Measuring the experience: the scope and value of artist-led organisations

MEASURING THE EXPERIENCE #13

My intention when setting out (in 1993-96), to study the work and activities of artist-led organisations – that is those in which the ideology and artistic practice of artists are the starting point – had many strands. I wanted to determine how work which is developed largely on the basis of artistic need contributes to the raft of activities which together form the contemporary visual arts milieu. I felt it would be valuable to set this work against the strategies and policies which drive the ‘arts infrastructure’, the increasingly complex framework through which money from government and elsewhere trickles down through various bodies, agencies, galleries and other organisations and which enables art to be created and an engagement with other people to take place.

Running alongside was my desire to find out whether this way of working could have an impact on artists and the public which might be significant as regards long-term development of the visual arts and role of artists I wanted to know whether artist-led ventures might provide a platform from which artists could more readily embark on making relationships with the people and other professionals around them and by doing so, suggest a redefinition of the position of artists and their work both within the arts infrastructure and within society. I also wished to know how such an approach might impact on the ability of artists to make some kind of living from their practice and also the potential to increase numbers of people who might engage in some way with the visual arts.

Some key decisions made over a decade ago by the arts funding system set a pattern which have determined how artists and their practice fitted into the arts funding framework and thus, by default, the status artists’ practice has within current development strategies. The Arts Council of Britain in their 1984 policy document The Glory of the Garden described a visual arts strategy which by enhancing partnerships with local authorities and galleries would strengthen the position of contemporary practice by placing it within an historical context and at the same time provide an increased funding base for the arts by drawing in local authority support. By reallocating existing funds to support this, mechanisms which had provided funding for individual artists would have to cease and “public support for artists would remain for the moment an aspiration for the future”.

Within support for artists schemes by regional arts associations,there were those offering funds purely for artistic practice, experiment and risk-taking were others which more precisely defined the role of artists and with whom they should consider working. A review of visual arts policies for 1986/87[2] included mention of several schemes which would place artists in industrial, educational and community settings and others concerned with commissioning art for public places. Partnerships were a way of supplementing the funds of the arts bodies but of ensuring that local authorities, business sector and others demonstrated a financial commitment to the arts.

Various surveys around that time suggest that income levels for artists were low[3], with a fifth of artists gaining their main income from work unrelated to the arts. Nearly a fifth of artists received social security and for a sixth of them, artistic activity was supported in some way by their family. Having an exhibition in a public gallery created an average loss for an artist of £389 (including the value of sales but excluding costs for materials and the artist’s making time). An average annual income for painters from sale of work was estimated to be £1,200 a year.[4]

The arts funding structure later went through an upheaval as ten regional arts boards were created from twelve regional arts associations. As part of their new role, regional arts boards further cemented relationships with local authorities as a strategic way of heightening regional identity and maximising resources.

[1] Defining Values: Evaluating arts programmes, Francois Matarasso, Comedia Working Paper 1, , 1996

[2] Artists Newsletter, August, September 1986

[3] survey of artists in Devon in 1989/90 suggests average income of £8,344, 75% of national average gross income (The Economics and Social Characteristics of Artists in Devon, Ruth Towse, South West Arts, 1991)

[4] Artists Newsletter readership survey August 1994, from Artists Newsletter survey 1985 of artists’ exhibiting costs, from Marketing Art survey by John Kaser, and Tony Warner’s survey of artists in Norwich, all published in Artists Newsletter, October 1986.

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“The Arts Council…has handed down responsibilities to the regional arts boards who in turn have farmed out functions to mini-quangos. Every step of the way a new little bureaucracy has been born to ensure the most cost effective way of the little money left.”

Fiachra Gibbons, The Show Must Be Run, The Guardian, 11 July 1995

Other biographic references from my report Refreshing alternatives (preface to Measuring the experience):

Happening near you’, Andrea Phillips, Artists Newsletter February 1995

‘Growing Visibility’, Eilis O’Baoill, Artists Newsletter, July 1995

‘Group hits lottery jackpot’, Piers Masterson, Artists Newsletter July 1995

Empowerment’, Susan Jones, Artists Newsletter April 1993

‘The show must be run’, Fiachra Gibbons, The Guardian , 11 July 1995

Art with People, ed Malcolm Dickson, AN Publications 1995

Art in Public, ed Susan Jones, AN Publications 1993

Investigating Galleries, Debbie Duffin, AN Publications 1994

Directory of Exhibition Spaces, ed Janet Ross, AN Publications 1995

Fundraising: the artist’s guide to planning and financing work, ed Susan Jones, An Publications 1993

Papers by David Butler, Gail Boardman, Janet Summerton and Lee Corner for the City University Symposium on Artists’ Enterprise July 1995

Survey of Group Studio Provision, Susan Jones/NAA (produced as part of this study) 1995

