Check out the latest studio improvements at GOA

With the successful conclusion of our first crowd funding campaign in the Spring, we were able to make some big studio improvements this Summer in how we serve artists in our Tetouan studios. We’re eager to share these studio improvements with YOU … and the rest of the art world.

A HUGE THANK YOU to the 56+ who contributed to make these improvements possible and to indiegogo.com for hosting our campaign!!

You can see the story and our entertaining pitch video on our campaign page here … and you can even still make a contribution if you want to join the coolness of seeing GOA be able to offer artists a better experience here in Morocco (and get some great perks in return).

Printmaking Press

Most artists have had an opportunity, sometime back in their educational experience at least, to experiment with the art of printmaking … but very few can afford to put a serious press in their own studios. We are equipping a basic mobile printmaking studio to invite guest artists to explore this exciting medium further and to provide an opportunity for experienced printmakers to work in their medium while in residency in Morocco. To kick off this venture we have purchased a 39 kg MREIG intaglio etching press with a 40 x 80 cm work area and twin 10 cm finely adjustable pressure rollers. We will be mounting it to a lock-wheeled cabinet that has tool/ink storage and built in drying rack shelves (to be revealed soon) so it can be used in any of our studios. This press supports intaglio etching, dry-point, linoleum, mono-print, lithography, embossing and numerous experimental processes. Come and print with us!

Gallery Lighting

We installed new LED flood lights to provide clear, full color illumination of works on exhibition in our gallery space. This is a DIY budget lighting solution for our gallery to see if moving to more expensive systems is warranted. Rather than going with the traditional halogen lighting, we opted for LED floods in the 3000° Kelvin range (took some searching!), providing a very white light that actually has the a color rendering index of 80* which is similar to halogens and feels ‘warmer’ than florescent tubes. They have much greater electrical efficiency and virtually none of the artwork-damaging heat radiation associated with extended use of halogens or incandescents. We have added auxiliary wiring points so that we can add specialty fixtures, such as dimmable lamps and smaller spot lights in the future. The floods point down at approximately 45° from their mounts on our DIY lighting frame of aluminum beams 3 meters off the gallery floor. At this height there are no cast shadows from guests as there were when we only had our central florescent units to light the space. We are very happy with the results!

Video Projector

To accommodate the increasing artistic use of video in installation work and short film production, we have mounted a high quality projector to our beam frame in the gallery space. IT is oriented to project on the one ‘chamfered’ wall opposite the entrance. We look forward to seeing how our artists will make us of this resource for screenings of film shorts, video art, and documentaries as well as to offering the GOA gallery-theater as a venue for Tetouan’s big annual film festival.

Audio System

With the increase of sound art as an established art form, and also to accommodate musical and poetic performance as well as accompany the projection of films and video art, we have installed a fairly low profile but high quality sound system in the gallery space. 150 watt speakers are connected to an amplifier sound control board from which we can route numerous sources, including wireless microphones, video sound, and various playback devices. A big THANK YOU to local audio wizard Imad for his work in setting up the perfect system for this space. We are also in the process of trimming the acoustic profile of the space itself with absorption and diffusion panels … stay tuned for a separate DIY post to see how we did it.

Flat Files Paper Workstation

Another big studio improvement this summer was a flat files paper workstation! Our local carpenter extraordinaire and good friend, Faouzi, did a super job crafting a flat files cabinet for us from Jeff’s drawings and storage criteria! With the addition of some hardware, it has become a respectable piece of studio furniture. As a workstation, it functions beautifully, with a large self-healing cutting mat, paper cutter, tools and roll dispenser on the top work surface. This cabinet will serve to hold general use paper supplies as well as assigned storage for artists in residence who need flat file space. The open shelf at the bottom is for chip board and other large materials that are not as easily stored in a drawer.