Filming with the Jeff Koons Collective

Some of you may have recently read about the Jeff Koons Collective, a group of young people who are working with Brighton Museum & Art Gallery on the upcoming Jeff Koons’ exhibition, creating merchandise in response to his work and overall promoting the exhibit too. You can find out more about the Jeff Koons Collective by reading this blog post written by Charlie, one of the Collective’s members.

As the Museum’s Digital Media Apprentice, I was given the opportunity to produce an evaluation video for the project, detailing the story of the Collective from its early beginnings to to the end. It was an exciting opportunity for me – gaining some filming and editorial experience may come in handy for me in the future – so I jumped at the chance.

At first a lot of the people they were meeting, and the things they were doing didn’t make a lot sense to me but I decided to research Jeff Koons a little and chatted with the Collective. The dots began connecting and I understood exactly what the Collective stood for. It’s designed to engage people in art, specifically young people.

Recently, the Collective met up with the museum’s Programme Manager, Helen Grundy. There’s been a lot of stress, trial and error and persuading been involved to get the works displayed at Brighton Museum & Art Gallery. Koons’ work is quite something, it’s not as simple as moving flat fine art paintings around. Koons’ work is complicated and much of it is huge. The Collective were really interested in how the exhibition was coming along, and many of them were shocked at how much the exhibition has been planned, then only to have the plan scrapped and replanned again and again. They were, however, extremely excited that the Jeff Koons exhibition is nearly upon us. It was also great taking the group into the exhibition hall (where the Biba exhibition recently stood) so they could get a sense of where the pieces would go. It was also a key point I wanted to film, I think filming the process of the actual room is very important and most definitely adds to the storytelling element.

The Collective themselves are great people, all of them are incredibly focused and committed to the project and you get a real sense of compassion when you speak to them. They are very much involved and very open, so open in fact that I’ve actually sort of integrated myself into the Collective. It wasn’t on purpose; but the more time you spend with the group the more you feel like you’re part of the team.

For now, they’re in the midst of the project. There’s a lot of planning and discussion going on due to the upcoming events. I can’t say much as I wouldn’t want to spoil the surprise. It’s all very exciting!

Personally, I’m slowly beginning to build up my footage so I can start editing and creating the video very soon. I’ve already got the plans sorted for the video, and I hope that it reflects not only the project but also the experience for the young people.

It’s been incredibly fun bringing along a camera and a microphone, and whilst the group where a little hesitant at first, it hasn’t taken them very long to just ignore the camera completely. I’m hoping to film some crucial pieces in our next meeting so I can finally begin editing all the pieces together.

The Jeff Koons Exhibition opens on May 11.

Emily Vernon, Digital Media Apprentice

Closure of Brighton History Centre

On Saturday 30 March 2013, Brighton History Centre closed its doors to the public for the last time. It was a sad day – for staff and customers – but it also marked a turning point, a time to look to the future. Our task for the coming months is to prepare and pack the collections for their move to The Keep, which is due to open towards the end of this year.

The History Centre opened ten years ago, but its glorious location has been in use as a library and reading room – and a place of learning and reflection – for much longer. It seems appropriate, then, to spend a few moments looking back at this chapter in the building’s history, before advancing into a brave new world.

An early view of the reference library, which later became the History Centre

We’ve written in previous blogs about the basic chronology, when parts of the royal stables first became a public library, art gallery and museum, and about its later enlargement and remodelling.  In this post, we’re less concerned with simple timelines than with capturing the spirit of the place – as far as possible using material from our own archives.

First glimpse: an article called Some Memories of Brighton, 1897-1914, written by Alfred Cecil Piper. At his father’s instigation, Piper joined the staff of Brighton Library in 1897, aged 14. He hadn’t specifically chosen this field but, as he noted wryly, ‘in those days, children had to obey their parents.’ One of six junior assistants, his working day began at 9am and ended at 10pm, with two hours for lunch, one hour for tea and one afternoon off per week; that’s a lot of hours for a 14-year-old.

Piper describes the appointment of Brighton’s first trained librarian, John Minto, who arrived in 1902, just as the reference library was moving into the first-floor room later occupied by the History Centre. Although he was director of the museum, art gallery and library, the impression given is that books were Minto’s first love; he is said to have painstakingly reclassified the whole library ‘almost single-handed, as none of the staff was qualified to help until he had trained them.’

Minto was followed by Henry D Roberts, a key figure in the history of the Royal Pavilion estate. In his historical account of the library, museum and art gallery, published in 1908, Roberts also paid tribute to Minto, who ‘reduced a chaotic collection of books to the splendidly classified library which Brighton is now fortunate enough to possess.’

Advert for a talk given at the library by museum curator Herbert Toms

Roberts himself was a different sort of man and, according to Piper, ‘was more interested in the Art Galleries than in the library’. It’s certainly true that he organised some ground-breaking exhibitions of modern art in the early years of the 20^th century, but he was ambitious for the library too. Services introduced during his years at the helm included visits for schools and other local groups, and a series of talks and lectures, some of them given by the influential archaeologist and curator Herbert Toms, who worked at Brighton Museum from 1897 to 1939. We take these things for granted today but 100 years ago, they were real innovations.

