Artists' strategies

Midwest

By: a-n

'Midwest - New Thinking A New Perspective'

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'Midwest - New Thinking A New Perspective'

'Midwest - Dreams Possibilities Opportunities'

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'Midwest - Dreams Possibilities Opportunities'

Midwest was an artist’s development programme that ran from 2003 to 2008 in the West Midlands. Here we share pdf reports on Midwest’s activity that provide valuable insights into possibilities within artist-led culture.

Midwest (2003-2008) was a visual arts project developed by Jason E Bowman, Rachel Bradley and Julie Crawshaw - with many contributions from artists, curators and thinkers - to complement the development of artistic practices within the visual arts.

Midwest  aimed  to  develop  regional,  national  and  international  dialogue  and partnerships within the visual arts profession to:

  • Develop the ambitions and capacity of artists and artist-curators within the West Midlands
  • Develop a critical mass of nationally and internationally active practitioners
  • Support the development of the West Midlands region as a European centre for artist-led activity and debate.

Midwest  developed  a  web-based  global  community  and  an  on  the  ground programme in the West Midlands and throughout the UK including: talks, project development events, research and development trips and a graduate showcase exhibition.

Thank you to Rachel Bradley for providing the following pdfs for publication and wider dissemination. The reports offer insights into Midwest's development work and expose vital thinking around artist-led activity and culture.

Midwest - Overview

This document provides an overview of the work, activities and programmes of Midwest - a catalyst for creative thought and action to complement the development of artistic practice within the visual arts.
Download as PDF

Midwest - Word of Mouth

‘Word of Mouth’ was a programme of activity designed to build capacity for the development of (inter)national projects in the West Midlands region, UK. The programme involved a series of three evening workshops at VIVID (a project space for Media Arts in Birmingham) and a weekend of workshops at 22 Green Street (an artist-led project space in Birmingham).
Download report as PDF

Midwest - Know your Place

'Know Your Place' was a programme that examined the potential for artist-led policy intervention in cultural strategy and development. It profiled the environments and contexts of both cultural developers and artist-led initiatives, examining top-down and bottom-up approaches to policy development.
Download report as PDF

Midwest - Up, Up and Away

Dr Pete Mann was invited to facilitate the demise of Midwest through a final two-day workshop called 'Up, Up and Away', in February 2008. Pete contributes to international and cross-cultural programmes of innovatory learning and research practice. His research interests in action learning and action research, experiential learning, tacit knowledge and organisation and management development gave him a global learning perspective to make sense of Midwest. Pete was invited to find out how the participants experienced and valued Midwest as a 'learning initiative'.
Download report as PDF

a-n

First published: a-n.co.uk December 2010

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