the exhibition
The Savill Garden
by Andy Bendix and Denise Jaques
The Savill Garden. Private View
Lichenscopes - Abby Martin
Nearly there, the flurry of paperwork, the panic as deadlines pass, the missing images, the rummaging through files for previous documents to update. We’ve all been there. Now, with a few weeks left, things are starting to settle down. Set up day is in our diaries (isn’t it?).
Have you ever thought about what happens when the exhibition finishes and you’ve taken down or delivered your work?
For Savill Gardens it’s November 3rd this year. Denise and I will have watched you all going off down the drive from Windsor Great Park with your trailers, trolleys and barrows. The gardens look suddenly and shockingly bare. There are little yellow squares in the grass reminding us where your work had proudly stood in the rain and cold and maybe a sprinkling of sun for all these weeks. We high five and hug each other, then the gardeners and sales staff of the Savill Gardens who have helped us so much to get the show on the road and keep it from derailing. If we have behaved, there will be a bottle of Windsor Great Park sparkling wine presented to each of us, there are smiles and thanks all round. Then.... we all get our diaries out and plan a meeting for the following week.
This is the wash-up meeting, chaired by the Savill Garden and attended by all the key members of staff who has been involved in the setting up and running of the exhibition. There will be gardeners, sales staff, and marketing and events managers and us, of course! At this meeting we go through and evaluate each stage of the exhibition from the number and mix of exhibits, to the trail brochure design, and timelines for each stage. Did we squeeze too much in any given month (yes, July!) and could we improve the workflow next year? What went well at set up? How did we do in managing sales and keeping you informed? Did we have enough help at takedown?
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