Publications

The Artist's voice

By: Guyan John Porter, a-n

The recent flurry of arts consultations across the UK has raised the question of artists’ representation on decision-making fora. Here we report on developments surrounding AIR and the proposed Creative Scotland merger, and the willingness (or otherwise) of others to listen to artists’ opinions.

AIR: Artists' Interaction and Representation - the 11,000 strong artists' membership body available to a-n's Artist subscribers - celebrated its second birthday in November last year with launch of an affordable artists' insurance policy to augment AIR's existing free Public and products liability insurance for UK-based members. Speaking at the event, artist Mitra Memarzia said: "AIR is not only a source of practical support, but by providing a range of channels of communication and dialogue amongst artists, it advocates for artists and aims to ensure their views and concerns are heard within all areas of cultural decision-making. One of key issues for me is about the wider understanding of the artist's role within the wider culture, and across professional sectors. Speaking with artists they still feel that they are still very much at the bottom of the food chain - artists are rarely involved in the policies that affect them. I think a lot of this has to do with the artist themselves - we need to take a more active role - and AIR as a representative body can do this." The most recent in a long line of attempts to create representation for artists, AIR has been developed by...

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