AIR activities - Page 2 of 3 - a-n The Artists Information Company

Response from AIR: Artists Interaction and Representation.

January’s AIR Advisory Group meeting held in Newcastle provided the opportunity to invite Scottish Artists Union President Chris Biddlecombe to come along.

The State of the Arts conference organised by Arts Council England and RSA (Royal Society for the encouragement of Arts, Manufactures and Commerce) and held in January in London was heralded as a key opportunity to examine the current and future challenges and opportunities around domestic arts policy, strategy and funding and Britain’s position within the global cultural landscape.

In November, the Federation of International Musicians and International Federation of Actors launched their Manifesto on the Status of the Artist as a major step in highlighting the conditions for a contemporary practice. Although aimed at performing artists and emanating from Estonia, the principles and intentions of the Manifesto are highly pertinent to visual and applied artists and to the UK.

Over 50 individuals from 18 different European countries attended ECA conference Experiencing the Arts – Artists’ Contribution to Creative Thinking and European Innovation, held in Valetta Malta 30 October – 1 November.

Hans Abbing’s provocation on the Creative Scotland debate site posits that “general subsidies for artists should gradually be abolished…”

The first meeting of the AIR Representation working group took place in Birmingham in September to discuss primary areas of research for an artists representation model.

The recent AIR survey that revealed that levels of self-employment were higher amongst artists than the creative industries as a whole also highlighted the high level of qualifications artists hold.

Artists’ employment status and livelihoods were the hot topics at a meeting that took place in August between Visual Arts Ireland’s Chief Executive, Noel Kelly and AIR advisers Elpida Hadzi-Vasileva, Sally Sheinman and Caroline Wright.

Last month, as part of gathering evidence to support future art and design courses and government job creation programmes, we asked AIR members to respond to a survey about their employment status. As a result, we now have firm statistics to take back to HE and Government.

A survey highlighting the differences in type of professional development needs amongst artists in different locations such as London, Plymouth, Sheffield and Manchester.

Earlier this year, AIR members were invited to contribute to National Campaign for the Arts consultations on a new manifesto for the arts.