At a recent festival in Belgium about Europe-wide cultural solidarity, artist and AIR Council member Joseph Young talked about a-n/AIR’s Paying Artists campaign. He reports on a debate characterised by politically outspoken artists and networking over mojitos in the Che Guevara tent.
Set against the backdrop of its Newcastle city centre building being lost to redevelopment, a recent two-day event at the artist-led NewBridge Project in Newcastle asked whether it was time for artists to ‘grow up’ and accept the new agenda of cuts, philanthropy and big business sponsorship. Artist Lesley Guy joined in the conversation and came to a different conclusion.
To launch our new series of picture-focused articles, we take a look at Los Angeles-based USC Fisher Museum of Art’s current exhibition which explores the complex relationship between humans, the oceans, and the things we throw away.
In the first of a new monthly series focusing on artists’ books, Sarah Bodman – researcher at UWE Bristol’s Centre for Fine Print Research – introduces a screenprinted hardback that draws on Russian Constructivist graphics and features a specially commissioned poem by Benjamin Heathcote.
As crowdfunding is increasingly adopted by large arts organisations as a fast-track alternative to dwindling public funding, Henrietta Norton – co-founder of the early crowdfunding site WeDidThis – argues that the spirit of risk taking and innovation that inspired early adopters needs to be embraced by these high-profile newcomers.
