Visual art exhibitions and events with a platform for critical writing
By: Jo Wilson
Lucy Panesar’s college aspiration was to be a practising artist and part-time college lecturer, and a methodical approach to her career has made this a reality.
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Lucy Panesar, ‘The half Smile Test’.
Market Research Exercise at Southampton Live, August 2006. With Emma Sampson
Lucy Panesar’s college aspiration was to be a practising artist and part-time college lecturer, and a methodical approach to her career has made this a reality. Graduating from Canterbury in 2002, Lucy has trod a mainly academic path through the post-grad years; being invited back to UCCA to teach Foundation diploma students, a part-time PGCE, and the publishing of her BA dissertation in an academic journal. She has also reaped the rewards (and awards) of contact with art organisations. On moving to London in 2005, contact with the Live Art Development Agency led to regular attendance at workshops and networking events. In 2006, it was Arts Admin who provided the support, in the form of an early career bursary, which was a catalyst for the complete transition into making live art. Lucy returns to academia in September 2007, with a part-time MA in Design, where she will explore “the interface between live art and design, using performance to examine how design objects act as social signifying props in everyday life, and at how eco/social-design might be better marketed.”
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Lucy Panesar, ‘The Smoking Suffragettes’, and volunteers.
Rational Rec, London, March 2007
Lucy Panesar graduated from Canterbury in 2002 with an aspiration to be a practising artist and part-time college lecturer. A methodical approach to her practice and strong sense of artistic identity have ensured the achievement of this goal.
Having waitressed her way through art college, Lucy was made restaurant manager at a local farmers’ market soon after graduating. What began as a temporary job away from the art world became two years of valuable management experience, and the chance to use her creative skills to design and write a monthly promotional newsletter. Noticing a real lack of exhibiting spaces, Lucy exploited her position at the market by organising a series of monthly solo exhibitions, performances and discussions for local emerging artists in the market space. Entitled ‘NOT FOR HUMAN CONSUMPTION’, it was a huge local success, and by exhibiting her own work, confirmed her position within the art world as a practitioner as well as project manager.
After completing a part-time PGCE to teach art in 2004, Lucy moved to London, determined to push her practice in different directions. Contact with the Live Art Development Agency led to valuable networking opportunities at live art workshops and events, which boosted her confidence in an unfamiliar city. An Artsadmin Early Career Bursary in April 2006 acted as a catalyst for Lucy’s complete transition into making live art. Both organisations have continued to be resources for Lucy’s recent work.
Lucy has continuously used her initiative to forge sustainable and ultimately fruitful links with organisations. Arts Council England, Fresh, The ArtCatalyst, Camberwell Arts and Jumbled, provided valuable commission opportunities, all of which have been platforms on which she has developed her own longer-term projects. Not only have these commissions inspired and assisted with the development of her ideas, she has formed relationships with curators who have been crucial in the development of specific projects, such as Ann Lawlor from Camberwell Arts and Cecilia Wee from Rational Rec.
Lucy’s practice has always, and continues to be, driven by a strong sense of social and environmental responsibility. Many of her recent works investigate the power of advertising and corporate responsibility. Lucy recently directed ‘The Smoking Suffragettes’, re-enacting an event from 1920s that had been aimed at breaking the taboo of women smoking in order to increase sales. She has taken this satirical and timely performance to several events across London, and is due to do so outside the British American Tobacco Association, Aldwych, on Tuesday 19 June.
Lucy often enlists the services of her fictional alter-ego character, Felicity Mukherjee, as an alternative method of disseminating her message. In this guise, she gave a faux presentation on ‘Building Communities’ at UCCA in May, and also appeared on the panel of an Arts Catalyst/SCAN ‘Darkplaces’ symposium at Space Studios.
Lucy’s drive and ambition leads her back to the world of academia in September 2007, with a part-time MA in Design, where she will explore “the interface between live art and design, using performance to examine how design objects act as social signifying props in everyday life, and at how eco/social-design might be better marketed.” With her own brand of political performance, Lucy has created her own niche in the London art world.
Jo Wilson is a freelance journalist and project officer based in London. A former member of a-n's Editorial Production team, she has an MA in Cultural Management from Northumbria University, where she researched the management of collaborative arts projects in the social realm, with a focus on young offenders. After coordinating the marketing and events for the Contemporary Art Society's ARTfutures 2007, she is currently working as a Project Officer for the Commission for Architecture and the Built Environment (CABE) on the Building Schools for the Future programme, which was set up to transform all secondary school learning environments in England.
First published: a-n.co.uk June 2007
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