Survey of artists in Cardiff (for Cardiff City Council) by Emma Gelliot for Old Library Artists 1994

The Artist in the Changing City, British American Arts Association 1993

Organizing Artists, USA 1993

Stepping Stones, study of artist-run galleries, MA thesis, Sarah Clarke 1994

Cultural Trends in Scotland, Policy Studies Institute 1995

A Socio-Economic Study of Artists in Scotland, Scottish Arts Council/Glasgow University 1995

London Arts Board Corporation Plans 1994/95, 1995/96

Schedule for Visual Arts Region UK 1996, Northern Sights July 1995 

“The most significant factor of the artist-space movement is that art has been put back into the hands of artists and artist-curators. Artist run spaces have given art and artists a higher degree of validation and importance in their own cities and communities.”

Cheryl Jackson, Organising artists, USA 1993

MEASURING THE EXPERIENCE – 11

Are artist-led organisations more successful at attracting or retaining audiences?

Quantifying ‘audiences’ as regards visual arts activities is not easy because although it is possible to cite how many children participated in an residency, it is less easy to say how many have been ‘touched by art’ because there is an artists’ studio group in their area. The following, however, is one example of the latter. Because of its location in an industrial part of the city, Sunderland Artists Group gained the respect of other professionals and artisans who worked there, creating a common ground partly because of shared tools and techniques. These people became a day-by-day ‘audience’ for the work of some 15 artists and had no problem in regarding them as ‘professionals’ regardless of any comparison between income levels. These people also came along, with their friends and relations, to the artists’ exhibitions and events thus the audience for gallery art was also increased.

More specifically, groups such as Rochester-based Art for Life, set up in 1988, has provided 40 people with learning difficulties with effective ways of gaining fulfilment from the visual arts through classes, joint projects and open exhibitions. Many other groups within the ‘community action’ category also bear witness to this.

By holding their events outside normal gallery situations, artists in groups like Fine Rats International have to ‘sell’ what they do to everyone from Department of Transport and police officials, to prospective sponsors as well as to art funders. The 1994 event held at a disused coal-mine now used as a museum, contained a piece by one artist which deeply offended the former miners who staffed the building. But because the artist ‘mediated’ his own work, he could address the criticisms immediately, set out his intentions, and by discussion turn his critics into supporters. Although situations like this do not necessarily create ‘audiences’ for art galleries, they do help to shape a particular group of people’s perceptions about a particular set of artists, and by doing so, create new audiences or supporters for the arts. Fine Rats was also cited in the Arts Council of Great Britain’s 1993/94 report as having “attracted many people [to Under Spaghetti Junction] who had never attended an art event before. “

Space Explorations, which also makes exhibitions outside galleries, is similarly interested to have more people see their art work. They described the audience for their 1994 event ‘One Million Cubic Feet’ as a total of 1,300 people over 17 days. This was broken down as “8% from the local community including members of the public interested in the history of the building, ex-workers, ex-users of the space and local business people, 25% from educational establishments through group visits, 2% tourists and 65% from the art-going public.” For them, using buildings such as an old power station, the Royal Observatory and Holborn Town Hall suits their needs to have “freedom and time [to] make a piece of work in a space” and also it “works well as a community thing. People who live around there and have seen the building can look in. You are learning something from the people around you, not just imposing yourself. You pick things up from them…”

Note that Space explorations and Fine Rats International were selected for detailed case studies for this research project.

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Does a studio group or any other artist-led resource provide anything more than affordable space or access to equipment?

As my Survey of group studio provision [1]indicated, nearly half of studio groups are involved in some kind of group activity, although it follows necessarily that the other half aren’t. Providing ‘affordable space’ was an oft cited aim, and in many instances, groups only undertook one collectively-organised activity annually – an open studio event or group exhibition in another venue.

In short, many group studios are simply a collection of individual spaces used by different artists at different times of the day or night rather than any kind of catalyst for visual arts development. Not withstanding this, they do provide a valuable arts equivalent to ‘starter-units’ for other kinds of business.

Communities of artists (whether in group studios or not) have sometimes played in leading role in community action. For example, the London Field Renewal Partnership’s campaign against a council plan to develop the area, and the E11 campaign, where artists and others in a community worked collectively to stop the building of a motorway.

[1] Produced in May 1995 as part of Stage 1 of this study



MEASURING THE EXPERIENCE – 9

I studied300 artist-led groups in 1995 so one thing I’ll be doing to update my original research is reviewing how many of that original number remain now and of those who do, finding out whether they are actually still ‘artist-led’.

Interestingly perhaps there were 15 listed as ‘professional bodies’ – some with membership in their 100s – and at first glance I reckon that all but three have disappeared. One of these is now more broadly based – Society of Sculptors in Ireland merged into Visual Arts Ireland.