I thought that I was going to write something about the question of why there are so few (if any – according to some people!) internationally known Swedish artists when the level of government support and other types of assistance, subsidies and stipends is so high. However after a couple of attempts at writing a paragraph or two I have decided that just to pose the question is sufficient at the moment.
This morning I met up with some of my fellow students from the Artistic Research (AR) course. It’s the second time that we have met outside of the course time and again the conversation was as fascinating as it was wide ranging. I really appreciate the opportunity to work with such interesting artists, and cannot express my delight that an institution such as Konstfack has the possibility to run “free-standing” courses lead by world class lectures on an open application basis. Although it is a free-standing course it carries a number of credits or points, which if I understand correctly could count toward a degree or other qualification.
As if to drive home the fact that I am no longer in Britain I was reminded that next week is the deadline for submitting an application for the artists’ stipend. The year-long award is a tax-free 100 000 SEK (about 10,000 GBP) which the artist uses to buy themselves time, materials, and or space, for their work. There is also a two-year award (available only to those who have previously received a one-year award) of 120 000SEK per year (also tax-free, which means a lot in Sweden!), and even a five-year award of 134 000SEK per year (that one however is taxable). I am not sure how many awards are made each year but there are at least a few of each and from what I understand the range of artists receiving them is pretty wide.
So in addition to revising for my Swedish exams next week, or perhaps as part of my ‘reading comprehension’ revision, I am going to spending time this weekend reading that application as an award like that would be amazing to receive, and here I feel that, if my work is good, I stand as good a chance of receiving it as anyone else!
Perhaps a meritocracy does not produce the kind of super-star artists that other systems do, but it sure feels good to me!
