Our new exhibitions are open

Update: See the bottom of this post for a new Making Of video.

We made it! As of today, Neeta Madahar: Bradford Fellowship in Photography 2008 - 09 is open to visitors in Gallery One, and Drawings That Move: The Art Of Joanna Quinn is ready for you in Gallery Two.

Having known these two exhibitions since they were glints in our curators' eyes, it's strange and exciting to see them there now as actual real-life galleries with actual real-life people inside them. They're both seriously fantastic exhibitions and I'd urge you to come along and see them.

And whether you get to visit or not, there's a ton of bonus material for you to get stuck into. It's all listed below.

Our official exhibition websites
http://www.nationalmediamuseum.org.uk/neetamadahar/
http://www.nationalmediamuseum.org.uk/joannaquinn/

Archive magazine with features about both artists
Archive page

Joanna Quinn resource page with video, sketchbooks and more
Joanna Quinn resources

This blog's 'Making of an Exhibition' series
Part one: Designer Rob Derbyshire talks graphics
Part two: Unboxing the Joanna Quinn objects
Part three: Behind the scenes at one of Neeta's Flora shoots
Part four: The condition checking process
Part five: Building the Joanna Quinn gallery
Part six: Building the Neeta Madahar gallery

NEW: Making Of video from opening night
Our media team created a brilliant Making Of video for the opening night party on Thursday -- you can take a look at it below. It takes you right through the process of creating an exhibition: you even get to see Neeta's reaction to the finished gallery.

The making of an exhibition: part six

Four days to go, and we're back to our Neeta Madahar exhibition.

This post is a companion piece to last week's step-by-step look at the building of the Joanna Quinn exhibition. The process for Neeta Madahar has been much the same: paint the walls, bring up and lay out the artworks, hang everything up, apply graphics.

But. Because Gallery One is bigger than Gallery Two, there's much more scope for the Exhibition Organisers to actually design the exhibition layout, putting in new walls to create corners and cubbyholes and rooms and spaces. So unlike with the Joanna Quinn gallery, you can walk in on the builders actually rolling walls around...



... and taking all manner of sharp and heavy instruments to bits of wood and metal.







The holes above won't be visible in the final gallery. They're where the screens go that'll display Neeta's beautiful Solstice, two 24-minute time-lapses of 36,000 stills that track the Summer and Winter solstices. One wall will be Summer; the other will be Winter. And instead of builders inside that room, it'll be you, watching the video.

You're already familiar with the process of artworks being brought up, carefully laid out on the gallery floor, then studied for possible changes. Sharon Scarmazzo and Ruth Haycock brought the artworks out of their hiding place this time, then Sharon and Greg Hobson paced the floor making their final decisions about placement.







Like Animalism previously, this exhibition has made the most of the expanse of wall outside Gallery One. The gigantic letters pictured below might not be furry, but, believe me, they're just as impressive to stand in front of.



To finish off, here's a side-by-side comparison of how the rear of the Neeta exhibition looked two weeks ago, and how it looks now. Things happen fast around here.



That's it from this Making Of series for now -- I don't want to spoil the final touches here, when you can come and see them with your own eyes from Friday. While you wait for the grand opening, you can browse through all the Making Of articles here, or find out more about both the Joanna Quinn and Neeta Madahar exhibitions at our exhibitions page.

Behind the scenes with Neeta Madahar

We're three weeks away from our Neeta Madahar exhibition opening on 16 Oct, so here's a peek behind the scenes at the making of the portrait series we'll be exhibiting -- 'Flora'.

Flora is a series of carefully and painstakingly arranged portraits, picturing Neeta's female friends alongside plants and flowers. We'll have several new Flora pictures on display in the exhibition -- and in the video above, Jen Anyan, the stylist for the series, travels around the studio with a camcorder to give us an intimate look at the hard work that goes into each shoot.

Don't forget that this Sunday is your last chance to catch the current exhibitions, Animalism and Don McCullin: In England -- because on Monday, we start dismantling them piece by piece. I'll be there with the camera, make no mistake.

The making of an exhibition: part three

We're switching exhibitions for this part of our series on how events at the Museum blossom from concept to reality.

Our Gallery One exhibition starting 16 October is Neeta Madahar: Bradford Fellowship in Photography 2008-09, bringing you beautiful photography and dreamlike video from this extremely creative British artist. You can find out more from the video above -- our Curator of Photography Greg Hobson is in front of the camera this time, explaining some of the thinking behind the exhibition.

You also get to watch Neeta browsing photographs in our Print Store, and go behind-the-scenes on a shoot for her Madame Yevonde-inspired portrait series, 'Flora'.

More Making Of to come: yesterday I was down in Insight to see the condition check process for the prints, drawings and animation cels that make up the Joanna Quinn exhibition -- photos and hopefully video of that coming soon.