New Art Park is about to open in Bay City

Sneak preview

At 2pm PDT on Saturday 19th September 2015 there will be a grand opening of a new Pop Up Art Park over at Bay City in Second Life. The art park is set up and everyone is welcome to visit in advance of the opening to preview the new exhibits.

Here is the press release…

Derry McMahon and Bear Silvershade invite you to the opening reception for their latest exhibitions on Sat, Sept. 19 at 2 p.m. in Bay City, with Pippa Exonar as our featured entertainer.

This time though, it’s not in a formal gallery.

We’ve watched as galleries flicker in and out of existence, and had shows at several. Two things are consistent: nothing is permanent, and even with the most relentless, ongoing promotion, visitor numbers drop off dramatically after the opening and reach near zero long before a month – the usual length of gallery shows – is up.

Instead of fighting it, we’ve decided to embrace the ephemeral nature of Second Life and experiment with pop-up galleries. It goes like this: Rent a piece of suitable land, set up our work and open it to the public, but just for a couple of weeks.

The short time frame is key. For the patrons, it gives them more incentive to get out and see the show; no putting it off because “There’s plenty of time.” For us, it gives us the freedom to experiment and not feel tied down.

We can set up when and where we want, with whatever style we want. They might happen in different places once a month, or once every six months – whatever feels right.

This was Derry’s idea, by the way, so she’s the one to talk to about it. Our first location is in Bay City, on the Falconmoon sim. We discovered it quite by chance; we had been looking at several commercial properties all around SL, but when we randomly decided to poke around mainland, we found a property we decided would be perfect for a pop-up art park.

Derry is calling her exhibit Double Vision, and she’s paired up her images: one created in real life, one created in Second Life. In some cases, it’s difficult to tell which is which. (Frankly, that worries me a little. They look so alike, so does that mean that Second Life is actually a virtual copy of New Jersey?)

As always, Derry’s images are filled with bright colours so the park setting highlights them beautifully.

Mine, of course, are not so colourful. (You’ll note another difference – I just drove in some fence posts to hang my images from, but Derry insisted on having hers prettily arranged on easels)

The work I am showing this time grew out of my Lonely Streets of Second Life project (which I showed at my former gallery in Avalon). I call this exhibit Solitudes.

Like Derry, I’ve included — for the first time ever in Second Life — a few of my real life images, though I haven’t matched them one-to-one. I am a photojournalist in real life, and the images I have included here are tiny vignettes or scenics, often made on assignment while I am waiting for something else to happen.

The little art park is mostly set up, and you are welcome to drop by in advance of the opening to preview the exhibits or gather images for your blog, but we are hoping you can also make it to the reception on Saturday.

http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Bay%20City%20-%20Falconmoon/210/201/25

Spread the word about the new opening of the art park happening tomorrow. 🙂

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