Overview
This is About Birds & Freedom was my first large scale creative production. This event was a rooftop exhibition that focused on a series of photographs by Barbara Gabrielle (@barbaragabriellee) and featured 25 collaborating artists. The series reflected on Barbara’s experience with the feeling of freedom as a new immigrant in NYC from Brazil. The date of this event was set for July 7th, 2018, the weekend following Independence Day. The featured artists were prompted to submit works that represented what freedom means to them, along with some insight into the meaning of each piece they submitted.
My Role
I curated and organized the entirety of this exhibition. I communicated the vision and worked directly with another designer to develop the social media content for this event. I took charge of social media and marketing strategies. I managed the needs and concerns of the headlining artist. I generated and distributed submission forms and showcasing agreements for featured artists. I scheduled and carried out drop-off and pick-up dates.
On the day of the event, I was in charge of hanging all of the artwork and took on the role of the project manager of all event operations including the bar, food, musical performances and hosting featured artists. I networked with guests, answered questions and assisted my team with anything they needed through the course of the event.
The Conflict
As my first large scale event, I vastly underestimated my need for a strong team! I was always the type to come up with an idea and just do it myself. This mentality proved to be my greatest flaw during this event. The planning and paperwork was no problem for me. I communicated with artists regularly and tried to make the process as seamless and effortless for them as possible. With that, I made sure to tell everyone not to worry about a thing and I will take care of the details.
On the morning of the event, I began carrying equipment and supplies up 11 flights to the rooftop with a small team of 3 people. I quickly realized that this would take hours to accomplish at this rate. I reached out to other vendors and team members and asked them to arrive earlier than expected to help with this setback. The response for people coming to help was incredible, however, the timing was not. When you don’t plan ahead, people aren’t prepared for the worst-case scenario.
By the time we got everything to the roof, it was almost time to open our doors and none of the art had been hung. I started organizing the artwork and hanging things in their proper places, but as the project manager, I kept being called in different directions. The bartender needed help preparing drinks, the musicians couldn’t figure out how to get the speaker hooked up, and a surprising number of people were already arriving looking for a handle to send electronic payments.
My failure at this point was in delegating the workload. I had promised everyone that I could handle the hard work by myself and ended up drowning in it. Reluctantly I handed the hammer and nails to a fellow artist to finish hanging artwork and stepped up to help reassure and lead the team.
What I Learned
This event taught me how to delegate work appropriately. This was my first experience being the lead director of a big team. I learned that leading the production of an event is so much more than simply putting people in a space together. Half the battle was organizing those people remotely, the other half began when all of those people arrived. I learned that a team is an ecosystem of support. By trying to do it all, I was not allowing my team to support me and as a result, I wasn’t there to support my team.
I recognized that the people who volunteered their time to help me wanted to do the work it took. Once I stepped out of my own way, I was able to pull the team together and carry out a shockingly successful rooftop exhibition. Since this event, I view my team as a power source. I can make the connections between communities, but a team is vital to provide the electricity that makes it all work.
