These guidelines explain the practicalities of displaying the Hard Rain exhibition and the intentions of the project.
The exhibition
The exhibition is drawn from popular culture. It brings together Bob Dylan’s song, ‘A Hard Rain’s A-Gonna Fall’ and photographs that brings global challenges alive in a moving and unforgettable way. More than 15 million people on every continent have viewed it in city centres, botanic gardens, universities, and the United Nations headquarters. One of the most successful photographic exhibitions ever created, it has attracted huge public and critical acclaim, along with support by celebrities and endorsement of political and environmental leaders across the world.
Hard Rain is designed as an outdoor display to reach a wide public at a critical time in human history. For the majority of visitors it will be a first step in participating in the environmental debate. For those who are aware of the issues highlighted in the display it will reinforce the need for a radically new worldwide approach to our problems.
The exhibition banners are printed on heavy-duty, flexible material designed for all-weather outdoor displays. The images are reproduced to the highest photographic standards using the latest printing techniques.
The exhibition is in two parts: it opens with the Hard Rain banner, consisting of 43 photographs illustrating each line of Bob Dylan’s lyric, plus an intro and outro. This is followe
d by the Commentaries banner, consisting of thumbnail images of the exhibition photographs with text about the pictures and the issues they illustrate, and information on the Hard Rain Project.
Dimensions
The banners are 1 metre wide. The main banner is approximately 60 metres long and is supplied in either one or two pieces. The Commentaries banner is approximately 11 metres long.
We have several versions of the display available to exhibitors and occasional changes to the design and to the intro and outro text mean that the length of the banners can vary slightly. As soon as the contract is signed and display dates confirmed, we will allocate a banner to you and let you know the length of each section.
Special editions
Larger or smaller editions of the exhibition can be printed to special order. An indoor version produced for the United Nations headquarters in New York is also available.
Languages
The text is in English. Additional languages can be added if required. Please check with the Hard Rain office to see if an exhibition in your language is already available.
Display stand
We ask venues to create a simple, elegant stand
in keeping with the design of the exhibition and the location chosen for Hard Rain.
Eyelets at 50cm intervals along the length and sides of the banners are provided to attach the banners to the stand. Heavy-duty ties, sold to bundle electric cables, are threaded through the eyelets and around the frame. An alternative is elastic cord (Google elastic cord for suppliers).
The eyelets are not reinforced. In most locations a wind shield will be needed, examples are shown in the photographs. Venues arranging displays lasting only a few days can check the weather forecast for storm warnings.
The following photographs illustrate different ways of displaying Hard Rain.
The simplest solution is to hang the banners from a wall. This has made for effective displays at several venues – University of Helsinki Botanic Garden.
Existing railings provide a secure frame for the exhibition. For the display in St Martin-in-the-Fields, London the banners were mounted on plywood to prevent the exhibition flapping against the railings. The banners need to be printed in short lengths to special order for this.
Manchester Metropolitan University simply attached the banners to railings on the campus.
The Hard Rain exhibition was first shown at th e Eden Project, Cornwall, and it was mounted on a scaffold frame installed by a local company.
A more attractive scaffold frame was built at Royal Botanic Garden, Edinburgh. In both cases the vertical scaffolding poles were buried in the soil to anchor the display. The only problem encountered at Edinburgh – and only on a couple of occasions – was children jumping on what they took to be a huge trampoline. No damage was done.
A variation on this design was the stand made from bamboo at the Lalbagh Botanical Garden, Bangalore. It was a beautiful display and drew thousands of visitors.
Real Jardín Botánico, Madrid made a similar stand from wood. This, by the way, is the display featured on YouTube with an unreleased version of ‘A Hard Rain’s A-Gonna Fall’ specially recorded by Bob Dylan for the Expo Zaragoza water conference in 2008.
The National Botanic Gardens, Glasnevin, Dublin built a stand with a plywood back. It was a beautiful display and kept the banner in perfect condition – or would have done if a tree hadn’t fallen on it! Part of the banner had to be reprinted…
Chester Zoo also built a wooden frame – in this case the windbreak was woven from willow. Again, a very attractive display.
A ‘sustainable’ display was created by staff and students at Syracuse University, New York from shipping pallets. Their display was designed to give access to people in wheelchairs. A downloadable narrative podcast and additional text panels in Braille were also available.
Another US college built a wooden stand from plywood sheets. The sheets were placed end to end in two rows attached along the top. In cross-section it was a triangle held together by a wooden frame. This is a practical and inexpensive stand that minimises the risk of wind damaging the banners – see North Hennepin Community College, Minnesota.
A popular and economical way to display Hard Rain is on hired fence panels (typically used by councils or builders to section off no-go areas). Google Heras fencing or perimeter fencing for local suppliers.
The steel frames slot into heavy concrete feet. In exposed locations they will not provide enough stability if the banner is displayed in a continuous line, so in these areas the fences have been made into a triangle. This format provides the stability needed to withstand all weather conditions so far encountered – Canberra city centre display.
The fence panels can be hidden with cloth or bamboo, which may also act as a windbreak. Some companies provide made-to-measure ‘slip-on covers’ for their fence sections.
The display at Ulricehamns Kommun, Sweden is as simple as it gets. The banners were attached to the upright posts in 30 minutes.
Venues are asked to take publication-quality photographs of their displays to share with future exhibitors.
