Publications

Residencies and communities

By: a-n

A topical round-up of projects that focus on development of artists’ practice and their engagement with people.

Since 2000 VARC (Visual Arts in Rural Communities) has generated an on-going programme of twelve-month residencies for visual artists at remote Highgreen in Tarset, Northumberland. This provides an artist with studio and flat and pays fee, utility bills and expenses. The artist is expected to develop his or her own work and also to lead workshops and projects in the community and with visiting groups. An exhibition is held at the end of the residency with an accompanying catalogue. The challenge for current resident artist Jilly Morris, who arrived in Highgreen from Bristol, was working out how the vast moorland space and Tarset skies would influence her creative practice. A film made as a collaboration between the artist and filmmaker Steve White documenting her personal and artistic journey through the year, starts off by revealing her shock when confronted with these new surroundings. The artist set up a self-imposed framework of gathering data through long daily walks followed by immediate creative processing of this information. During her walks, she gathered data such as the number of steps, calories used and distance covered. Her observations and stories of personal and...

. . . to read the rest of this resource

and access all Knowledge Bank and Publication articles subscribe online - from only £6.

Go back »