ARTISTS TALKING

Open dialogues, a-n people and Introducing our board.

Open dialogues
Over the last ten months and as part of our 25-year anniversary programme, a-n has been researching ways of enhancing the benefits provided for UK visual artists, including how best to represent their diverse interests and practices within the sector as well as to government and cultural planners. Over 1,000 artists have been involved so far, either through the subscriber events held in places ranging from Brighton to Wakefield, and Cardiff to Ipswich, or by giving us their views in response to a postal artists’ survey in December 2005.

We are now addressing the key messages from artists that emerged from the survey. Artists said that they want us to assist consultation between them and funders and to advocate for artists to local and national government. Significantly, artists want a-n to be doing research and publishing the key facts and figures that demonstrate the value of artists in society and to ensure that artists’ own knowledge and professional needs are fed into other sectoral research. Our work over the last four years developing and locating resources that assist artists’ own networking is also acknowledged, and artists want us to foster more opportunities to network and exchange contacts and knowledge.

May saw the beginning of a series of invited Open dialogues. Held in Newcastle, the invited artists came from North East and North West England and Yorkshire. The sessions are designed to test and develop artists’ ideas around their professional status and development, and to explore in more detail some of the additional benefits and services surveyed artists said they would like a-n to provide or facilitiate. These include priority communications on jobs, opportunities and events, regular updates on legislative changes on self-employment and business matters, routes to locate artist-to-artist advice, and mechanisms for artists to pass to other artists their endorsement of commissioners and galleries who demonstrate good practice in their work with artists.

Further sessions will be held in Birmingham (19 June) for artists in East and West Midlands and Wales, and London (13 July) for artists in South East, South West England and Greater London, and will explore how to enhance communications between artists, their collaborators and the outside world and the relationships between artists’ professional interests in the UK and their interaction with representative bodies in Europe and internationally, and to identify common areas for campaigns, exchange and partnership.

Artist subscribers proactive in their own artistic development and keen to extend their networks, who are interested to participate in the above Open dialogues sessions, or would like to collaborate with us in developing others beyond these dates, should contact info@a-n.co.uk +44 (0) 191 241 8000 and mention Open dialogues.

a-n people
In May, we bid farewell to Janine Goldsworthy, a member of our lively Communications and Sales Team over the last year. A recent graduate herself, alongside supporting subscription sales, Janine contributed to CST’s research into the professional practice needs of art and design students and into a-n’s external events programmes. We wish her every success with her own practice and future developments at Rednile Projects, based in Sunderland. Our heartfelt thanks and good wishes also go to Janine Sack, whose six-month contract to support our 25-year programme finished in May. A German artist, Janine’s experience of artists’ networks there and in Sweden contributed to our research into artists’ professional bodies and unions beyond the UK and to the dissemination of our Future forecast and a-n Collections publications to these and other significant UK organisations and indviduals.

Introducing our Board
Paul Scott, artist, writer and curator has been Vice Chair of a-n’s Board since 2000. A Cumbria-based artist and PhD Fellow at Manchester Institute for Research and Innovation in Art and Design, Manchester Metropolitan University, Contemporary Arts Alsager, he is regularly invited to present at international conferences and take part in symposia. In the past twelve months he has presented to the Sensuous Knowledge conference in Bergen, Norway (see his report in January a-n Magazine) and NCECA Portland Oregon, USA; research visits have included time at the International Ceramic Research Centre Denmark (www.ceramic.dk), and the Rrstrand Museum Lidkping, Sweden. He has recently returned from a short residency at the University of South Australia (www.unisa.edu.au/art/) and the Jam Factory in Adelaide (www.jamfactory.com.au). His detailed knowledge of practising professionally as an artist and of the networks and routes artists use to create their own support and development infrastructure have played a major role in researching strategies to better support artists development, including the current Open dialogues sessions.