(A Class Act, Part III)
In a situation where individual artists (as opposed to organisations) are not able to apply for funds directly, those who are able to stay in the profession in the long run are either those artists who have other substancial means of income by social heritage (and therefore perpetuate the public perception of art as class system-led), or those who operate in a largely commercial way, with little room for the conceptual or the non-commercial.
Exhibiting in places outside the perceived ones where art should be, such as museums, is extremely important to generate awareness of the diversity and importance of art. The UK public’s exposure to contemporary art has improved immensely due to artist-led initiatives taking it to unusual, non-institutionalised places.
Artist-led galleries taking place in unconventional places like disused churches, breweries, and even car garages , have allowed for art to be visible at all levels of society, and at the same time allowing artists to thrive and express their self-determination.
As well as artist-led galleries, the concept of the artist’s open studio or open house is interesting as it goes towards the Italian idea of the “bottega”, where the process of making art is demystified, creating a displacement of the concept of “inaccessible art”, perhaps exacerbated by the traditional division between alienating, isolated residential areas and busy, bustling city centres. This has generated significant cultural growth in places where open studios and houses happen, like Brighton, which started with a few houses opened by Ned Hoskins in 1982 to protest against the lack of visual arts in the Brighton Festival and has now grown to over 200 open houses every year. Similar open houses and open studio events happen every year in England, Scotland and Wales.
Without investing in the individual, the collective suffers. Without believing in the value of the collective, the individual is alienated.
The post below about public funding for the arts in Scotland is extremely important on this point.
A presto!
Links:
a-n Collections: Trade-Off, with links to several articles about the art market, written and edited by Emilia Telese with articles by Ayling & Conroy, Rachel Cattle & Paul Stanley, Patricia Fleming, Charlie Fox, Martine Rouleau, Guyan Porter, Ken Pratt,:
Artists’ Open Houses: http://www.artistsopenhouses.org.uk/ Brighton: http://www.aoh.org.uk/2008/
