With the future of one of the UK's only regular graphic design venues in jeopardy, we interview Kemistry's Graham McCallum on exciting new plans and highlights from the past.
Kemistry has occupied a very important niche for graphic design exhibitions in the last decade — did you anticipate what a hub it would become from the start?
Absolutely not. In fact, if we knew what we were letting ourselves in for we might have had second thoughts. We spent a ton of money on Timeframes, our first exhibition. We published a book, T-shirts and DVDs, as well has having some very expensive aluminium light boxes and prints made. In the event, although the exhibition was a huge success, we failed miserably to cover our costs. After that we had to draw our horns in and be more modest in our expenditure. Over the years we’ve learned a lot, planned a year ahead and been highly selective in our choice of exhibitors. I think this has paid off, not financially but in terms of following. Last week for example, after the launch of our Kickstarter campaign, we had 105K tweets so we were right in believing there is a real appetite for what we’re doing. The support has been wonderful.
Your plans for the future of Kemistry are really exciting and ambitious — what's the vision for a future permanent, public space for graphic design?
When we heard we had lost the premises we are in, at first we were distraught. Then we realised it was probably the kick up the pants we needed to attempt something bigger and better. The ultimate aim is to have a more of a national centre for graphic design and graphic arts, not only continue with great exhibitions but also be an educational resource. We feel that graphic design plays a huge part in our culture but this isn’t properly recognised. Of course, we’ll have to take this step by step but the support for the idea is encouraging and we’re grateful to the Arts Council for giving us a grant to do a proper feasibility study.