Jobs and opps

Safle Graduate Awards Project Manager Cinzia Mutigli talks to Kate Brundrett about the ambitions of this new annual prize.

The Safle Graduate Award is a new annual award for graduate artists in Wales. Ten art colleges throughout Wales were asked to nominate up to three visual art BA students to initiate, research, develop and implement a temporary site-specific artwork in the public realm. The award aims to offer an opportunity to progress personal creative practice through collaboration and an inter-disciplinary exchange within a professional context.

How did the Safle Award transpire?

‘Safle’ is an independent public art consultancy formed in 2007 through the merger of CBAT – The Arts & Regeneration Agency and Cywaith Cymru - Artworks Wales.

Arts Council of Wales funds were brought forward from the Artworks Wales budget  ring-fenced for artist-initiated schemes and residencies.  Safle was able to open up the criteria and enhance the programme which gave more scope to work with and widened the possibilities.

I’ve always had an interest in mentoring, and although there are mentoring schemes elsewhere there was an obvious gap in the area of public realm, especially for younger artists. Arts Council funding is often not available to younger graduates in their first few years of leaving college. £10,000 is a significant award for a new graduate, we feel privileged to be able to offer it.

What’s it all about?

‘Stiwdio Safle’ is all about ambition, risk taking and pushing perceptions. The process is integral.

It’s also about pushing boundaries for the audience and commissioning agencies, to promote artist’s practice and allow people to see what new artists are doing and how they are thinking.

I’ve had quite a bit of feedback about the Safle Graduate Awards being one of very few such public realm schemes of this nature in the UK at the moment. 

What were you looking for in the artists you shortlisted?

The students we shortlisted did not necessarily have to show a firm portfolio towards a public realm career, there were various disciplines from sculpture to painting. The stronger applications showed an interest in the engagement of audience and space. It was obvious that they had thought about where their work sat, how it was positioned, and it’s relationship within the environment. The potential of the artist’s thinking was important.

The final artwork will be temporary, why?

The Award was always designed as a temporary artwork from the start. We run quite a number of ephemeral and temporary public engagement projects through the artists residencies and know they can work well. The temporary nature allows the commission to be wide open to ideas and less restrictive in terms of the outcome. It also allows more risk taking.

We don’t have an idea of the location of the work at the outset, and we often negotiate with councils and land owners to place artworks – the temporary nature of this award makes this negotiation and installation easier.

How long will the Awards run?

We will have a 3 year review on funding and then we will assess how the Awards scheme has developed.

How did you design the selection process and what did you learn?

We’ve learned a lot in previous commissions and projects and decided to go to the heads of departments to get nominations for these awards. This direct approach helped to avoid being inundated with applications, and also the risk of getting very few.

We prepared all the administration and created very simple forms for the artists to complete. Disseminating the information through the colleges proved to be a little inconsistent, and we will look at making more direct contact with the artists next time.

The application form asked for the kind of information you would expect from professional artists, such as expression of interest and c.v. but kept the answers short and made headings explicit. Even then, some applications missed out very obvious pieces of information that you would take for granted when receiving applications from professional artists. These new graduates haven’t had to do this before, they aren’t used to the applications and interviews and it’s all a learning curve. Every stage adds to their professional development.

I’ve also found this to be the case when selecting artwork from students in the past. Do you think there is a general lack of a professional development aspect available at colleges in the UK?

Yes, there is a gap for artists leaving college, there always has been and it still exists.

Artists gain knowledge through experience, they often need a chance to find out what they’re interested in – this sort of opportunity is invaluable to them.

You can hold people’s hands to a certain extent but you can’t do anything more. Artists have to demonstrate a certain amount of drive, motivation and understanding of the task in hand. For example, this award is valuable because it is a rare ‘boost’ for a young artist to take risks and explore their practice in a public realm context, it is not to give time for painting in the studio.

It is part of our motivation to develop artist’s professional skills – it takes time to pick up on this, it’s trial and error. The unsuccessful artists are written a letter and given constructive feedback. Often it shows that the unsuccessful applications did not show enough focus.

Do you have advice for artists in their early careers applying for similar awards?

For people at the beginnings of their careers, to phone up the organisation, talk to the officers, ask questions, have a chat or set up a meeting. Know what they are asking for – research projects the organisation has done before. We are quite happy to have a chat and offer pointers, and it puts artists in good stead.

 

Image: Ink image by Alistair Owen, the recipient of the first Safle Graduate Award

Further information about Safle

Safle is one of the largest public art organisations in the UK, a leading force in the development of public art practice both in the UK and internationally. Former companies have worked extensively on art projects in the public realm with public and private sector clients and supported the success of many major regeneration initiatives by procuring a primary role for artists in regeneration schemes.

Safle’s mission is to promote, advocate, develop and implement art in the urban and rural public realm, throughout Wales and internationally. Safle strive to enliven and regenerate public spaces, support and initiate sustainability and educate and inspire local communities. Safle works in collaboration with artists, architects, residents, communities, public authorities and the private sector responding to the increasing demand for better public spaces.

In addition to managing public art commissions and developing bespoke strategies, the Stiwdio Safle programme supports short-term, temporary and innovative projects. This enables artists to work with communities on mutually beneficial projects, encourage a deeper understanding and appreciation of art and stimulates the formation of innovative creative professional partnerships.

More information about Safle can be found at: www.safle.com

 

Kate Gilman Brundrett, Cinzia Mutigli

www.kateb.co.uk

First published: a-n.co.uk February 2009