On 06-05-2023 we had our first Draw Club Rotterdam exposition at Nivon Rotterdam. The first idea for a collaborate exposition started at Endless Sunday when Ben Neuteboom brought it up, wouldn't it be nice if...
A lot of months passed, Endless Sunday had to close, we were looking for a new location and we found a spot at Nivon for our Draw Club sessions in Rotterdam. Vik wondered if we could get some workspace in the building and after asking Ben Lindeman of Nivon we got it. Somewhere in between our first Nivon sessions and getting workspace we attended an exposition at Nivon held by Karmijn. That's where Ben Lindeman offered us to hold an exposition of our own.
Doubts and ideas went back and forth. Certainly Ben Neuteboom's suggestion was one of the first things that came to mind. And perhaps we made it too difficult for ourselves. Do we need a theme? What should that theme be? If it's a theme, some of our members should have time to actually make the art. At some point there was a moment of let's see who's interested and let just go for it. Surprisingly a lot were interested, so when we quickly found six we thought it would be wise to put a cap on it. We had: Denver, Lieneke, Nadija, Nigel, Saskia and Ben Neuteboom.
Around this time I asked Saskia to help with organising the exposition in general and she did a great job from start to end. And everybody chipped in. Nadija made a cool flyer with input from the team. Denver and Vik found picture frames at Nivon and sorted them on size. Through Ben Lindeman we got a mention on the Nivon website and an article in de Rotterdamse Toorts.
We were on a tight schedule. The best moment to prepare the bar and exposition space was on the day of the opening. So we started early in the afternoon. The biggest challenge was to figure out the framing system installed by Nivon. But Ben Lindeman and the technical person were there to help out. Another challenge was the balancing of some of the frames. When most of the pictures were up a small group went to do some shopping for snacks. When all the pictures were up it was time for dinner. A group of us went to Burger & Frites for a good meal. Eating dinner while sitting on swings was also a nice experience.
We went back for the last preparations. There were two tables where some of the group had stickers and prints for sale. The snacks needed bowls. Around this time our Nivon volunteer arrived to prepare the bar.
Now we were ready for the exciting part, will people show up? They did. A nice mix of friends, partners, relatives, co-workers people from Nivon, Eric from the Rotterdamse Toorts, Willem Hest from Karmijn and more. Of course special mentions for Vincent, a long time member of the Draw Club. Carmen & Arthur, another long time member of the draw club and her partner. And Emma, Saskia's sister and member of Draw Club Capelle aan den IJssel.
I look back on a long day with a very fun evening. I think the pictures and video give a nice impression of this fine day. Thanks for reading!
