B.Y.O.A.A.S
The Bring Your Own Art Art Show (BYOAAS) is a regular, open door exhibition ran by graphic designer Emily Flynn, Hens Teeth Studio and ourselves.
Since February 2019, it has taken place in Lucky’s Bar and was about to hold another show in the bigger Hens Teeth Studio space when Coronavirus hit. Emily quickly moved the show online to Instagram with a huge response.
With the next show happening Friday 8th May, we asked Emily to explain what it's all about.
Tell us a bit about yourself
I'm Emily, I'm from Dublin and I'm a graphic and product designer.
Where did the BYOAAS idea come from?
I came across the B.Y.O.A.A.S. idea via Bráulio Amado's Instagram. He runs a studio/shop space in NYC called SSHH and they'd started running these bring your own art art-shows there.
I thought, 'that's deadly, I wish someone would do something like this here’. Then I figured I'd just give it a go myself. Lucky’s got on board straight away so we put a plan in place.
When I got in touch with Bráulio he was really sound about us using the name and concept for a Dublin chapter, providing us with the original poster artwork.
About 50 artists turned up for the first show, which was amazing, and intense! It went really well with really lovely feedback from artists and buyers afterwards. We have had between 40 to 65 artists per show for each, with the audience turnout increasing each time too.
So, how does it work
B.Y.O.A.A.S. stands for Bring Your Own Art Art Show. It's an informal art show that lasts for a couple of hours, and the idea is for people - anybody - to come along and hang their work alongside their fellow artists and designers, have the chats, and hopefully make a sale in the process.
We use temporary hangings and a few rules apply, like no frames and a max size of A2. Everyone hangs their own work (with help from some BYOAAS crew) and they have to take it down again when the show finishes.
It's kept as spontaneous as possible, only opening our pre-registration a couple of days before, which really helps get people excited and engaged.
30% of sales go to Inner City Helping Homeless with the rest going to the artist. We have 7 or 8 featured designers per show, some of which would be fairly newly established, and everyone is allowed one piece on the wall to make it as fair as possible.
How has it been so far?
Running the show has been an amazing experience. It became apparent really quickly that B.Y.O.A.A.S. is as much of a much-needed get together for creatives as it is an art show, and a real community has built up around it. I've made some lovely new pals and have heard the same from quite a few people which is SO nice to know.
One of the best things about the show is meeting artists who haven't shown their work before. It's a big deal hanging your work amongst other artists for the first time, and an amazing feeling if you sell your work, which has happened quite a few times, so there can be a fair bit of hugging at the end of the show.
Knowing that there are nervous first timers there gives us a real sense of responsibility in terms of looking out for artists and trying to make people feel comfortable taking part in the show.
How have you found the move to online?
Just before lockdown we had partnered up with the fine folk in Hen's Teeth to start using their D8 venue for the show, because as amazing as Lucky's was, it was getting too busy at the shows to see the art properly so we really needed to make a move.
That show was scheduled for April 17th, but that obviously couldn't go ahead. The online show is a way of keeping the B.Y.O.A.A.S. going and the community connected during lockdown. I really didn't know what way it was going to go but then we had nearly 150 artists take part on the night, which was unreal! There was some really stunning work which you can see in our story highlights on Instagram.
There are a few new challenges to the online show - mostly technical - but we're managing it as best we can and will do the show every 4 weeks until we can get to do it again in real-life. Very excited for that day!
Find out more and or take part @bringyourowndub
Next shows:
Friday 8th May 2020
Friday 5th June 2020
How to take part
If you'd like to join in, share your work in a feed post or story between 7.30pm and 8.30pm on the night of the event, tagging us and using #byoaasdub.
We'll share everything in our stories (one share per person) so people can see all of your posts through our account.
Your work can be anything you want - prints, a painting.. a dance! and doesn't necessarily have to be for sale. We just want to see what you're doin!
If you are selling work, we'd ask that you handle your own sales, and if you can maybe donate a portion to a charity of your choice. But zero obligation on that front.
Any questions email bringyourowndub@gmail.com
