Students

From Park Circus to Critical Applause: discovering colloborative work

Louise graduated from Glasgow School of Art with a Fine Art Degree in 2005.  Whilst studying she was involved in the artists' run exhibition space Park Circus with her peers and had been volunteering one day a week at doggerfisher gallery in Edinburgh: these experiences led to an interest in working in a more collaborative and organisational way discovering that she wanted to pursue them more than her studio practice.

After graduating Louise acquired part-time work at doggerfisher in a paid position and made up her hours as an invigilator at the Tramway, a contemporary arts venue in Glasgow.  In 2006 she then took a job for an 'arts in health' organisation in the east end of Glasgow, working as an administrative assistant helping to deliver workshops to socially excluded groups in the city.  With this being a part time role she also started working for Mary Mary a then new commercial space in Glasgow; so at the one time was working several jobs mainly in an administrative role.

Louise then moved to the Centre for Contemporary Arts in Glasgow (CCA) to work full time as Programme Assistant in 2007, giving up the other jobs to focus on working across exhibitions, publications, music, performance and film: she is currently covering maternity leave for the Head of Programmes.  Additionally Louise is also involved in a DIY music collective called Nuts and Seeds, putting on monthly music nights and releasing records on a label of the same name.

www.doggerfisher.com
www.tramway.org
www.marymarygallery.co.uk
www.cca-glasgow.com
www.nutsandseeds.org

Give 3 reasons why you chose to stay in the city where you studied.
- Glasgow has a really great art scene a mix of young and emerging artist and spaces and more international recognised galleries.
- As a city Glasgow is a really amazing place to live and very affordable.
- Glasgow also has a great independent DIY music scene, which is something else I am involved and interested in.

What did you perceived you might do after college/university and is this divergent or convergent with what you are doing now?
Towards the end of my fine art degree I became more interested in working collaboratively so I wanted to get experience in the exhibitions side of contemporary art, I guess I didn’t imagine the amount of administrative / office based work this would lead to but generally I guess I am working in a similar vein to that I planned.

Tell me a little more about the artists run exhibition space that you were involved in during your studies: how did the people you worked with in this influence the decisions you made after graduating?
A group of us naturally formed who had an interest in programming the shows and getting involved: we ran the Park Circus space for about six months during our last year at the art school, managing to secure the use of a large disused space. We sent out a call for submissions, as we didn't really have time to 'curate' the shows ourselves and were also interested in exhibiting our own work. We applied for some money from the student council at the art school, this money covered paint, flyer costs and the cost of a website for two years. After selecting from the submissions we programmed a series of group shows running a bar during previews maintaining a small fund for the non-profit venture.

The experience from Park Circus was very varied, from basic administration to gallery managing and installing our own exhibitions. It was run by a collective of 9 people, we took it in turns to manage shows and it worked very well. I am still close to all the people involved who are all doing really well now as practising artists, running other gallery spaces, further studying. It was a great experience where everyone seemed to have the same objectives to support one another. I guess this was one of the main things that made me release this was definitely something I enjoyed and wanted to pursue. I enjoy the 'conversation' aspect to this kind of activity, to working collaboratively and having validation from like-minded individuals, working within a group definitely opens up a lot more potential.

See Park circus on Artists talking

What is the most rewarding thing that you have done since?
The most rewarding things are the more creative processes I have been involved in such as initiating and editing 2HB a new journal for creative writing in contemporary art published by CCA, I am also co-curating a series of talks at CCA called Critical Applause which has allowed us to invite and meet some really interesting artists/curators.

What is the worse job you have done since, and what is the best thing that you took from this and used in another role?
I guess here I should also add that after graduating as well as working in some interesting places I had a bar job for the first 9 months simply to earn money: nothing good was really taken from this apart from money!

When you were studying, what advice/support did you feel was missing and can you provide this information – as a professional – to students that are completing their Degrees now?
We did have a professional development strand to our degree course but to be honest I don’t really place much importance on this as I worry that art is becoming increasingly about careerism, which has a negative effect on art practice and individuals. To a certain extent I think there should be less pressure on this, you should be able to develop your own practice and way of working to suit how you want to develop. I would encourage students to get to know their local and wider art scene, instigate your own exhibitions and events, do it yourself, don’t wait for anything to come to you, as it most likely wont. See as much art as you can, meet people and read lots, there isn’t really any money in the arts, so it should be done for other reasons.

Look out for other Professional profiles on Degrees unedited: they are intended as informative yet short pieces of content for you to make use of and gain inspiration from so let me know if they are working.
richard.taylor@a-n.co.uk »

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“it's what I love doing so I just do it...” DIY doer and maker Michael Aitken on giving it your all in co-running a studio group come gallery. Read on »

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Manchester based ceramicist CJ O’Neill tells us about her symbiotic career in teaching and contemporary craft making, filling us in with what has driven her to where she is now. Read on »

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Richard Taylor

Richard is an artist/writer living in Edinburgh and online editor on behalf of a-n The Artists Information Company, for the Degrees unedited and Students community sites.

www.rich-taylor.co.uk

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