Knowledge bank

Jane Watt is an artist and writer based in London, and was Knowledge bank commissions coordinator 2008-09, developing material for the new Curatorial practice section. She is now Online editor for Advisers and tutors micro-site.

She has made temporary and permanent site-specific work in the public realm since 1994. Her work ranges from giving out ice-cream and pretend sunrays on Helsinki’s dark, winter streets to her present long-term project of gathering 6000 words from the people of Cambridge for a giant word search that will cover a new large glass wall in the centre of the town. She has shown in Britain and abroad including exhibitions at Aspex Gallery, Harris Museum, Millais Gallery, and the Crafts Council. She has mentored a number of artists through schemes such as the Irwell Sculpture Trail’s 1st Out Bursary and Suffolk County Council’s Making Art Work. She is currently curator for the Open Space programme as part of Essex County Council’s large public art project Genius Loci. Jane has written a number of articles and research papers for a-n including: Reflections on networking and Impact of networking which formed a two-part review of Networking Artists Networks (NAN) in 2006; ‘Navigating Places’ (2003-2004) a six part series of articles that drew on material from her completed PhD research and examined artists’ experiences working to commission on public works. She is co-editor of Navigating the Unknown: the creative process in contemporary performing arts (London: MU Press, 2006). She taught Art History and Contextual Studies at Roehampton University (2003-2007) and was Research Fellow at ResCen, Centre for Research into Creation in the Performing Arts at Middlesex University (2004-2008).

 www.janewattprojects.com

First published: a-n.co.uk October 2008