Rachelle Pedersen

THE SOCIETY OF BRILLIANT IDEAS: The art collective I am currently running was a project that required a lot of work to make happen. I formed a core team to initiate the set up of the society and managed the finding and selection of 20 individuals to take studios. I also negotiated a reasonable lease and organised our fit out. There were many hurdles on the path to our success, and I resolved these by consolidating our team and restructuring our marketing and advertising approaches. We are currently working on projects which implement one of the aims of the society: to provide a platform for artists to engage with the local community.

FUNDING APPLICATIONS: Creating two sucessful applications for funding from Creative NZ. One for the Vavasour Godkin gallery which I did alone, giving us financial support for involvement in an international Artfair, the other funding SUTURE, a collaborative performance project. Through this I learned a great deal about marketing and promotion, budgeting, organisation, communication and working in a team. These applications are incredibly rigorous and difficult, and I had produced declined applications both for my own projects and for the gallery before being successful.

RACHELLE PEDERSEN: Through my own Fashion Design business I learned innovative methods of marketing and selling my work. As I didn't have experience or training in this area, I created my own ways of gaining attention for my work through creating a brand around sustainable clothing and constantly creating new projects with which to capture the attention of the media. I sucessfully sold work to prestigous retailers such as: Scotties, Auckland; Miss Crabb, Auckland; Goddess, Queenstown; Alice Euphemia, Melbourne; Belinda, Sydney and Melbourne. While I was highly active in this work I had a lot of press and magazine editorials from publications such as: Pavement NZ; The Herald NZ; Harpers Bazaar, Australia; Urbis NZ; Staple NZ.

GALLERY MANAGEMENT: Sucessfully managing and performing the day to day tasks involved with running the Vavasour Godkin Gallery. I basically learned this job by myself, which was difficult but I found that in learning in this way I created many operational methods and really came to own the job. I ran the gallery alone while the director was away on business trips and felt competent in all aspects of operating the gallery.

2010                        Produced Adopt an Artwork, Exhibition and Auction Fundraiser for The Lonely Miaow. Outerspace Gallery, Depot Artspace, Auckland

2008                        Outside Inside, Solo show, Objectspace Window, Auckland

                                 POST: To the Letter, Group Show, Lopdell House Gallery, Auckland

                                 No Rules, Group Exhibition of Fibre Artists, Objectspace, Auckland

2007                        Attended Permit Jewellery Symposium, Manukau School of Visual Arts

                                 Wearable Art Awards, White section, TSB Stadium, Wellington

                                 Cult to Couture, Recycled Revolution section, TelstraClear Pacific Events Centre, Manukau

2006- 07                 Trash to Fashion Awards, Waitakere Stadium, Auckland 

                                Trash to Fashion Finalists Exhibition, Lopdell House Gallery, Auckland

2006                        Winner of the Moonlight Sonata Section, Trash to Fashion Awards, Waitakere City

                                Suture: Conceptual Fashion meets Contemporary Dance, Concept, Costuming and Production, Maidment Studio, Auckland. Funded by Creative New Zealand.

2005                        Costuming for Auckland University Dance performance touring to Malaysia

2004                        Lucy May, Costuming, Bing Harris Building, Dunedin

2003                        Mixed Media on Flesh, Solo Exhibition: Alice Euphemia, Melbourne

2002                        Little Kingdoms, Group Show, Ivy Hopes, Melbourne

                                 Rip, Shit and Bust Fashion Gallery, Solo Exhibition, Auckland

                                 100 x 100, Group Exhibition, McPherson Gallery, Auckland

                                 Graduate Fashion Show, Wanganui

                                 Group Show, Disused Butcher Shop, Main Street, Wanganui

                                 Group Show, Elam and MIT Graduates, Studio of Contemporary Art, Auckland

                                 Viridian, Group Show Canterbury Arcade, Auckland

1998                        Group show, High Flying Grapes, Manukau rd, Auckland