Feeling the love.
Twitter is my favourite at the moment. I talk a lot of rubbish but occasionally, really great discussion breaks out and people share things you perhaps wouldn’t expect. I’m @speedina if you’re not on there already.
Yesterday I was chatting with @rougeit and others about working to commission. He asked “Artists question: should artists ask for references before accepting commissions? #artists #artsfunding”
So the idea of asking employers for references was put out there – the artist is checked out (curators talk too) but it’s a bit more difficult for artists to know what they’re getting into. Bad commission experiences seemed to be down to lack of communication and support – perhaps because of short staffed or stretched organisations. Artists who joined in (including me) also said that they were responsible to some degree – being dazzled at interview and not asking important questions before committing to projects.
One suggestion that came out of it was the idea of giving organistions a stamp of approval. Rather than shouting about bad experiences, which seems unlikely to do the artist’s reputation any good, we thought talking about good experiences would be better. Artists sharing information to save everyone some worry and potential heartache! An online list perhaps – ommissions would be very telling indeed and those really great organisations would be on there.
He nominated Oriel Davies Gallery and Lakeland Arts Trust as great people to work with. Mine were Yorkshire Sculpture Park and Blackpool Council Arts Dept/Grundy Gallery. I’m also working with the Bluecoat at the moment and the curator there has been brilliant.
Anyone else care to add a great experience/organisation here?
