As I meet artists also working at the Salzamt here in Linz it becomes apparent that the capital of culture is not that popular with everyone. I have yet to dig deeper, but already there are murmers of idea-stealing, last minute cancellations and artists not being treated so well… hmmm. Digging via questioning over the weekend.
In the British press, I thought Charlotte Higgins blog entry was interesting: http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2009/jul/0…
Not just for the pioneering moments in art, but a fresh appreciation of our free museums and galleries in the UK. I think I will be lucky enough to get a free ‘insider’ pass for all cultural events here, (if that doesn’t work I will flash my Tate card and smile sweetly) but everywhere has an entry fee – everywhere! Indeed, how could they stay open otherwise? We are very lucky in that respect.
I’m off to see ‘Twins: How Do I Know I am Me’ by Angie Hiesel at A Foundation this afternoon with my identical twin sister. We toyed with the idea of wearing the same clothes, but not for very long!
The Bluecoat, who organised the performance were advertising for identical twins for ages and Ruth and I were pretty up for it. Due to some bad communication, we turned up twice for auditions only to find they’d been cancelled, not so bad for me, but a pain in the arse for Ruth who has a very stressful job and had to drive 35 miles for it on her day off… It made me think because after those two attempts, she flat out refused to be involved. To her it was unthinkable to continue with the project after two failed attempts and little apology or compensation (there were expenses paid – after audition stage – but not for time, just for travel). Anyway, a Liverpool-based artist, Laurance Payot, was also looking for identical twins to do a short performance/intervention, so we will be helping her out instead. I think we are both quite happy to share our twin-ness, we know it is useful to people and have filled out book-sized surveys for various university studies each year since we were small.
It’s a difficult situation isn’t it, asking the public to take part in works for free.. especially when rehearsals are involved and the artist is receiving a fee. It must create huge dependance for the artist on people who have no obligation to the work other than an interest and willingness to take part. Not sure I could cope with that stress! I see the plinth gets underway on Monday, will be interested to see how that gets on and whether there are enough people to sustain it for the duration…
Good news and really sad news this week. I found out that Intute (for whom I work as a cataloguer) has had its funding cut by half. This basically means that there may be a bit of work this year (contracts run until the end of June so a new one has begun), but there will be no manual entering of websites to the catalogue in 2010, hence I am out of a (small but rewarding) job. I have been doing this since 2005 and will miss it! I have entered over 500 websites thus far and reviewed more on top and it has proved to be an incredibly educating experience. It can also be annoying when whoever I meet, I can usually say, oh yes I know that website – I catalogued it. They have no idea what I’m talking about but it gives me an introduction to many organisations I would never otherwise have heard of.
More worryingly, the £200-300 ish income a month it gives me (I only do a few hours) is the only guaranteed income I have as all my other jobs are freelance. So in tough months, for example in January and February this year, I only earned this: it was difficult to say the least. There is going to have to be some serious planning here.. I cannot make it through the crappy winter months on nothing next year. I am slightly saved by the YSP bursary, but that is finite and does not make for a sustainable income or life!
In happier news, I have been nominated by Liverpool Biennial (I know, I know, the very organisation I have been critisicing for depending too heavily on volunteers) for a short residency in Linz, Austria. I found out yesterday that I need to be there next week, so it was a day of much googling and travel planning. Think I am going on Wed, but nothing booked yet as I still debate the benefits of Eurostar over flying. There is a travel budget of about £550 so for once no need to take the cheapest and most uncomfortable, inflexible route with all my belongings packed into my handbag… I need to take work with me as there is an opening for the new building on Friday 10th, how to get my cradboard creations in a suitcase with squishing them? Big print order from photobox today I reckon!
The residency is here for three months (I could have gone for six but YSP starts in the autumn and I have signed a contract…)
http://www.linz09.at/en/projekt-2434984/atelierhau…
There is E1000 fee per month and a E500 materials budget for the project. A newly renovated apartment and studio are included for free with wirless and things. I’ll be looking forward to it when it has sunk in!
Some images of the Salzamt (Salt Authority building) being transformed into the International Studio House here:
http://img13.imageshack.us/gal.php?g=dsc7322dachbo…
will keep you posted.. a second blog perhaps?
I am wondering this morning, whether Liverpool has the most volunteers per exhibition/event for any city in the UK? It seems that way.. especially as the Biennial depend so heavily on them. The Bluecoat also have plenty of them and even have them wearing t-shirts with ‘volunteer’ on instead of staff, which always seems a bit sad to me. I’m glad institutions make room for people to get experience, but they also have a responsibility to recognise when to stop don’t they? The biennial generally gets new volunteers every time, who work intensively for a short time, but for the really valuable experience within the organisation they look for full-time volunteers for six months and seem to be able to pick and choose from plenty of candidates.
I saw an advert this week for the new section of the new museum, which is looking for volunteers (aged 16 – 25) for invigilation. It seems this ‘excellent opportunity to gain valuable experience’ is intended as an alternative to paid staff; pretty bad for all the new graduates etc when you take into account that National Museums Liverpool (NML) already pay the least of any cultural institution in the city.
Talking to a couple of colleauges in the Tate yesterday made me more frustrated – but you have to volunteer to stand a chance of getting a real job -they said. Perhaps that is true, but isn’t volunteering in the arts to be done while at Uni, or soon afterwards and then only for a short time? I know people who have been volunteering for the Biennial for two years now (£20/day) and now get a mix of voluntary and paid work from them, counting themselves lucky. Is it just me that is baffled by this??
Enough voluntary rants for now.
Next: all the valuable things I have learned from Dumb Objects and how artists may benefit from unpaid exhibitions.
June seems to mainly involve waiting to get paid from various jobs done long ago, trying to catch up with my life and also holding back from making any plans whatsoever as other people make (very last-minute) decisions about where I will spend the summer….
I am also putting together a hefty list of resources for careers advice and ways to make money/improve career/be more efficient etc. This will be an entry on the http://www.intute.ac.uk/artsandhumanities/ blog at some point this month. Will let you know as hopefully there should be something of use to most people..
Also in June – Merseyside ACME/Liverpool Vision are organising a stepclever networking event at Royal Standard on the 30th.
http://www.stepclever.co.uk/
Should be a good chance to meet some more people working in Liverpool, perhaps in other areas to visual arts. As it is also in my studio building it is extra easy, bonus. The event is hosted or facilitated by David Parrish, who I have had some good advice from in the past. It seems living/studio-ing in L3 is a good thing as I am now entitled to futher free business advice from David, and will be gladly taking him up on it soon!
http://www.davidparrish.com/