The library’s annual report for 1910 refers to a fine ‘Sussex collection’, underlining the importance of local material to the library and museum. Writing several decades later, former librarian Eileen Hollingdale explains that, ‘Right from its foundation, the library has always collected local history and as a result we have the richest collection in the county. We collect books, pamphlets, maps, prints, photographs, newspapers and periodicals.’ She also mentions Jimmy’s Cards, a unique index started by James Ambrose Feist, another former staff member. Many a question has been answered after a rummage through Jimmy’s Cards, and we are happy to say that this treasure trove of information will be moving with us to The Keep.

Much of our time at the History Centre was spent dealing with enquiries, and we were surprised to learn that a telephone enquiry service was set up as early as 1911. Few people would have had a phone at that time, which suggests a willingness on the library’s part to embrace new technology. Henry Roberts would no doubt have thoroughly approved of our use of email and social media, not to mention this blog, as a way of reaching out to people.

The questions we were asked ranged from the very specific or personal – Who lived in this house? Where did my ancestor die? When was this church built? – to the more general or esoteric. We have been quizzed about buildings and institutions that are long gone, about people who have shaped our city, for better or worse, and about hundreds of other subjects, from theatres, railways, trams and tourism to local politics, slum clearances, smugglers and suffragettes. The ongoing digitisation of our records has made it easier to pull different resources together – a newspaper article here, an obscure pamphlet there, perhaps a photograph, a biographical cutting, and a school magazine, too. The research has been an education in itself, and we have all learnt so much in the process.

The architecture of the Royal Pavilion estate has in the past been described as ‘in itself quite a museum’, and the History Centre’s physical environment did in some ways come to define it. But the building, however beautiful, was never the whole story. We believe that the collections will continue to inspire and educate, entertain and inform, in a very different setting.

Kate Elms, Brighton History Centre

Jeff Koons Imminent…

I’m starting to really love Mondays, when Brighton Museum is closed to the public and much quieter than normal. There’s something magic about the atmosphere of a large museum or gallery space when it’s empty. There are still staff around obviously, it’s just nobody wanders the floors except security, so it has this clichéd dusty, peaceful, timeless vibe.  Anyway, two or three weeks ago, I was here for a planning meeting that got postponed. I was about to leave, when Program Manager Helen Grundy took pity on me and spent a few minutes showing me some early prep for the (very high profile) upcoming Jeff Koons exhibition.

The Jeff Koons doesn’t open until May 11 but planning has been going on for many months: one of the most dizzying aspects of museum and gallery life is how far ahead these teams start organising each project – I’ve already sat in meetings where events and exhibitions scheduled for 2015/16 are being discussed.

At first glance an exhibition like the Jeff Koons might seem straightforward: a handful of individual works by one single artist. But he’s such a world-renowned name and these aren’t simple portraits, they’re complex installation pieces, so it quickly becomes a massive exercise in co-ordination. Crucially for Brighton Museum, one of the pieces will hang from the ceiling, so on this particular Monday morning, a crew was here moving all the displays carefully to one side, in order to set up a full size scaffold platform. From there, they were testing out the eaves and inserting a brand new horizontal joist, to enable the building to safely carry the load.

I’ve never given much thought to the transporting of large art pieces before but it’s like paradise for an Ikea-fetishist, or the best Lego ever. I’ll try to watch the pieces arrive and get photos (no promises though, they may not let me in).

Sometimes when major installation works arrive, they’re actually flat-packed and re-assembled on arrival, either by a team attached to the artist, who’ll travel with the work, or by a team of experts from the host gallery, who follow detailed written instructions. I can’t wait to see this.

The next day, I came back and sat in on a meeting with The Koons Collective – a kind of Baker Street Irregulars for Brighton Museum; they’re a team of student volunteers, recruited from previous museum projects. Facilitated by freelancer Lindsey Smith, Brighton Museum is challenging them to develop their own ideas for merchandise lines – taking specific inspiration from the Jeff Koons works that’ll be displayed here – to see if they can turn a profit in the museum shop.

Now this was a fascinating meeting: the Collective was presenting their ideas. Like business execs with a massive flipchart, they proposed three merchandise routes for shop products and I’m not giving away what they’ve come up with (I promised I wouldn’t) but all the ideas are flippin fantastic. At least one of the ideas deserves to make the project a fortune.

There was a great moment when Buying & Merchandise Manager Nicki’s eyes lit up: suddenly she was no longer just helping out with a young peoples’ project, instead genuinely excited about the sale possibilities. On the evidence of this meeting, the Koons Collective brings exactly the right energy and creative, out-of-the-box thinking to a major exhibition. I’ll interview them during one of their workshop days in the next week or two – and as soon as I’m allowed, I’ll tell you more about what they’ll be selling. Anyway, you’ll probably be able to grab some of it within a few weeks.

Chris T-T, Blogger in Residence