You searched for good practice - a-n The Artists Information Company

In 1999 John Carson made a passionate call for a more rigorous approach to arming graduating art students with knowledge of where their work and practice fitted within the wider world and interfaced with audiences. Sarah Rowles, commissioned by a-n to research the state of professional practice provision on BA fine and applied art courses, offers a perspective on the situation now.

Andrew Bryant on what Projects unedited blogs tell us about artists’ practices and concerns today.

What is an artist-curator? What makes a good collaborative partnership between a curator and an artist? What financial, practical and critical support is available to curators? Do you work with an organisation or go it alone?

Margaret James-Barber and buffy klama (yK) offer two complimentary points of view about ‘M6-M3 Underway/Unterwegs’, an artist-initiated exhibition programme for artists in NW England and Berlin, and its legacy for their own practices and future collaborations.

In a response to a request to consider issues around ‘rural arts practice’, Veronica Vickery writes in the light of the events, performances, installations and seminar that made up BOS-08 and a BOSarts research trip, funded by ALIAS to Grizedale and Allenheads Arts in August 2008.

The continual shaving of UK arts budgets, cuts in mainstream grants programmes linked with escalating overheads and news of an ever-deepening economic downturn aren’t good news for visual artists who depend largely on winning freelance contracts and getting good responses to their project proposals.

In this the second feature exploring strategies and approaches to commissioning art in the public realm, the focus is on regeneration and renewal and the role of agencies and consultancies.

Professional development opportunities are widely available, ranging from cash awards to advisory sessions and critical debate.

“Life flows forth out of the door from the limitation of isolated separate existence into the limitlessness of all possible directions”. Georg Simmel, ‘Bridge and Door’

Chris Brown interviews Neeta Madahar on a return visit to Boston, where she studied for three years at the School of the Museum of Fine Arts.

Jeremy Theophilus considers the issues raised for practioners, organisers and funders by the Jetset conference, in the second of two articles inspired by it.

Find and advertise work in the visual arts with employer profiles and good practice resources at www.a-n.co.uk/jobs_and_opps

Government enthusiasm for involving young people in arts activities has focused the attention of many galleries. Kate Tregaskis reports from Scotland on recent debates around programmes abroad and raises some questions about good practice.

News and updates on AIR’s strategies and activities designed to support professional artists within their practice and working lives.

Current professional development support schemes for visual artists in the UK.

Held in June, ‘Stronger together’ was an opportunity to ‘celebrate and question how we work together’ – exploring collaboration in its many forms – and how vital that is to the survival of the arts.

In March, AIR – Artists Interaction and Representation – put its weight behind calls for art education to be accessible to all, following a survey in which 95% of its members gave hearty support to the view that art education should be accessible “irrespective of background and financial status”. Here we outline AIR’s campaign and the survey’s key findings to provide evidence for artists to use.

Commentary arising from research into local authority arts organisers’ needs, aspirations and modus operandi, revealing how they value and engage with artists and the approaches they take to their own professional development and to supporting the environment for contemporary visual arts.

Public artist or visual artist? Open or closed? Fee-paid or speculative? Drawn from interviews, Mark Gubb brings points of view from public art commissioners and consultants into a debate started by artists in the April issue of a-n Magazine.

Emilia Telese explores peer review funding for the arts within a holistic art and social environment.

To celebrate the launch of Artists talking, Jane Watt explores the development of Projects unedited, a-n’s open space for artists’ blogs.