MEASURING THE EXPERIENCE – 1
There’s been heightened conversation in recent months – especially in England where Arts Council England’s NPO strategy cut funding to many artists’ bodies – about the role of and support for the artist-led within publicly funded arts policy.
Because this is a field I have researched in depth, I thought it might be useful to ‘serialise’ some of the evidence I have gathered and analysed to help fill a gap in knowledge, in support of and to inform advocacy from artists and others nowadays for greater recognition of this essential ‘R&D’ and social enterprise within the landscape of contemporary visual arts.
These were the objectives for my study, conducted between 1993-1996:
To examine the artist-led approach to the generation and presentation of the visual arts in the UK, covering well-estabished and recently formed groups (ie of two or more) and including thoe with a defined legal status as well as others more loosely formed, to determine whether organisations or groups formed, directed and controlled by artists
– have the potential of providing a wider range of people with a visual arts experience and of delivering tangible benefits to society and to artists
– provide innovative examples of interpretation and prosentation of the visual arts and provide indicators of the role of artist-led organisations within future arts planning strategies
– are viable ways of enabling funding bodies to realise their stated aims and objectives.
Through this blog, I will summarise and articulate the 3 studies I conducted and, looking at the conclusions and recommendations I made, draw out any evidence pertinent to those who are charged with creating and delivering arts and cultural policy nowadays.
