Notes from my meeting with Sarah:

Interests:

  1. Exhibition of female artists, if men focus on the male gaze as inspiration, what did the female artists use as inspiration at the time? There are only 27 paintings by women in the gallery. What’s the reason for this? Could this be a subject? Should I focus on a single female painting, or perhaps a piece where the woman is the subject, rather than the artist?
  2. Costs of paintings. Could I look into the cost of each painting and the funds available at the National Gallery? Could I compare what we could do with this money as a country? There are paintings in the gallery that are worth millions of pounds. What would this money do for the NHS?
  3. Art restoration is an interest of mine. I’ve always been interested in what the painting looked like before it was restored and how it looks now. Is this really what the painting would have looked like? why do they get no credit for restoring the painting? It would be nice to have more in-depth information for each painting like this.

Notes from my meeting with Theresa:

Notes on Interests:

  1. The best idea is my original idea about female artists, so I should stick with that one.
  2. Consider the Guerrilla Girls (1980s) for your project; this could be a suitable fit. They bring attention to the fact that there is a significant lack of female artist representation.
  3. Remember, you’re Gen Z, and you’re not a gallery goer. This makes you the perfect audience because you are the target they are looking for. So, think about what would make me want to attend the gallery?
  4. Exhibition “the women behind the paintings”. Could I look into the subjects of the paintings and create an exhibition on the women behind them? For example, I could set up a painting with a description next to it: “Lacy was 23 and a mother of 4, she worked as… to support her children… She got paid 1 pound for posing for this photo… the painting sold for 3.5 billion” This could be really impactful.
  5. Where could your exhibition take place? On the doorstep of Trafalgar Square, at night in the museum? Be creative with this - make it appeal to Gen Z. Could it be interactive?
  6. There is power in owning it / Outing themselves.
  7. When examining women in the paintings, research models from that time and then trace them back to the paintings to see if the gallery owns them.