Everythings Fine with Sparkley Pink Toes

It's a good thing I've been too busy to post. The draft I typed on Wednesday and never got round to finishing went along the lines of: rant, rant, rant & more rant.

A quick recap on the Degree Show Situation: the room we were promised didn't materialise, the e-mail informing my Creative Practice tutor went walkabout because it went to the Course Leader, the Powers That Be recognised that 6 people couldn't show in the exhibition equivalent of a broom cupboard and gave us 3 other (out of the way) spaces as well as the broom cupboard. Still with me?

I get into college on Wednesday and I find out that the Powers that Be (may the fleas of a thousand camels infest their pubic hair) have reneged on the agreement. Apparently, the MA students were promised one of the rooms (the room me and another were going to use). The MA students don't show until September...but they were promised. So 6 of us will be showing in the broom cupboard.

As if that wasn't bad enough. We get to the cupboard and the course that had been using it as a studio space still had artwork in it and a WHOLE lot of their SHIT. It took us the rest of Wednesday and yesterday to finish moving their stuff out, while at the same time trying to paint the space and come up with solutions to our current problem. It was decided that we would treat the assessment and show as two different entities. For the assessment, everyone would have an opportunity to set up their work in the space and display it as the artist wanted, the work would then be taken down for the next person to set up. For the Degree Show, a show reel of examples of our work would be created, with a few artifacts left in the space for people to see.

To say I was stressed was an understatement. I was so tired, but determined to go and chant with my hommies and I'm glad I did. I had an idea appear. With a bit of help from Gertie I did a mock up that evening and fretted all night. Thursday I took it to my Creative Practice tutor and said I was prepared to give the second idea a go for the show, but if I felt my work couldn't be shown to its best potential, then I would pull out. After listening to me rant for ages, they had a look at my mock-up and were really keen. I did briefly entertain the thought of using the new idea for my assessment, but I don't have the time and resources to do it for Wednesday.

Big up Gertie and my Viking for rolling their sleeves up and mucking in. Gertie on Thursday and Viking today, cleaned, brushed and rollered, whilst giving me pep talks, hugs and alcohol, as well as putting up with me standing on my very large soapbox.

The problem that has led to this horrendous situation points to the Creative Writing course being marginalised within the college. We are a small course struggling to survive in an environment run by pin-striped bean counters. We haven't had a permanent adminstrator for 2 years because the college believes it makes more sense to have a part-time adminstrator working for 2 separate courses. Did I mention the workload is so horrendous that we've gone through 5 administrators?

What hasn't helped my temper is that while we've been struggling in our broom cupboard, people from other courses (including the ones now in the room we were promised) have been wandering in and going 'can we borrow the ladder, we've only got one between 7 rooms? Can we have some paint? Can we borrow your hammer?'

Funnily enough, they didn't come around today.