System Failure: six conversations to reboot the art world is a new series of discussion events taking place in London during November and December that aims to examine how the art world could work better for artists.
Produced by Artquest in partnership with a-n and Axisweb, the programme will look at topics that artists grapple with every day but perhaps rarely find time to discuss in a formal setting. These include public funding, income, family life and career validation.
Presented by artists, curators, writers and academics, each discussion will attempt to diagnose why there might be a problem between artists and the art world, and then try to come up with solutions that will be of benefit to practitioners.
The opening discussion, The funding problem: or, a better way to distribute public funding (Wednesday 4 November, 6-8pm), will be led by John Kieffer (writer, cultural critic and consultant with Three Johns and Sheila) and Gilane Tawadros (chief executive of DACS).
They will consider which parts of the UK’s arts funding system are still working and which need improvement, asking how the arts could be financially supported in more efficient ways that benefit artists.
The money problem
The a-n supported discussion The money problem: or, how artists could be paid more than £10,000 a year will take place 18 November, 6-8pm.
Paying Artists Regional Advocate Mark Gubb will be joined by Angela Kennedy of Artists Union England to explore how organisations and galleries often reward artists poorly, despite relying on them for their programmes. The session will also look at how artists might begin to earn more than £10,000 a year (the current median income for an artist in the UK).
Taking the recent Axisweb publication Validation beyond the gallery as its starting point, the final discussion The gallery problem: or, what artists can do when their work doesn’t fit in galleries (12 December, 2-4pm) will be facilitated by New Contemporaries director Kirsty Ogg and curator Marijke Steedman.
They will examine the challenge that socially engaged and other non-object-based practices present to galleries, and explore why these practices are often presented in the context of education rather than exhibition programmes.
All events take place at Block 336, an artist-run project space and studios located in Brixton which promotes engagement and critical discussion of contemporary art.
For further information about all six conversations, which cost £7 per event, see www.artquest.org.uk
