Diary of an artist writer online

Some of the most exciting installations these days come out of South America. Having just returned form Aruba, off the Venezuelan coast, I was impressed by this huge float, winner of their 2011 Carnival.

The theme for the carnival was solar energy and this meticulously constructed piece of work, made by one family, references not only the Sun God of mythology and the brilliant colours and craftsmanship of central America but it contains mini solar panels which changes the nature of the work altogether when it lights up by night.

Now back in Scotland we are busy with this years Forth Valley Open Studios, our third event and the first as a Community Interest Company.

We have 115 participating artists and despite our much earlier deadline for applications everyone has met it.

I can hardly believe Forth Valley Open Studios have come around again.

How things have changed!

We are now a registered C.I.C. (Community Interest Company).

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Community_interest_company

Already it has resulted in a streamlining of our operations. We have a core of five officials (or directors to give us our official title) and we are working on establishing a support group (committee) around us.

We had a problem.

I remember one of my tutors at Glasgow School of Art telling me that every problem should be regarded as a challenge, an opportunity to do or try something new.

So it is with us this year.

Delta Studios, who hosted our exhibition for the previous two years, said they would be unable to accommodate us.

We had to find alternative premises, a place that could accommodate the work of around 80-100 artists, is free and we did not have to invigilate since all artists would be tied up with their own studios and therefore not available.

Oh yes and we had to do this in less than four months.

Anyone who has ever curated exhibitions will recognize the challenge we had given ourselves.

We approached the Smith Museum and gallery in Stirling more in hope than in any great expectation knowing how far in advance galleries and museums programme their events.

So we were delighted when the curator Elspeth King offered us space. Now the Changing Room gallery, Stirling only contemporary art centre is looking to see how they might accommodate us too.

So we will have two venues that fit all our criteria!

I suspect all this would not have happened if we had not become a C.I.C.

This week sees the closing date for all applications for this year Forth Valley Open Studios and we expect the final figure of participating studios to be over 80.

Its weeks since I last updated my blog so what’s happened?

Well, I guess it’s been a period of introspection and the realisation that my blog is not focused enough.

Ever since I joined Blipfoto.com – where you put up a daily photo from your life- it has made me realise how unfocused my blog is.

To start with it’s far too general. Secondly I do not put up the personal stuff – left over from my days in journalism – and it’s the personal stuff that often makes a blog “sticky” or the fact one is giving specialised information, which would not be available elsewhere.

I have finished another e-book. Now I got to upload it to Amazon via Kindle – that is another steep learning curve requiring knowledge of HTML so I have started the search for someone to help me.

Meanwhile have another solo exhibition at Scion House, Stirling University Innovation Park but not until February 2013!

Forth Valley Open Studios is now a registered not-for-profit company (Community Interest Company) and we hope this will enable us to attract grants and sponsorship though given today’s economic climate we are not that hopeful.

One spin-off of FVOS is that it has resulted in a flurry of artistic activities in central Scotland and the local council is conducting an in-depth survey of the creative industries in the area. We have already had meetings with the researcher and she tells us one of the reasons people thought nothing was happening in the area is that most of the artists are home-based and do not show up on the official business registers.

She has discovered, what we had already learnt through FVOS, that there is a very lively artist scene here.

It just operates below the traditional business radar.

And we all recognize a need for a central artistic hub to bring together, share and co-ordinate all these activities.

Tomorrow night we have the first pop up networking event in Stirling organised by Joe Hall, a young woman new to the area.

She tells me it is already over-subscribed.

We are delighted.

For those of us who live in central Scotland this area is like a cultural desert for the contemporary art scene, in its widest scene, with little in the way of printmaking, digital, music, performance or film.

OK there are little pockets of activity – MacRobert Arts centre and Changing Room- but no central hub for contemporary artists.

Everything happens in either Glasgow or Edinburgh.

Through Forth Valley Open Studios we created the first ever database of all artists working in the area- and there are over a 100 of us- but most work in the traditional arts and crafts sector.

Hopefully these series of pop-up art events will help create a vibrant artistic community in the central belt of Scotland so that artists no longer feel they have to migrate to Glasgow, Edinburgh, or worse, London on emerging from art college.

I reckon we are fast approaching a “tipping point” for the arts in central Scotland.

Instead of us being caught in a cultural wilderness between Glasgow and Edinburgh we are beginning to establish our own identity with a vibrant art community.

Last Saturday saw the opening of the Elizabeth Blackadder exhibition in Stirling University to celebrate her 80^th anniversary.

(http://www.blipfoto.com/entry/1526302)

This followed on the previous weeks highly success Bridge of Allan Arts and Crafts Festival- first ever for the area-and we have two “pop-up” events scheduled – one is a weekend exhibition by two FVOS members, Libby Yule and Catherine Froy in West Mosside and the other is a “networking/music evening in the former Changing Room in Stirling Arcade.

Meanwhile my own work involves finishing off “Sully” a book about Wales and I am about to dip into electronic publishing.