ABOUT US: OUR STORY

HOW CAN NATIONWIDE CURATING HELP YOU?

Nationwide Curating provides;

  1. An online platform featuring contemporary artists
  2. Exhibition, mentoring & artist residency opportunities
  3. Artwork display systems and installations
  4. Rotating Exhibition Services and Social Commercial Activations

Our online gallery and 'rotating exhibition services' enable our artists to expand the potential for exposure of their work with e-commerce support. 

Nationwide Curating presents quality, original artworks with a certificate of authenticity provided to the buyer for each and every sold item. The gallery is a living and breathing entity with new artists approaching us daily to become involved which brings dynamism and excitement to your online experience with Nationwide Curating.

Nationwide's friendly staff are available to provide advice, source artworks to suit your vision or existing collection & to 'activate your spaces'.

Nationwide Curating not only provides artwork selection opportunities, we also supply and install artwork display systems so our service continues beyond the purchase of artwork if needed. 

All artworks can be posted anywhere within Australia and internationally. For details on shipping please get in touch at info@nationwidecurating.com 

Supporting our artists, through the purchase of artwork, allows them the freedom to continue developing their practice and therefore assists them to inspire us all.

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OUR STORY: NATIONWIDE CURATING GENESIS

"We have a problem in the arts. Artists must often fund their own art exhibitions in commercial gallery spaces, at great expense" (K. Kennedy 2021)

As a Business Development Manager in the Building Maintenance industry, I viewed common areas of commercial, educational, corporate, and other public spaces. Frequently, these spaces were under utilized and full of promise. Fast forward to a career change to the arts industry, combined with this history of noting un-activated public spaces and we have the foundations of an idea.

Leaving the building maintenance industry was inspired by art. While at Menzies Group, I repeatedly entertained industry partners and clients at art exhibitions by Menzies Art Brands. Suddenly I wanted to be transgressive in my own career. I decided to follow a passion, explore creativity, and develop skills for a long career in the arts as a practicing artist. This culminated in a bachelor’s degree in fine arts.

Perhaps my innate interest in the commercial viability of art eventuated from my own struggles as an artist or alternatively from my background in business development. Personally, I have had difficulty representing my own art and I understand this to be very commonplace. I therefore poured myself into the promotion of other artists, designed and managed projects which exposed the talent of selected artists and worked full time for the last 7-8 years towards gap-filling my industry experience.

Over time I have developed a keen interest in the business and commerce of art. I wanted to expose myself to all kinds of arts administration and commercial avenues and simply soak it all up. I was fascinated with human behavior in the consumption of art and selected courses, whenever possible, within my degree that supported these interests. Visual Anthropology, writing for publication, Curating and expansive readings on alternatives to traditional exhibition methods, channeled my interests in thinking about arts inside and outside of institutions, private and commercial galleries, artist run initiatives and major public art events.

This is what I learned; We have a problem in the arts. Artists must often fund their own art exhibitions in commercial gallery spaces, at great expense. Exposing a body of work can therefore involve a great deal of anxiety. Can I sell enough work to cover my costs, will I come out in font, Is this worth it? Whilst I do believe that art galleries are a necessary and rewarding solution for artists, I feel there are other unexplored avenues.

Further to this, artists are too busy being everything required for a small business to thrive. Artists are their own administrators, marketing, and publicity officers, for example. This sometimes causes a fracturing of the mental capacities to conceive of creating which essentially deflects attention away from their core business. 

Over the years I have asked myself, what if we could find other ways to expose an artist’s work? What if we could explore alternatives to the traditional, often costly methods of artwork display? How do we bridge the gap between the broader community and the artist? How do we tap into the many other demographics of art appreciators? Art is for everyone and yet not everyone feels welcome in galleries so how do we remind people that art inspires and nourishes the soul? The answer is simple, we make art available to the masses, we install it professionally, light it up respectfully and in so doing, cast a light upon the artist's hard work, dedication, and skill.

By making the enjoyment of art part of our everyday vocabulary, with individual, original artworks installed in restaurants, bars, hotels, commercial building foyers etc, we elevate the artist by way of introduction and ongoing nurtured support. 

Nationwide Curating has identified that the traditional approach to gallery-only artwork presentation, fractures the artist from the broader community and has accepted the challenge by sourcing new and exciting exhibition opportunities in public and community spaces.

Written by Nationwide Curating Founder: Katherine Kennedy

Image credit: David Brazil

 

ABOUT US: MEET THE TEAM

Introducing Katherine Kennedy: Nationwide Curating Manager

Katherine brings over 14+ years of arts industry experience in Australia & NZ, with placements in private & public galleries, public events, art advisories, not-for-profits & community art centers. Katherine has curated a number of major projects, creating exhibition experiences for Australian and New Zealand artists, from concept inception to event management.

Katherine also has business-to-business experience as a BDM for a major Australian owned building maintenance company, which cultivated a lasting business acumen.
Bachelor of Fine Arts (Honours) UNSW Art & Design.

Image credit: David Brazil

 

Introducing Nathan McCully: Nationwide Curating Installations 

Nathan has over 27 years of construction & building maintenance experience. Nathan has worked on a variety of projects in a commercial and client-side capacity for clients including educational, hospitality, aged care and numerous other commercial precincts.

Nathan has developed a critical understanding of the built environment as an onsite project & facilities manager. It is this experience that is critical to Nathan’s ability to understand how dynamic and critical installations are undertaken respecting the fabric of the existing building.

Image credit: David Brazil