Jill Iredale is the Curator of Fine Art for Bradford Museums and Galleries, and organised the wonderful ‘Rossetti’s Obsession’ exhibition currently on show at Cartwright Hall. She agreed to write a post for the blog, to give us an insight into the process.

Jill writes:

It is difficult to explain to someone who doesn’t do this job just how much paperwork and organizing is involved in an exhibition like Rossetti’s Obsession.

In the later weeks before installing the show I thought only of the artworks in terms of their size – were the measurements I had framed or unframed dimensions? So what were the framed dimensions? Have we ordered the right sized crate? Will the crate fit in the van/through the door of the gallery/in the lift?

Will the works all fit on the wall? (In this case one work somewhat unexpectedly turned out to be only 10 cm smaller than the height of the wall and had to be carried up the front steps by six of us.)

What will the spacing between them be? How high will they be? What about the labels, have I got the spacing and sizes right for them? What about the vinyl lettering? Why did I think this was a good idea again??

I get to a point with every show where I experience swings of emotion vying between ‘this is going to be great! I can’t wait for everyone to see it’ to ‘this was a stupid idea, could Rossetti even draw??’.

Most of the works in the exhibition I had only seen once, two years ago, in various museum stores – some I hadn’t been able to see at all so it is easy for doubts to creep in during the later stages, especially as right up until the last point when the works are on the wall, the whole thing still only really exists as an idea in my head.

So as I stood there in the gallery and the first crate was unpacked it was a relief to feel the same sense of excitement that I did when I first handled a historic artwork in a museum – this was a picture I had been looking at on my computer for two years, a real Rossetti, Rossetti’s hand had touched this paper, his pencil had made those marks – and yes he could actually draw and yes everything would be alright, people would like it.

The doors of the exhibition are open now. Jane Morris was an interesting woman, I have enjoyed getting to know her and her story, and it is a privilege to see these rare works that have never been seen together before.

I just hope lots of people come and enjoy it too.

Rossetti’s Obsession is on until the 1st of June.

Jill will be giving an free informal introduction to the exhibition and an insight into organizing the show on Wed, 9 Apr 2014 , 11 – 11.45am at Cartwright Hall.

Details for other events linked to the exhibition can be found here