A New Blue Monkey Network

PLANS AND PROMOTION

Last week was a bustle of activity. I spent the whole week split between installing my work at the East Sussex Open and hanging a collaborative show with fellow Blue Monkey, Cat Ingrams and another Eastbourne artist, Irene Runayker. It was a very intense week of art, which left little time for other things.

So, at the start of a new week, I have a list of jobs to catch up on. Absolutely top of the list is to pay a visit to my frustratingly inefficient bank and find out why our Blue Monkey Network bank account has not yet materialised despite their assurances nearly three weeks ago that it would be set up “in about a week”.

Later in the week I have a meeting at Towner to talk about what sort of events we want to plan for the coming months – this is the exciting part! Then on Thursday, Towner have invited Elpida Hadzi-Vasileva to come and give a talk to artists, so I hope to be able to make use of that gathering of artists to begin to promote the new Network. I’ve been designing some promotional cards which I’ll get off to the printers tomorrow.

MAKING PROGRESS

Yesterday I enjoyed some of the pleasures on offer at Towner, our new partner in the Blue Monkey Network. In glorious Eastbourne spring sunshine I met with Matthew Rowe, Towner’s Artistic Director, on the cafe balcony with its beautiful views across Eastbourne to the Downs, to talk about our next steps.

We talked about ways in which we’ll be able to make best use of Towner’s resources, not least its cafe with adjacent meeting room and the sheltered balcony which is perfectly positioned to catch the afternoon and evening sunshine. One of our early aims is to create a sense of constructive cooperation between East Sussex artists; to build an understanding of, respect for and interest in each others’ work. In order to do this we want our initial events to have the feeling of vibrant social occasions which artists will enjoy and look forward to coming to and this seems like a good place to start.

FRIDAY JOBS

My “To Do” list for yesterday:

write constitution for the new Blue Monkey Network

update website with news of our bursary

set up bank account (don’t forget to take ID)

deal with NAN Futurific paperwork

prepare for talk to local Arts Society this evening

As usual things were not straight forward. The Constitution was fine – I’d already done some research on what it should contain and how it should be laid out, so that was reasonably quick to do.

The website was a little tricky – I couldn’t quite make it do what I wanted it to, so compromise was necessary & the sooner I manage to set up a new one the better.

The bank… ah well… I suppose that was to be expected. I’d thought I’d be able to walk in with my forms and ID and walk out with a bank account. That was not to be – but hopefully this time next week it will be set up.

And without the bank account, I couldn’t complete the paperwork.

Then there was the talk. I was looking forward to the prospect of going out to share my exciting news about the new Network with some Eastbourne artists, but I didn’t know this group or what their response would be. I planned an informal presentation, a brief introduction about Blue Monkey, who we are and what we do, and then news of our plans for the new Network at Towner and lots of time for questions and discussion about what artists might want from the new Network. Having spoken to many of the Eastbourne artists who I know, I’d assumed that their enthusiasm would be reflected across the board, so I got a bit of a surprise when my talk was greeted with apparent indifference and suspicion. This particular group it seemed were not keen to extend their networks or build new relationships. Hmm… might have to work harder to win some people’s confidence it seems.

GREAT NEWS!

We have been awarded a NAN Futurific! bursary. This is fantastic news! It means we can put aside time to research the best way to set up our new organisation and to study other organisations who seem to be a good model for us. We can also get on with planning our intial programme and first free taster event.

Time to get busy. The plan is to be ready to promote the new Blue Monkey Network during the East Sussex Open at Towner in April and throughout the Eastbourne Festival in April and May, when lots of Eastbourne artists open their houses and communications are good and news spreads quickly.

The conditions of the bursary say:

“NAN bursaries are awarded to artists’ groups and networks for the purpose of Research and Development aimed at supporting exchange between artists’ groups and networks, in the UK or elsewhere, in order to:

Explore new projects and provide a focus for critical exchange

Encourage artists’ groups and networks to generate collaboration and extend their professional practice

Test ideas and professional relationships between artists’ groups and networks.”

Great! That’s exactly what we want to do!



AN OPEN LETTER TO EAST SUSSEX ARTISTS

Yesterday I sent out a message to the 200+ artists on our mailing list telling them about our new plans. Already people are responding, telling me how excited they are about the new network and how they want to be part of it.

Dear Artists

After a bit of a lull in activities during the past year or so, I’m very pleased to say that Blue Monkey has exciting plans for 2011.

We are planning to establish a new, extended Blue Monkey Network, run by artists for artists. Through the new network we aim to create opportunities for conversation and the exchange of ideas, information, skills and knowledge among Eastbourne and East Sussex artists.

I am very pleased to say that we are being supported in this venture by Towner, who are keen to build relationships with local artists and have invited Blue Monkey to use Towner as a base for the network. We will be working in partnership with Matthew Rowe, Director of Towner, and with Towner’s Curators and Outreach and Education team, to organise talks and events for members of the new network, utilising the unique resources of Towner’s exhibitions and collection, and using Towner as our regular meeting place.

At previous Blue Monkey networking events we gathered feedback from artists about what sort of things you would like us to organise and about how much artists felt able to contribute towards the running costs of these events and activities. The information you gave us showed that many artists are prepared to subscribe to membership of an organisation which will, as far as possible, be self-funding. The advantage of this is that we will be independent and self-sustaining at a time when public funding is scarce and funding bodies are at the mercy of government cuts. We will of course make every effort to keep subscriptions as low as possible by seeking local sponsorship and wider public funding should it become available.

I hope that you might be interested in being part of this new venture when it is launched later this spring and I would like to keep you updated with news of how to become a member and what the Network will offer. I will continue to share news and information through the Blue Monkey mailing list, however, if you wish to be removed from the list, please do let me know.

One of the keys to success of the new Blue Monkey Network will be a strong membership, so please do pass this message on to anyone who you think might like to be involved.

Best wishes,

Judith

Judith Alder
Blue Monkey Network
e-mail: [email protected]
tel: 01323 643677
mob: 07713 287365