Warning sign
The Hard Rain exhibition is hard-hitting. It reflects life as it is for the majority of people around the world. Several venues have added warning signs at the exhibition. This is the text used at Chester Zoo: "You are approaching Hard Rain, a UN-partnered exhibition that graphically illustrates our headlong collision with nature and defines the major environmental issues of the 21st century. It contains images that some visitors may find disturbing."
Since 2006 the exhibition has been seen by 15 million people and we’ve had just three letters of complaint. I would be concerned if people didn’t find what they saw upsetting. Of course it’s not the exhibition itself that is disturbing, but what it reveals about what’s happening in the world. Just occasionally people blame the messenger.
The media present our problems one at a time – a drought here, poverty there, deforestation here, there and everywhere, pollution and extinctions all over the world. Hard Rain puts all our problems together and shows how they are linked. The pictures of real people and places are sequenced by a poem to a world on the edge of catastrophe. The Hard Rain Project calls for renewed efforts to tackle all our problems together.
Visitors’ comments
Hard Rain is designed to encourage visitors to change to sustainable lifestyles, join the debate about the future and put huge pressure on governments and business leaders to reinvent the world so it’s compatible with nature and human nature. We receive thousands of thoughtful emails from people around the world who are prompted to write after seeing the exhibition or attending the documentary presentation. Many of these are posted on the website.
Venues are asked to provide pages for people to add their comments at the exhibition.
Recycling
When the banners show obvious signs of wear they are sent to prisons or other institutions that have limited budgets for educational materials. Hard Rain is incorporated into their teaching programmes. Eventually the material is recycled.
Merchandise
The Hard Rain book, now in its fourth edition, includes a new essay by Tim Smit, Chief Executive and co-founder of the Eden Project in Cornwall. It has been sent to every prime minister and president in the world.
A short film, which includes a rare live recording of "A Hard Rain’s A-Gonna Fall" by Bob Dylan is available on DVD and may be played at the exhibition. Running time is 18 minutes.
Campaign Cards, available in sets of 16, are designed to encourage visitors to write to political and business leaders, to friends and colleagues, and campaign for change.
All these items are published by the Hard Rain Project to keep retail prices as low as possible. The cards and books are printed to the highest environmental standards by Pureprint in the UK. If these items cannot be sold at the exhibition, please direct people to the nearest visitor centre where they can purchase them. Income from sales may cover the cost of the exhibition and it helps fund the Hard Rain office.
Publicity
Bob Dylan’s name attracts media coverage and the scope and nature of the exhibition draws great interest. Please make sure TV, radio and press are aware of opening dates in good time to plan their coverage. We provide pictures that can be used to publicise the exhibition.
Politicians, business leaders and celebrities will be interested in attending the opening. Use their support to encourage people to visit the display and join the debate about our future.
Shipping
The display weighs 35 kilos packed. It will usually be shipped from London but please check with the Hard Rain office before looking for quotes in case we have a version available nearer to your location.
Returning the banners
We supply the banners rolled up and packed in heavy-duty cardboard tubes. Please return the banners in their original packaging.
The banners need to be clean and dry before they are rolled up. It is important that they are rolled under enough tension to prevent the banner material "sagging" and so that it overlaps along the entire length. If the ends of the roll are not flat and square to the sides, the banner will be damaged in transit. If it begins to look like a large pencil unroll it and start again!
Do not use sticky tape against the banner material – the glue transfers to the banner and comes into contact with the image. If tape is used we might have to get a section the banner cleaned or even reprinted at your expense. Wrap bubble-wrap around the roll and tape over the bubble wrap, making sure the adhesive tape does not come into contact with the banner material.
Place bubble-wrap at both ends of the tube to cushion the ends of the roll and prevent the banner moving inside the tube. Secure the lids at both ends to the cardboard tube with sufficient tape to ensure the lid does not become detached in transit.
Damage to displays
The exhibition has been displayed for months without protection in city centres in many parts of the world. Damage has been reported on just one occasion – the "vandals" waited until the last night of a four-month display in the centre of Edinburgh and cut out the photographs they most admired. Somewhere there is an apartment with pieces of Hard Rain hanging on the walls.
Even with such an impressive record venues are strongly advised to insure the exhibition against damage while it is on display and in transit.
New exhibition
A new exhibition, Whole Earth?, with text by Lloyd Timberlake, responds to requests by thousands of visitors and curators for an exhibition that presents solutions to the problems illustrated in Hard Rain. It is designed to renew ambition in a large cross-section of the public and encourage political and business leaders to take bold, long-term decisions to secure our gains and avoid disasters that appear increasingly imminent.
Whole Earth? launched at Keele University on 9 February 2012, with touring Scottish and Swedish editons opening in March and April. This marks the start of a world tour collecting and displaying a wide range of solutions.
Fees
One (well-funded) venue asked me why we charge for the exhibition! Their question gives me the opportunity to explain that the Hard Rain Project is a not-for-profit company financed by my savings. The exhibition and lecture fees only just cover the costs of running the office, one part-time salary and my living expenses.
We are fortunate to have help from many people around the world. They contribute their skills and experience to the project, and find new venues for the exhibition and the presentation. Without their assistance the project would have fizzled out long ago. I am also most grateful for the support from Bob Dylan’s office and the help and encouragement from colleagues at Columbia Records.
Contact details
Mark Edwards + 44 (0) 77 100 99 818
Mark@hardrainproject.com
Office:
Anna Smith, Hard Rain Project, 199 Shooters Hill Road, London SE3 8UL, United Kingdom
Anna@hardrainproject.com
+ 44 (0) 20 8858 8307
Fax +44 (0) 20 8858 2049
