Sebah Chaudhry's Considerations for Creating Events

Curator and creative producer, Sebah Chaudhry presented a guest lecture at Huddersfield on how she professionally organises events and everything that needs to be considered when doing so. Sebah usually organises exhibitions for artists, creates events and acts as a project manager. Having many notable events, she has been involved in such as the opening event for the outdoor lightbox exhibition, Flaneur (2017) as part of Format Festival. Where the lightboxes would travel to different cities around the world displaying the work of local artists on the faces of the boxes.

When organising an event, Sebah notes there should be consideration beforehand on the purpose, budget and who the target audience will be. The budget used in her events have ranged, but Sebah suggest gaining sponsorship from local businesses to increase the funds and visibility of the event. With events she has organised in the past, Sebah has worked with Huddersfield’s own Magic Rock Brewing to help with suppling beer for events. But it is important to note, if the event is serving alcohol, then a license will be needed, the same being for food and if live music is played. Once funds have been gained, she would usually spend the money on promoting the event, hiring a venue and sometimes security whilst also reminding students not to over sell tickets.

As public events currently feel like a thing of the past, this has not stopped Sebah’s work. Working online with other artists such as Sian Bonnell, Sebah partly organised the Covid-19 Portfolio (2020) which sold A4 prints of sixty different artists in aim to raise money for those suffering during the start of the pandemic. Sebah’s role is this virtual event, was handing the online sales for the prints and developing the website they would be sold on. Raising over £70,000 for Refuge and Crisis charities.