As befitting of the New Year, various blog posts have highlighted artists’personal successes and failures of 2011 and looked to forthcoming shows in 2012. Rather than do this, I want to quickly put the spotlight on the organisations that I have enjoyed working with last year. Treatment of artists varies enormously, from the hugely considerate to the downright appalling. Many times I have discussed the possibility with my technical support team, (i.e. partner) of creating an untraceable website where artists can anonymously report poor or exemplary treatment. Of course, as he has informed me, no website is untraceable and the difficulty of judging whether information is factual or falsified can lead you into deep water as ‘Trip Advisor’, the holiday accommodation site, has found out to it’s cost.
And so, as I am not yet as brave as the likes of Alistair Gentry, confident enough to launch Career Suicide, I will carry on moaning to close family and friends whenever the need arises. Last year I was lucky enough to exhibit with, amongst others, tactileBosch in Cardiff, Blank collective in Manchester and Coexist in Southend (whom I have worked with before). All artist led organisations, they were all extremely supportive, helpful and most importantly keen to facilitate work being shown sensitively with full consideration of the artists requirements. Despite, no doubt, struggling to make ends meet, where charges were made for application the amount was absolutely minimal in comparison to larger organisations. I also have to mention WW Gallery who, although they didn’t accept my work for the particular project in question, kept me fully informed of how they were progressing with the selection and wrote a detailed reply explaining which projects my work would be more suitable for.
In complete contrast I spent a long time putting a proposal together for a residency that demanded a long list of criteria to be covered such as incorporating the building, the grounds, the history and context, a project that would appeal to all ages, that would engage visitors, staff and volunteers and the list went on and on. I compiled a proposal which proved how each of these criteria could be met and included the timescale and a brief budget as asked for. Admittedly it was a lot of unpaid work putting the proposal together but the residency was local and opportunities such as this are almost unheard of in this area. Neither I nor anyone else I knew who applied received a confirmation e-mail to say they had received the application let alone any correspondence to say they had been rejected for the post.
Quite frankly if some galleries etc. can manage to treat artists respectfully, (and I can see no correlation between the number of applications to be dealt with or the financial pressure an organisation is under), there is no reason why it is not possible for all to behave this way. Rather than approach this from a negative point of view, let’s vow in 2012 to congratulate and flag up those organisations that do get it right and hope that the rest may take heed and follow.
