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ABOUT
The Lost City was the senior art show for the 2022 graduating class of Richard Montgomery High School. As National Art Honor Society president, as well as being on the invitation design committee of planning the exhibition, I had a prominent role in the development and execution of the projects.
TIME SPAN
MY ROLE
3 months
Advertising
Invitation Design
Exhibitor
First and foremost, due to the scale and amount of moving parts on the exhibit, committees were delegated to have specialized roles in the production. Some included Hospitality (food, drink, etc), Fundraising, and Invitation Design.
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As president of the National Art Honor Society, one of the main co-sponsors of the event, I had a place in all of the committees, but did the majority of my work in Invitation Design.
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Committees were comprised of 2-3 members (other senior artists), totally 13 people altogether.
We communicated via weekly in person meetings, as well as through online group chats and a shared google drive.
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COMITTEES
The next step was choosing a theme to start developing off of, which was eventually settled on an underwater, atlantis type mood. We would eventually narrow this down to The Lost City, which combined an underwater theme with a bustling, colorful metropolis.
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THEME
When developing the invitation for the event, each member of the Invitation Design committee drafted up a potential design. We then shared and critiqued each design, taking the parts that we did like, and combined them into a final invitation.
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My contribution geared more towards neon lighting and a dark blue and purple color scheme, which was applied throughout the final invitation design as well as the gallery design.
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INVITATION
INVITATION DRAFTS
FINALIZED INVITATIONS
FUNDRAISING
Two main fundraisers were created to raise money to fund the event: The Valentine’s Day Card sale as well as the Holiday Card Sale. For these events, handmade cards would be sold to the student population for 2 weeks leading up to winter break and Valentine’s day.
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Since I was additionally heading the other main Valentine’s day event, the Rose Sale, I was able to spearhead both events as a more cohesive sale, generating more profit for both causes.
Additionally, since I was the president of NAHS, I offered credit opportunities to NAHS members to create cards that were sold at each of the fundraisers. In all, about $350 were raised.
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The money raised from these events went toward purchasing frames, food, and decorations for the event.
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GALLERY
The design of the gallery was based off of a dark blue, light blue, and purple color scheme. Tulle was hung from the ceiling to give the space a whimsical, flowy effect, and faux jellyfish were created to create an underwater immersive experience.
Additionally, clay sea creatures were made to develop more immersion into the underwater theme, and various string lights were hung to add ambient lighting.
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PROGRESS SHOTS
ART ORGANIZATION
When assigning spaces for artists’ work, we took into account the similarity of people’s styles and central themes, and wanted to give each artist’s section the ability to stand apart on its own when viewing the works altogether. By separating more similar styles and colors, we were able to create more individuality among pieces, and let all the work speak for itself rather than being too muddled on the eye.
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In terms of mounting the pieces to the wall, artists were allowed creative liberty to arrange the pieces as they liked.
Outside of the main gallery, there were also large panels spaced out among the school’s largest hallway, ‘Main Street’, for more gallery space.
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When developing the advertisements, I took into account the variety of students that made up my target audience to make music and aesthetic choices, as well as the theme of the ocean, which was quintessential to the exhibit.
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ADVERTISING
I developed three video advertisements for the two fundraising events and the actual shownight of the exhibition, all posted on the exhibition’s Instagram page as well as broadcasted to the entire school via the school’s morning broadcast system.
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SHOWNIGHT
For show night, we had around 150 attendees, including the artists’ friends, family, and other classmates. We included an hors d'oeuvre area, as well as live music on Main Street that could be heard throughout the event. The event lasted 3 hours, and was considered a great success!
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This was my first exhibition/curation planning project that I have done, and while I had experience developing creative events prior to this one, this was the first event I had done specifically for displaying art. I believe this event helped me with my exhibition development during my time in the Teen Artlab Collective, and set a precedent for my love and involvement in creating experiences for audiences today.
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CONCLUSION