What kind of a year has 2013 been for you?
2013 has been a pretty high-octane year, with a lot of great projects for the Arts Council Collection in the first half of the year, and then the exciting move to the Contemporary Art Society in October. I had been with the Arts Council Collection for seven years, so inevitably the projects we completed this year have been the product of a number of years. The year kicked off in deep snow with the opening of sculptor Garth Evans’ exhibition, curated by Richard Deacon at the Longside Gallery at Yorkshire Sculpture Park. It continued with the opening of Uncommon Ground at Southampton Art Gallery in May, and Grayson Perry’s tapestries, The Vanity of Small Differences, at the Sunderland Museum in June. In the first six months of the year the ACC team made three books, three exhibitions, our first app, and a new building. Then I got a new job, so there hasn’t been a moment’s down time.
What has changed for the better and what, if anything, has changed for the worse?
The biggest change from a personal perspective has been my move to the Contemporary Art Society – I feel very privileged to have been offered the opportunity to see it through its next phase. My experience means that I will be bringing some different ideas to CAS, and these will play out in changes through the course of next year. It’s too early to say any more than that, but perhaps by this time next year it will be clear how strongly I believe in the mission of the Society to bring the best of contemporary art to regional museums in the UK. If anything has changed for the worse, it is obvious that progressively deeper cuts to museums and galleries are taking an inevitable toll on the sector. In my new role I will continue to do as much as I can to support colleagues in institutions across the country while we weather this storm.
What do you wish hadn’t happened this year?
I wish that Croydon Council had not gone ahead with the sale of works from its Chinese ceramics collection. Although this may seem remote from my work with contemporary art, it sets a dangerous precedent for the way a local authority can act. As austerity measures cut ever deeper into local authority spending, collections of art in public ownership are increasingly eyed-up as a quick fix for plugging funding gaps. If we allow local authorities to pick off the highest value works in their collections, the damage will be much more far-reaching than the immediate gaps on the wall. Sell your Francis Bacon and it will never be replaced; not only is it highly unlikely that a replacement could ever be purchased, but which benefactor would gift a valuable work to an institution that sells things off when the going gets tough?
In the broadest sense, our public museums and galleries are unique, non-commercial social spaces that foster new and dynamic thinking. Engaging with art, historic or contemporary, connects us to ideas in a way nothing else can. Through their programmes with young people, our museums and galleries are developing the minds of the next generations – and not only the artists, curators or museum directors. We need dynamic, original and acute thinkers in every sphere: all innovation is creative.
What would you characterise as your major achievement this year and why?
The thing I am most proud of was the installation of Roger Hiorns’ extraordinary Seizure 2008/2013 at Yorkshire Sculpture Park in June. We had spent an intense two-and-a-half years moving the work from London and, most particularly, conceptualizing how to reinstall it at YSP. It was a complex proposition, to keep faith with all those people who’d had such a powerful experience of the work in Harper Road at the Elephant and Castle, but to find a way to allow Seizure a new life, in a wholly different environment. At every level, this has been the most fascinating and challenging project of my professional life. Working closely with Roger and then with architect Adam Khan, I think we have arrived at a solution that fulfils the criteria we set out for ourselves, and offers a compelling new experience of the work.
Is there anything you’d like to have done this year but haven’t?
I always regret all the exhibitions that I missed: Peter Doig in Edinburgh, David Batchelor in Bristol, Pierre Huyghe in Paris, Manet in Venice – just a few examples from many. I wish I’d been able to spend longer at the Biennale in Venice, and I wish I’d been able to make it to Derry for the Turner Prize announcement.
What would make 2014 a better year than 2013?
I would like to see the DCMS looking again at tax incentives for lifetime giving to encourage more philanthropic giving in the visual arts sector. Decisive action in this area could have a transformative effect. I’m thrilled to have over 1500 followers already, but I’d also quite like to get to 2000 followers on Twitter in 2014!
