ARTISTS TALKING

This information is based on the Critical contexts brochure, in order to inform you of the wide range of resources and publications available to subscribers.

To mark our 25th year, we’ve revitalised our publishing and research programme, to make our subscription packages for artists and arts professionals even better.

Read on for full details of all our publications, including a-n Magazine, the research-based Future Forecast series and the a-n Collections set. With www.a-n.co.uk, we’re building the Knowledge Bank as a unique subscriber resource on artists and the visual arts world.

Our focus continues to be the diversity of artists’ practice and its interface with the wider world. We provide a unique research resource for artists, arts organisers, commissioners, curators, tutors, students and arts commentators, identifying new trends and issues and exploring the processes that underpin the presentation and manifestation of the visual arts.

Alongside our publications, we generate a lively programme of events and consultations with and around artists. These are designed to value artists and enable them to be part of national and international debates and ensure their views impact on cultural policies and strategies.

When we asked artists and organisers what a-n meant to them, we got a myriad of responses – we link artists to their community, we validate artists’ practice, we’re the best online opportunities service, an expert about professional practices, a window on the visual arts world. We not only represent artists and their practices nationally and internationally, but provide the interface between artists and their collaborators.

With your support as an a-n subscriber, we’ll continue to do this for the years to come.

a-n is for artists

a-n is the artists’ compass, signposting the networks and opportunities that are vital to their practice and keeping artists in touch with the critical debates in the visual arts. We know that at least half of all professional artists turn to a-n – to locate and share ideas across a vibrant community of artists, to find practical solutions and as an expert research resource.

We’re the professional body for artists, representing the diversity of their practice and interests, advocating for good working relationships and keeping a spotlight on artists’ current concerns and future needs.

Sustaining your practice
a-n is an excellent starting place for artists to think through and position their practice. Alongside critical and issue-based debate, our resources address all the major considerations – like dealing with commissioners and curators, self-promotion and organising projects – through artist-to-artist advice, toolkits and practical guidance. Our online think-tanks on key issues give you a ‘voice’ within cultural planning and critical conversations.

Explore your contexts
Through a-n Magazine, www.a-n.co.uk, our new specialist publications and the UK-wide artists’ events we generate, we keep you in the loop about new initiatives by artists, the environments and contexts for them, and how the professional relationships and artistic collaborations work out.

Professional support
We keep artists in touch with the broad spectrum of visual arts jobs and opportunities – over £7 million annually from across the UK and beyond. Researched for artists by a UK-wide team of artists, these include exhibitions, commissions, residencies, competitions, awards, academic, research and selling opportunities along with all the professional development options for artists. Our listing of opportunities ‘beyond the UK’, selected for a-n Magazine with many more on www.a-n.co.uk, is a vital resource for those wishing to broaden their horizons.

When making proposals for work, calculate your personal rates with our Fees and payments resources including The artist’s toolkit and Establishing a charge rate for a working artist.

Networking point
Through a-n Magazine, www.a-n.co.uk and our Networking artists’ networks initiative artists’ networking events, our aim is to enhance critical and professional exchange amongst artists. We offer you a platform for information exchange and artistic development through opportunities to connect with like-minded artists and get involved in stimulating conversations in the UK and internationally.

a-n is for visual arts professionals

The leading UK commentator on contemporary visual artists’ practice, a-n is a vital research resource for all who seek quality in their engagements with visual and applied artists.

For busy arts organisers, curators and exhibition organisers, gallery educators, commissioners and arts researchers, we not only offer the best route to locate good artists for projects, but also provide opportunities to step into the artist’s environment – to find out about their motives and expectations, what drives their practice, and their aspirations.

Find artists for your projects

If you’re looking for interesting artists, there’s hundreds featured on www.a-n.co.uk. From emerging to mid-career and established artists, we’ve got them profiled and searchable by name.

We carry unique month-by-month coverage in a-n Magazine of UK artists’ initiatives – including festivals, live art, open studios and city-wide exhibitions.

And you can check out how the opportunities you’re planning for artists compare with all the others advertised through our weekly-updated online Opportunities service.

