Profile - a-n The Artists Information Company

Five Years is a collaborative artist-run project in London. Its activities include exhibitions, a reading group, publications and workshops in local libraries. This profile includes a video interview, recorded at Assembly Thamesmead, with Five Years member Phill Wilson-Perkin, who outlines the project’s aims and explains why its co-operative and collaborative nature has contributed to its longevity.

Laura Yuile is a London-based artist whose practice is concerned with issues around domestic and urban space and how changes in the built environment and technology affect our everyday lives. This profile includes a video recorded at a-n’s Assembly Thamesmead event in October 2019.

Art Licks is a London-based platform that supports artist-led activity and grassroots visual culture in the capital. This profile includes a video recorded at a-n’s Assembly Thamesmead event in October 2019, in which Director Holly Willats introduces the organisation she founded in 2010.

Bow Arts Trust is an arts education charity which provides affordable work space to artists and creative businesses in London, alongside an award-winning education programme that works with over 100 schools. This profile includes a video interview with project manager Joss Taylor, recorded at Assembly Thamesmead in October 2019.

Rosemary Shirley explores new approaches to curating in rural contexts including New Geographies, a project developed by a consortium of nine arts organisations based in the East of England, and Ian Giles work as part of the project, Open Ramble East, which looks at queering rural places through rambling walks.

Jo Hodges and Robbie Coleman’s collaborative and multi-disciplinary practice questions our relationships with environment and landscape. Sally Davies talks to the Dumfries and Galloway-based artists about working in, and interpreting, rural contexts.

Peak is an arts organisation based in the Black Mountains in Wales that works with artists and communities to respond to the rural environment. Peak’s Creative Director Rebecca Spooner speaks to Rosemary Shirley about the organisation’s contemporary arts remit for making and showing art in rural places.

Artist Morag Colquhoun, whose practice includes sculpture, photography, installation, performance, video, textiles and curatorial practice, discusses the benefits and pitfalls of working in a rural context.

London-based artist Liz Atkin creates work both in response to and as way of coping with compulsive skin picking. Alistair Gentry finds out more about her art practice, and the advocacy and education work she undertakes to help others understand and deal with this and other body-focused repetitive behaviour conditions.

Since the early 1970s, Bobby Baker has been producing art that documents and subverts her experiences of everyday life, drawing on motherhood, domestic labour, and mental illness and recovery. Speaking to Lydia Ashman, Baker reflects on the challenges she faced as a woman and an artist, her successes and why she’s ‘proudest of keeping going’.

The Bethlem Gallery in Bromley provides a professional platform for artists who have experienced mental health difficulties. Alistair Gentry speaks to the gallery’s director Beth Elliot about the organisation and how it fosters a supportive artist-focussed environment.

Hospital Rooms is an arts and mental health charity that believes in the enduring power of the arts to instill value, dignity and wellbeing in people. Alistair Gentry speaks to Curator Niamh White about how the project enables access to art and culture for people using secure and locked mental health services.

In 2017, New Contemporaries, an annual exhibition of emerging artists from UK art schools, opened up its application to include artists from alternative learning programmes. Director Kirsty Ogg discusses this decision, the changing climate for emerging artists in the UK, and what artists really need to develop and challenge their practice. Interview by Michaela Nettell.

Turps Art School was founded in 2012 as a medium-specific art school providing year-long studio and distance learning programmes for painters. Co-founder Marcus Harvey talks to Michaela Nettell about the ideas and values behind the school.

School of the Damned is a free year-long alternative, and unaccredited, art school. Each year a new student group comes on board and collectively devises and develops their programme of learning. Laura Davidson finds out more from members of the founding cohort, Class of 2014, and the Class of 2018 graduating students.

Underpinning is the project of Aberdeen-based artist Kirsty Russell. This profile includes a video interview, recorded at Assembly Aberdeen, in which Russell introduces her practice, which often involves ‘creating spaces where there’s room for other people and ideas.’

D2 is a DIY event space in Aberdeen with a focus on experimental music, performance and immersive club experiences. This profile includes a video interview recorded at Assembly Aberdeen with D2 member Jack Ryan, who highlights the importance of building relationships and sharing skills.

A+E is a Glasgow-based multi-disciplinary collective who work at the intersection of art and ecology. This profile includes a video interview, recorded at Assembly Aberdeen, with A+E members Lucy Watkins, Maria Sledmere and Finn Arschavir, who introduce their practice and describe the benefits of working with others to find new perspectives.

Dundee-based project Dain’ Hings was initiated by Duncan of Jordanstone fine art students Jek McAllister and Saskia Singer as a way to invite fellow artists to ‘just dae hings’ This profile includes a video interview, recorded at Assembly Aberdeen, in which they explain how they got started using readily-available resources, including their local pub.

Gaada Projects works in venues across Shetland, offering platforms and support to local communities. This profile includes a video interview, recorded at Assembly Aberdeen, with Gaada’s co-directors Daniel Clark and Amy Gear, who outline the challenges and opportunities of setting up an artist-led initiative in a remote, rural location.

Naoko Mabon, who works under the name Wagon, is an Aberdeen-based freelance curator. This profile includes a video interview recorded at Assembly Aberdeen in which Mabon introduces her work and offers advice to artists thinking about setting up their own initiative.

Artist Jane Simpson, who runs Swansea gallery GS Artists, describes the challenge of maintaining relevance as an artist-led initiative and her optimism for the future. In a video interview recorded at a-n’s Assembly Swansea event in May 2019, which was programmed in collaboration with Simpson and explored the difficulties and advantages of running artist-led projects in the city.

With a background in gallery education and working with communities, and in research, Cardiff-based artist Thomas Goddard introduces his practice and describes the necessity and benefits of working with other people.

Artists Jason & Becky introduce their socially-engaged practice, outline the advantages of working together, and discuss their PhD research which focuses on collaborative practice.

John Byrne introduces the aims of Arte Util, an international body that promotes ways for art to work effectively in ordinary life. Recorded at a-n’s Assembly Swansea event in May 2019.