What kind of a year has 2013 been for you?
Active, questioning and full of new faces. We’ve motored through new exhibition launches at Jerwood Visual Arts, powered by some brilliant new collaborations with Film and Video Umbrella, Photoworks, Forestry Commission England and Ceri Hand Gallery, our new neighbours in Bankside. It’s been a year of finding out what we can do together.
What has changed for the better and what, if anything, has changed for the worse?
I saw a debate advertised recently asking whether we are living in the best of times or the worst of times. I’m such a glass-half-full person, and even so it is mind-bogglingly hard out there when you don’t have the privileges that we have as an endowed organisation. But we all have to be clear and positive about the strengths of our sector, and shout loudly about the value of working in the arts and the huge potential for young people, and society, that it holds. It won’t do for us to discourage a next generation. Best face forward everyone, and let’s get on with fixing the broken bits for them.
What do you wish hadn’t happened this year?
The closure of Hide & Seek, one of the most forward-thinking cultural organisations. Even on their elegant way out they had more generous and creative ideas for how to pass on the resources of the company than most could muster. As we go into 2014, and ACE’s No Boundaries conferences, we need to talk about how the funding rhetoric around supporting innovation and digital practice can actually become a reality in the arts.
What do you wish had happened this year, but didn’t?
I wish I’d actually finally published our strategic plan. We’re a little too busy getting on with it…
What would you characterise as your major achievement this year and why?
It’s not my achievement, but our team at Jerwood Visual Arts constantly surprise me with their ability to make the gallery space flex. We’ve learnt so much from the collaborations we’ve been involved in and it’s been such a pleasure seeing our gallery manager, Sarah Williams, and the team run with that and put it into practice. Hats off to them.
Is there anything you’d like to have done this year but haven’t?
Had a party to get everyone together who we’ve worked with – there’s a lot of power in assembling. We commissioned or presented work with 125 artists in Jerwood Visual Arts this year, and in our other grant-making we support projects in literature, dance, theatre, live art – I’d like to be in that room. Last time we had a gathering like that was for Jerwood Visual Arts’ fifth birthday in 2011. Keith Harrison played Happy Birthday through his installation Float as a surprise, which caused it to catch fire… during my speech. Next year…
What would make 2014 a better year than 2013?
More money making its way directly to artists; better funding routes to support individuals and less established organisations to make their best work. And another day in the week.
