Bemis Center for Contemporary Arts

Project Background

Bemis Center for Contemporary Arts is a contemporary art venue based in Omaha, Nebraska, that hosts an international residency program, exhibitions, and educational programs. Rachel Adams, chief curator and director of programs, initially contacted Flatpage to copyedit a multiauthor catalogue she was planning for an exhibition about sound art entitled Root of Two, which included some contributions from multilingual authors.

I knew [Flatpage’s President] Cara from Buffalo and had been following Flatpage as it started. I knew that she had a group of editors that would be great for our needs, so it was just the right fit.

Rachel Adams, Chief Curator and Director of Programs

Following this successful collaboration, Flatpage has continued to provide copyediting support for an exhibition guide and press releases for Bemis’s marketing department, ensuring that the texts used consistent language and were free of mechanical errors.

The Collaboration

Copyediting is used to address issues with grammar, punctuation, and language. For this multiauthor catalogue, Flatpage’s editor needed to preserve each author’s unique voice while maintaining consistency in the punctuation, spelling, and citations. Therefore, our copyeditor worked on each essay using a style sheet tailored to the project.

Consisting of essays, captions, acknowledgements, and a colophon, the catalogue totalled approximately 10,000 words. The curator sent each contribution via a shared file server and the editor tallied their progress on a project tracker to ensure they met the client’s deadline. In total, the project took about 10 days to complete.

Flatpage was very easy to work with and I really had no qualms. The timing was perfect and everything was smooth.

Flatpage has also collaborated with Bemis’s marketing team to copyedit various texts, including an essay for an exhibition guide and press releases announcing upcoming exhibitions and events.

The Outcome

The exhibition catalogue for Root of Two was published alongside the exhibition and Flatpage’s collaboration with the Bemis Center has resulted in several other successful projects to date.

Flatpage is easy to work with, the pricing is very good and they have a range of editors with different backgrounds, so that helps with finding the right person to edit your writing. I’ve been very happy with them!