Professional development

Delve into www.a-n.co.uk for insights into curatorial trends, art in public places, community initiatives and new media developments. Use our ready-made search topics including arts policy and research, collaboration, engaged practice, public art, residencies and selling for a quick response, or pursue your own routes through our comprehensive Knowledge bank, at your leisure. Join in the debate about artists’ practice and contexts in our unique online Future forecast think-tanks.

Apply best practice

Use a-n to update your professional and legal arrangements. Our good practice resources for arts professionals and organisations who work with artists include the Code of Practice for the Visual Arts, the interactive Artist’s toolkits and Good practice in paying artists with sample rates of pay, and Good exhibition practice, including exhibtion agreement checklist.

Maintain a competitive edge

Our special subscriber-only 25-year anniversary publications offer fascinating insights into why artists do what they do. The Future forecast series addresses key issues for the future and a-n Collections provide essential commentary and analysis of artists’ strategies, working relationships and visual arts development.

Many arts organisers use a-n to position their programmes and develop partnerships, to keep up-to-date with the UK-wide arts projects and opportunities and to hear about outcomes and responses.

Knowledge bank online publications

Artist’s toolkits
Innovative interactive resources on www.a-n.co.uk researched and written by experts, designed to improve artists’ professional skills and working relationships.

• The artist’s contracts toolkit – written by solicitor Nicholas Sharp and arts consultant Sheena Etches, intended to create a thinking and learning process around professional arrangements including commissions, exhibiting, licencing reproductions, residencies and selling.

• The artist’s development toolkit – written by arts and education consultant Linda Ball, this self-reflective material for artists at all career stages and for art and design students enables them to review their position and explore ways of developing themselves and their practice.

• The artist’s fees toolkit – written by chartered accountant Richard Murphy, this practical framework is based on the Establishing a charge rate for a working artist publication and demonstrates how artists can calculate their own rates of pay against comparator professionals, their specific freelance costs and their experience level.

• The studios toolkit – written by arts consultant David Butler and architect-planner Mike Franks, it provides a step-by-step guide to thinking through and developing group studios. Ideal for groups of artists starting out and aids negotiations with architects, consultants and developers.

Making a living
Edited: Brigid Howarth, Rebecca Farley.
Writers including Linda Ball, Tim Birch and Hilary Williams explore issues around self-employment, identifying and utilising transferable skills, art markets and attitudes to buying. Includes profiles of Comme Ca PR, Contemporary Art Society, Ben Coode-Adams Deutches Bank Collection, Johanne Mills, Muf, Kate Schuricht and Joshua Sofaer.

Profile and promotion
Edited: Deborah Smith and Catherine Bertola.
Michael Stanley and Sally O’Reilly examine curatorial approaches, Chris Hammonds covers the commercial sector and Chris Brown discusses artist-run spaces, alongside profiles including Blast Theory, Nils Norman, Hayley Newman, Scott Myles and Transmission.

Time and space
Edited: Manick Govinda and Stephen Palmer.
Covers the strategies of artists including Zarina Bhimji, Anna Best, Graham Fagen, Shelley Goldsmith and Carey Young and looks at approaches to charitable trusts, practice-based academic research, prizes and awards for artists and practicalities of taking on a studio.

Signpost: new graduates’ guide to being an artist
Compilation of 32 artists’ career profiles only available on www.a-n.co.uk covering ceramics, design, digital art, engaged practice, film & video, fine art, illustration, interdisciplinary, jewellery, painting, photography, public art, sculpture, textiles and time-based art, with introduction by artist and lecturer Mark Gubb and fun quiz for students to rate their networking skills.

Our publications in print

a-n Magazine
The very best resource around for visual arts Opportunities and art jobs, What’s On listings of exhibitions, artist-led projects, conferences and events, and Directory for arts services including printing, website design and professional advice, plus enhanced coverage of arts news, reviews and artists’ networking initiatives across the UK and internationally. Also available online.

Future forecast series:

• Future space: addressing future roles and functions of artists’ workspace, published May 2005. Edited from interviews with artists, cultural planners and curators.

• Social space: dynamics and divergences within artists’ practice in the social and public realm, edited from interviews with UK and international artists by Becky Shaw, published August 2005.

• Curated space: artists’ curatorial strategies and interventions, researched and edited by Manick Govinda including interviews with Jeremy Deller, Shazad Dalwood and Erika Tan.

• Outer space: the environment for artists’ practice, edited by Esther Salamon, published February 2006.