BRITISH COLUMBIA ARTISTS  

BC Artists 1946 exhibition work schedule

This digital scan is from an original art gallery work schedule for the 15th Annual B.C. Artists exhibition in October 1946. The schedule gives an idea of the huge amount of work and organization required over more than four months to have the exhibition. Almost every line item is a major task of itself. Line item 16 calls for delivery of the catalogue copy to the printer of the artworks that were selected only the day before. The printer is then expected to print and deliver the catalogues in only three days. That would be a tricky task today, even with a computer doing digital page layouts.

Exhibition documents noted in the work schedule:
    Exhibition notification card
    Exhibition entry form
    Membership suggestion letter
    Invitation postcards
    List of entries
    Exhibition catalogue
    Rejection notices
The list of entries would have included hundreds of artworks from one or two hundred artists (or more). Each artist's submission included submission numbers, exhibition numbers (if accepted); titles, mediums, and prices of the artwork; and notations by the Gallery indicating that the individual artworks were accepted or rejected, sold, to which purchaser, and if they were returned to the artist by being picked up or shipped. Again, all of this was done only with a typewriter and a pen.


Information courtesy Vancouver Art Gallery Library & Archives


HOME