How the Artwork is Hung at Clearbrook Center of the Arts
The Prince William Art Society (PWAS, pronounced fondly as "P-WAHZ") is a non-profit art group in Prince William County. We display our artwork at Clearbrook Center of the Arts which is an art gallery here in Lake Ridge, Virginia (Northern Virginia - Woodbridge area). The gallery is open every weekend, Saturday and Sunday, from 1 to 4 and our artist members volunteer their time "manning the gallery". The artwork is changed out bi-monthly. The theme changes, new artwork is brought in, and some other pieces are moved around, making the gallery fresh for viewing.
The PWAS group called the "Clearbrook Committee" take care of this process and do an AWESOME job each Changeover. This article is by Barbara Abel and Bilee Sciuto and with this post, they give us a view on how it is done and what all is involved in the process.
- "A lot of what we do revolves around what artwork we have to work with each Changeover, and how we feel about the artwork."
First Day: Drop Off and Pick Up Day
First thing - We check out the storage room to see what people have dropped off. Jewell (Pratt Burns) has been helping by checking each separate piece of art to ensure the hanging system is correct and that if the artwork is on canvas, that all of the sides have been painted.
We do other checks as well – making sure that there are no random pencil marks, etc. We found one piece several months ago that was a drawing that that “looked left”, but the under-drawing looked right and down. The artist obviously was trying to decide on composition, but didn’t erase the first marks.
We also hung a piece that looked good, but a couple days later the glued screw pulled out of the frame and the whole piece fell off the wall – luckily over one of the counters and did not damage anyone else’s artwork. We have tried to add to the hanging requirements to not glue screws, to erase your earlier marks, and other requirements, but we often find stuff we don’t expect to. See the page "Display"
Taking Art Down
Another part of drop off/pick up is removing all the art off the walls and staging it in groups around the gallery. This past Changeover, I staged art by the artist, thinking it might help people coming in to pick up art (it didn’t – we had several people come in and drop off/pick up early.) Sometimes as we take art off the walls, we stage the new art with the art to stay, by color groups or themes (animals, holidays, etc.).
Bilee has asked that next time, I stage all art with the current theme on or near the alien’s bench (Entrance door right) because the theme wall is her specialty and it will keep her from having to look all over the building to see what artwork can be used on the theme wall. By the way, Bilee has done the Theme Wall for maybe the past 2 years and has a special touch for it. You should talk to her about how she figures out what to do and where to place each piece as the theme wall starts off totally clean with no artwork on it. So, the first wall to be dealt with is the theme wall. (I'll need to do that! - DL)
The Theme Wall for November and December 2021 - Winter and Holidays
Line of View
One of the most important walls to deal with early is the wall directly across from the front door. It is the first one seen by a visitor, and we try to use artwork that is beautiful, impactful, and pretty much the best of all the artwork provided to us to hang. We don’t always hit that mark, unfortunately. (I believe they do extremely well! As they say, sometimes we are our own worse critics, right? - DL)
Moving on, Shadow and I separately pick out art that resonates with us at the moment and stage it near the wall on which we are thinking it will hang. Then we search the rest of the artwork for related themes or colors, or something that will make the first piece “pop” or other aspects that might go with the first piece we chose and move it near the wall on which it might hang. Sometimes, it takes the three of us sitting down looking at what we have and trying to decide if the items all work together. Sometimes they don’t – this past Changeover we were working on building a wall with blue nautical themes and there was one piece I was trying to fit in that just didn’t work. We moved it to one of the walls in the time capsule room where it fit perfectly.
We often give preference of placement to new artists – so their art will show up in the lobby or the hall leading to the backroom.
A Committee Committed to Being a Team
We collaborate a lot while hanging art, and get each other’s opinions as to whether something works or not, and also, is the artwork hung straight, is it too high or low, does it need to be moved right or left?
We keep picking up artwork and walking through the gallery to find the perfect place to hang it. The time capsule room and the back room are often the last rooms to be finished, and some of the artwork winding up in those rooms are pieces that don’t match well with any of the artwork left to hang, or pieces that have been hanging in the gallery for several months. Or pieces that go perfectly with several other pieces…
Some of the last things we do are to tape down the plastic of the hanging system if needed, and to make sure each piece has 2 cards identifying it (one on back, one on the bottom right site of the artwork OR on the wall next to the artwork.) and finally, to just do a sanity check that we are happy with the results.
Hanging art becomes very touchy-feely – and I’m not sure I’ve given the process the best explanation possible. We all have favorite art pieces, and the 3 of us respect each other’s opinions, which are sometimes wildly different. Somehow we get the job done, and most of the time we can walk out thinking – yeah, that looks good!
Barbara/Bilee
Of note here is that the Prince William Art Society, probably like any art group, is composed of all sorts of artists: some with art educations, artists that are self-taught, artists that have been painting, selling, and showing artwork for years, AND artists that are newer to the art world and are learning the ropes (or wires) as it were and as it should be. We are ALL learning from each other.
A very BIG thank you to Barbara and Bilee for this behind the scenes look at how its hanging at Clearbrook, and we have to include Jewell and Shadow (Clearbrook Chair) for the wonderful displays each month. Thank you all. - DL
Local Art: Visit us at Clearbrook Center of the Arts at Tackett's Mill in Lake Ridge, VA on Saturdays and Sundays from 1 to 4 – it’s free to see the artwork! Want to join PWAS? Go to https://www.princewilliamartsociety.com/membership
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Author: Barbara Abel
PWAS and Clearbrook Committee artist member in Woodbridge, VA
Author: Bilee Sciuto
PWAS and Clearbrook Committee artist member
Author/Editor: Donna Liguria
An artist member of PWAS in Woodbridge, VA specializing in acrylic painting. She paints landscapes, seascapes, animals and many subjects. Visit her Blog at https://donnascavepainting.blogspot.com/.
Photography/Video Credits:
Shadow
