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Inspired the writings of Italo Calvino, the ‘Six Memos’ exhibition in Liverpool brings together 20 artists from 12 European cities in the CreArt network. As Brexit draws nearer, Martin Hamblen reflects on its cruel asymmetry.

Following a call-out asking artists to submit their ‘preparations, patterns, neuroses, speculations, and procrastinations that surround the production of art in the studio’, the four-day Inventory of Behaviours event at Tate Modern saw these submissions turned into instructions that were carried out by volunteer artists, students and members of the public. Trevor H. Smith explores the value of the transitional space between not making and making art.

With reference to Edmund Clark’s current Ikon Gallery exhibition ‘In Place of Hate’ – the result of three years as artist in residence at the therapeutic prison HMP Grendon – a recent symposium in Birmingham explored the role of art and its use as a rehabilitative tool. After a day of talks and presentations, Carrie Foulkes finds her belief in socially-engaged practice reaffirmed.

This year’s Jerwood Drawing Prize continues its reputation for being deliberately provocative in its definition of ‘drawing’, with the top award going to a video piece. Lydia Ashman soaks up the medium’s shifting forms.

This year has seen the culmination of the artist’s House of Doors project, exhibited at Westminster Hall in the UK Parliament, marking 100 years since some women were first able to vote in the UK.

The Montserrat-born British sculptor Veronica Ryan has had a lively year marked by an important residency in St Ives, a first trip to the Caribbean since she was a child, and in November being announced as the third recipient of the annual Freelands Award for women artists.

A recent event at MAC in Birmingham brought practitioners and curators together to interrogate ‘the (in)visibility of disabled artists’. Anneka French reports on a productively critical discussion.

This year’s Engage conference in Manchester brought together educators, curators, researchers, artists and policymakers to discuss the diversity of approaches to arts and health – both physical and mental – in current practice. Artist and writer Alistair Gentry reports.

At the conference ‘Pivotal Moments: Professional Development Models for Mid-Career Artists’, staged by London Creative Network (LCN) in association with a-n, participants including artists Keith Piper and Erica Scourti, and Wysing director Donna Lynas discussed career development and the importance of institutional support for artists. Lydia Ashman reports.

a-n launched its current series of UK-wide one-day Assembly events at Paradise Works, Salford with a packed day of discussion that included presentations exploring how to create and sustain a building-based artist-led organisation. Writer and curator Tom Emery reports.

At a recent symposium in London, academics, technologists, artists and film makers gathered to discuss the politics and ethics of art technology. Artist and writer Alistair Gentry attended and was struck by the need for a much closer relationship between the tech and ethical tendencies in this ongoing and vitally important debate.

One half of the London-based performance company There There with Dana Olărescu, Bojana Janković argues that the economic pressures more and more artists face are ultimately shaping the kind of work that gets made, especially by emerging artists, with profound and long-term consequences.

a-n’s Executive Director Jeanie Scott reflects on an incredibly busy year for the organisation that has seen the publication of the Paying Artists Exhibition Payment Guidance, wide-ranging support for artists through a-n bursaries, and membership reach a record high. And, despite an increasingly messy global situation, says there’s much to look forward to in 2017.

We asked artists, arts organisers and writers to comment on how leaving the EU might affect culture and creativity in the UK. Here, writer and researcher François Matarasso, mima’s Alistair Hudson, Katrina M Brown of the Common Guild, Modern Art Oxford director Paul Hobson, and artists Haroon Mirza, Joseph Young and Gordon Shrigley give their views.

This year’s Arts Council England and British Council-supported No Boundaries – billed as a symposium on the role of arts and culture – took place over two days at the end of September at Watershed in Bristol and HOME, Manchester. Featuring talks and discussion from an international cast of contributors, it once again had a live link between each venue and was also live streamed. Artist Julie McCalden reports from Bristol, while arts consultant Mark Robinson presents a view from the rainy city.

A year on from the implosion of Creative Scotland and a year before the independence referendum, where do things stand at the funding body? Johnny Gailey attends a recent Open Session event in Glasgow hosted by CEO Janet Archer, and finds the organisation caught in a curious state of flux.

As Creative Scotland’s open session events on the organisation’s future gather momentum, Edinburgh-based photographer and educator Johnny Gailey assesses what’s wrong at the core of its remit and makes a case for true artistic independence.

As Manchester’s Castlefield Gallery relaunches with a renewed vigour for artist development, its director shares the lessons learnt over a challenging and rewarding year-and-a-half.