistaken writing , though some of us noticed some
i liked the computer corner, it was quite interactive, and interesting.
everyone wanted to try each of the games.
and what i liked in this exhibition is that they look after the objects,
unlike the Ethnographic Museum with those dirty clothes.

so, overall, not a bad exhibition: accurate structure, visitors know which way to go clearly;
clean objects, clothes and tables; great architecture and design;
some interactive staff relevant to the subject of the exhibition.

as a result, i can say not bad at all.

Change

After last week's class I had to change my theme, because of some problems that occurred during the discussion of my project, like , for example, we thought that the Fine Arts Museum will not give us their paintings to display them in the Godor club. I think we won't be able to protect them that much and also it would cost a lot for renting them. So, they will not give it to us for sure. (maybe only for displaying them in another highly appreciated and secure museum with a great reputation, but we cannot offer that.) So, i just decided to change the subject.

Though i did change my concept I still feel attached to the Godor club (the venue of the event). And i thought why not create something that is deeply connected to music, as the club works as a night club and as a concert venue from time to time. Music is traditionally inseparable from the musical instruments... There are many great young talents who want to play music and enjoy the company, as well as there are many wishers of knowing more and more of the musical instruments, their history, etc.

Now I'm thinking of creating a show week of The ODDTONES, which employ a variety of unusual instruments with which many folks are not familiar with. Here are some examples fo them:
- trump
- didjeridu
- Djembe
- MouthBows
- Clackamore
- Nose Flute
- Waterphone...

The idea is getting these instruments from all parts of the world (or from Hungary, if there are such) and not just display them as at Museums, but rather let people try to play these instruments. Also would be great to offer visitors specialists who know these instruments professionally, and who could help others. That would also help us, as people will not damage the instruments that much, as they all will be instructed.

Opening at the Warfag Gallery

The opening was on 17th of March at the Warfag Gallery. Was very crowded.
What i liked in this event is that they were displaying a French artist, who painted mainly bodies, muscles, and faces. I liked one painting the most (and interestingly i noticed that it was in a centre of the exhibition), i went to the artist and asked her about the price she wants for this particular piece. She said she didn't know, and introduced me to her agent. That was quite unusual for me.
And agent didn't know the price either, so he invited another girl with the price list, and said it costed 2 000 000 Huf.
Hehe, i thanked them wholeheartedly, and went home.

But the layout of the exhibition was good, though i didn't quite understand the connection between the title "love in Budapest" and the male bodies (though yes, green paintings are about love). Lighting was good, labels were okey, they had enough space for people, a comfortable sofa, and they had many important persons invited. The catering was, as usual, about wine and pogacsas. Was good though.