State of the Arts
I attended the conference and pre-conf artists briefing this week on one of the bursaries for artists. I have been wanting to write up my thoughts for a few days, but a mix of no time to write or digest has delayed me somewhat!
So, firstly, I was incredibly pleased to get a bursary, and I was incredibly pleased that the Arts Council spent £15k on artists having a presence at the event. The theme ‘Artists Shaping the World’ was a good one – putting artists at the centre of the discussion. Other good things included the pre-conference events, Robert Wilson’s talk in particular – that was astonishing and has left a huge mark on me.
It was all very fancy though (or perhaps I am usually extremely basic) – first off I tried to check into the Premier Inn rather than the Holiday Inn. This might serve as a good metaphor for the expectations of artists/arts organisers: I expected a basic room with no breakfast, but found myself in a plush room with mini-bar and room service facilities and a cooked beakfast included. Lovely for a change, but a bit worrying when you stop to think about expenditure and where funding goes.
It was good to have a chance to meet other bursary holders before the event, but once we had dispursed, I actually found it quite hard to find those people again.
Going back to the theme, although the intention was to put artists in the centre, the event was still very much a top-down exercise and the feeling between most bursary holders was that next time artists should programme the event entirely and set the agenda for discussion. Improving on last year’s 2 artists in attendance (!) the 50 artists bursaries as well as numerous artists speakers went a long way to redressing the balance. But it can go further. I’m not saying that it should all be artists either – the mix of organisers and funders with artists is important and those crossover conversations (AS EQUALS) should be happening more often anyway.
I don’t know if I felt like a token gesture being there as an artist, especially as I am aware I often feel intimidated or self conscious in this kind of situation. However, I do know that I didn’t feel able to contribute in my breakout groups. I got close to it in the afternoon, probably because Neville Gabie was one of the speakers, but other artists were there and spoke well so I didn’t. Often artists were bringing up issues like the fact that artists may be the only unpaid person at a meeting. This is great (and true), but any surprise around that fact shows just how little many arts organisers may consider things from the artists point of view. I was expecting to be discussing ways to change that and not just pointing out things that exist across the sector. Maybe it will get on to that by next year?
Ultimately, I felt the conference was about politics and institutional perspective, not actually about art per se. Ed Vaizey’s presence and slimy avoidance of difficult questions is the best example of how the conference was geared towards a polite and PR-smooth event. Kirsty Wark was a great host and she did try to give him a hard time, but he answered with long, dull answers that meant absolutely nothing. There was not enough challenging discussion and I felt like people were tip toeing around. Sally Lai (of Manchester’s Chinese Art Centre) was a tonic. Short, succinct points about small artist led spaces and how vital they are to the ecology of the arts. As she pointed out, they invest and take risks in artists early-career and feed into the larger art world. If that stops, it’s going to be an incredibly dull place. I felt that points like Sally was making should have been the starting point for discussions, not just brief moments that caused the audience to applaud – that alone is evidence that people feel strongly about these issues.
Others on SotA:
Alice Bradshaw: www.a-n.co.uk/p/2018190
Claire Smith: www.a-n.co.uk/p/1650059
Dany Louise: http://www.newstatesman.com/blogs/cultural-capital/2012/02/arts-council-ace-conference
