I have no more words to give. I’m all worded out – if you ask me what I’ve been doing all day my mind goes blank, I can’t even remember what I had for lunch (if I had lunch). We had our press launch on Wednesday morning – weeks of preparation, proofing press releases, rehearsing the presentation, refining the images, ensuring the key messages were embedded within the presentation. Suddenly you’re standing before the assembled throng – there is a lot riding on this. You need to be engaging, entertaining and above all informative. Then its all over, you’ve done the Q&A session, had the individual interview with the Guardian and you’re back in the office. Suddenly you’re doing telephone interviews with the Telegraph, the Evening Standard and the Times. You’ve done this so many times now you’re getting quite good at it (or so you believe……)
T.428-1985 ‘Chapman’ Patchwork Coverlet, 1829
I was fascinated by the coverage next day – the three nationals all picked up on the intriguing story of the Chapman Coverlet and the rather more macabre origins of what was believed to be a love poem between John and Elisabeth Chapman. Suddenly you realise that you have released a monster – you have no control over what journalists choose to interpret, or what spin they decide to put on your story. Luckily most of the coverage was positive but suddenly being in the public domain has been a bit of a shock!
Off to spend a week at home before the colour proofs come back for the exhibition catalogue, the practical patchwork publication, the exhibition texts and final round of budget reviews for the exhibition design. Excellent feedback from our Project Team Meeting today – we’re on the case for the commemorative panel, the call for papers for the conference has now gone live see http://www.vam.ac.uk/activ_events/courses/conferences/index.html and tickets for the exhibition are selling like hot cakes. A reminder to book your tickets well in advance particularly if you are travelling some distance – we anticipate some days being sold out and we don’t want to disappoint anyone!
