When my residency project at software company AIT in Oxfordshire came to a natural end in 2002, I decided to bring the experiences I’d had back into the ‘cultural sector’. AIT had been about transferring my experiences and skills from art to industry – but I could now work the other way, taking ideas from industry into art.
A decade ago, the idea of building a community within an arts project was just emerging in relation to regeneration. I knew how to make this happen, but would my techniques be applicable in the backstreets of West Bromwich or in St Paul’s, Bristol? I’d learned that dialogue was important, and in the two projects that followed, working with The Public in West Bromwich and Bristol City Council’s Neighbourhood Arts, I was once again able to open up a dialogue with the organisations and communities that I was working with.
Over a six-month period in West Bromwich, I set up a series of networking and performative ‘meetings’ called the Exchange Project, which were very closely based on one of my AIT initiatives. They developed their own momentum and made an impact on a diverse range of people within the community.
The ambitions for IS, the Bristol Neighbourhood Arts’ project, a year later, were far greater. The project extended over nine months and encapsulated interventions, social engagement, film and photography across St Paul’s, Easton, Knowle West and six other districts. Here I was able to attempt something that wouldn’t have been possible in industry, and there was a strong social undercurrent about regeneration and engagement, which was politically satisfying. My conscience was clearer.
Making new connections
Connections across the seemingly opposed worlds of art and industry were considerable, and they continue to surprise me as they interconnect:
People are people
Art can be indefinable, internventionist and highly impactful
Change the name (artist) and see what happens
We have more transferrable skills than we realise
Professionalism is a stance to occupy (a role to adopt)
Most professionals are bluffing a fair bit
Many clients/commissioners are not very sure what they want, so it’s OK to direct them towards what you think will work
There are always new connections (of all kinds) to be made. These may be invisible to other people (other professionals)
We can redefine ourselves constantly
Industry can be kinder than the art world
Subversion and creativity go well together
Potential – for artists and others
My experiences at AIT continue to have a presence in my current residency project and exhibition at Forty Hall and Estate in Enfield. The Magpie is an innovative installation and film work exploring how this ‘house of the people’ that was once home to a wealthy seventeenth century haberdasher and his family, is used by the community of visitors, staff and wildlife that inhabit it and the surrounding parkland today.
I discovered four or five main constituencies at Forty Hall and Estate, but they were not obvious at first. The hall is owned and run by the Enfield Council – its arts team is based in the building. The extensive park and gardens are maintained by the council’s parks department. These two departments don’t ordinarily communicate much. There is also an adjoining building containing a commercial banqueting suite (independently run), and then The Forty Hall Farm, managed by the nearby Capel Manor College, is a working farm designed for training students in many agricultural skills.
These organisations are brought together for a meeting once a month and are feeling their way in terms of dialogue. There are also large numbers of volunteers involved in the running of the house, the farm and the park. I started to look at this conglomeration as a potential community and to think about how I could have an effect on it during my residency.
Today, the wider economic situation is inevitably making an impact on opportunities for these kinds of residency projects that engage with a particular community, although there is now a track record and the value of them is more recognised. Forty Hall’s arts team see The Magpie as the beginning of a series of potential opportunities for artists and others. Artists are not necessarily expensive for the impact they can have.
I know it’s easy to say, but the attitude and approach of an artist can lead to opportunities. A discussion about possibilities is a different process from just asking for a job. That’s how this opportunity came about. And if the public sector becomes squeezed dry through the cuts, then a residency in industry can be more easily achievable than you might think.
Listen to Artist as leader: Richard Layzell and Richard Hicks. Artist as leader focuses on how artists and artist-led organisations deal with the concept of leadership. Other interviews in the series so far are: Artist Cornelia Parker; Melbourne’s Field Theory; Central Saint Martins’ Senior Lecturer Kate Love; First Draft in Sydney.
Richard Layzell and Hunt & Darton – conversation on the commonalities of their practices, working immersed in business environments, building community and embracing risk and uncertainty (Video interview).
Knowledge bank: Engaged practice
