Below info about shows/ projects we are looking into and which are culminating this summer – if you are in London check them out!
Only until Sunday 17th July you can Katerina Seda at Cubitt / That’s The Way The Cookie Crumbles.
http://cubittartists.org.uk/index.php?section=10&a…
Until 30th July Emma Smith at The Showroom / Playback
http://www.theshowroom.org/programme.html?id=481
From 21st July till 12th August The Cut – Jessie Brennan, Chris Dorley – Brown and Daniel Lehan at [ space ]
Education Seminar: CLASSROOM CONTROLTuesday 19 July 2011, 6:00PM to 9:00PM
Cubitt Education opens the Festival of Blackboards – summer programme exploring arts education, with a timely seminar focusing on art in schools.
Speakers include: Dr Howard Hollands (Programme Leader: PGCE Art and Design, Middlesex University); Steve Moffitt (Director of A New Direction); Rob Bird (Head of Art and Competence at Oasis Academy, Enfield)
The event is free, but booking online is strongly recommended to secure your place.
http://festivalofblackboards.blogspot.com/
I went to engage International Summer School to Ljubljana in Slovenia – a peer-led weeklong event for gallery educators, artists, curators and academics. As part of the summer school I run one of the workshops that was simply asking the question ‘Why?’ I keep noticing that projects and organizations I am involved in constantly lacking time for ongoing reflection around this simple but crucial question- what motivates us and what are the reasons for us to continue the work?
I wanted to create environment where we could talk about personal ‘whys’ as well as organization – specific ‘whys’ and explore and self-reflect on these questions. I have used Open Space Technology as a tool to aid the discussion.
http://www.openspaceworld.org/
Whys raised by the group of people who joined me for this session included:
Why do galleries engage communities?
Why to work with audience that is not interested in art or other art activities?
Why do I like the idea of collaboration so much?
Why do we need to reach new audiences? Why can’t we stick with the old ones?
Why would artists want to work with galleries?
Why do we do this job? (gallery education)
What is community?
Why do I think art is a positive way to engage with people?
Why education departments and programming departments are not one department?
Should art galleries be all things for everyone?
Why do I work so hard to engage/ collaborate/ work with local residents?
Why is art important to children?
What is the position and place of artists in gallery – community relationship?
Does respect goes with love? (in relationship with public and institution)
What is the value of artists in learning programmes?
Why galleries / arts organisations want to work with the communities around them?
To learn more about engage International Summer School visit:
We have visited Scotland!
Whilst in Edinburgh we spent inspirational afternoon talking to Kate Grey, Director of Collective Gallery and Debi Banerjee, Participation Leader.
Kate talked about how her interests in collaboration, exchange and dialogue are reflected in the gallery programme. Collective shows interesting practice, not social or relational one. But interesting and social/relational sometimes overlap. Kate told us a bit about her previous projects and experiences – she has been trained as an artist and worked as an artist until getting the position of director at Collective and to me it feels as she continues her practice with a new ‘label’ on, but very much continuing thinking as an artist and programming as an artist.
If you are in Edinburgh this summer don’t miss the next Collective project:The indirect exchange of uncertain value by Joanne Tatham and Tom O’Sullivan | Chris Evans | Elizabeth Price
http://www.collectivegallery.net/future.html
From Edinburgh we went to Huntly to visit Deveron Arts. We met Claudia Zeiske and Anna Insa Vermehren – two women who run the arts organisation in the small town in Aberdeenshire. Their approach to arts fits into one line: The town is the venue. The town doesn’t have a dedicated arts space and the projects that Deveron Arts is in charge of take place wherever the audiences are and artists develop their work very much within the town. The arts residencies are usually 3 months long and Deveron Arts allows for artists to move to Huntly with their family – a very unique approach! The residency starts with the topic not with the arts practice – something again very Deveron Arts specific. The organisation has a very clear vision of what is it’s role within the town’s context and is dedicated to supporting contemporary practice within it’s framework. Claudia’s continuously coming up with ideas and one of the recent projects was bringing Art Visitor (play on Health Visitor) to Huntly. Artist Norma Hunter looks after the cultural wellbeing of people of Huntly. Norma also took us for a great tour of the town and we had the pleasure to visit Deveron Arts Art Collection that is displayed in shops, cafes, hotels, office building across the town. A real treat!
There is always something going on in Huntly. Visit:
The launch of the book Artocracy and wider discussion around its town is the venue methodology took place in London last week.
http://www.deveron-arts.com/wb/pages/posts/artocra…
The book is available on line:
