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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.

Audience development is core within galleries and arts organisations seeking diverse participation in programmes. Here, we examine how they create accessibility, inclusion and encourage learning and engagement with artists and artworks through activities including workshops, residencies and other projects.

Many artists aspire to permanent studio space, whether self-initiated or rented through a specialist organisation. Here, we explore some current options for artists and makers with the focus not only on developments in London but also elsewhere in England, Wales and Ireland.

For artist Emma Baird Murray, Coed Hills Rural Artspace in South Wales has become a place of inspiration, a space where making art, sustainable living and community involvement go hand in hand. She describes how the organisation works with artists in a rural setting.

Window Sills is neither public art nor community art. It uses collaborative strategies that draw on and sit between a number of artistic practices taking its lead from ‘New Genre Public Art’ – a term used by American artist Suzanne Lacy – which incorporates activist arts, site-specific art, performance art and happenings. The project is also aligned to ideas about art and context developed in universities in the UK.

Artists David Hood and Seainin Passi introduce their ongoing collaborative practice Community Facility, and reflect on a legacy of nine years’ work and the subtleties of engagement that have emerged.

In December 2010 the Arts Council of Wales announced its new portfolio of revenue clients. From 116 existing clients more than thirty were lost. Five months on we asked the sector what the impact has been and how the visual arts in Wales has reacted, and what England might anticipate following last month’s ACE announcements.

In these times of austerity, a-n Magazine has compiled a catalogue of money-saving ideas for freelancers that have been tried and tested by our readers.

Kathryn Smith on Johannesburg and Virginia Mackenny on Cape Town. The second part in a series commissioned by Deborah Smith.

Luiz Camillo Osorio on Rio de Janeiro and Ana Paula Cohen on S

Iliyana Nedkova responds to the networking themes that arose at Amorphous combustion, part of a body of specially commissioned writing published now on www.a-n.co.uk

On the West Coast of America, Harrell Fletcher is making history – not in the grandiose sense, but through an approach to art-making that brings out individual voices and stories.

The UK’s seen a noticeable increase in professional development schemes for artists, encompassing training, mentoring, networking and information services. There is an obvious cross-reference to the government’s endorsement of ‘lifelong learning’ as a principle, encouraged through the offer of individual learning accounts for all. These moves increase opportunities for the kinds of artistic development that incorporates developing and honing skills, accessing facilities and ultimately furthering career strategies. The results are more than just CV embellishment. By providing points of crossover between artists, such schemes contribute to peer support systems and help to address the potential isolation of artists. Here, three individuals involved in artists’ professional development matters describe some of the resources around, and discuss how artists are making the most of them.

A regular visitor to Italy since 1981, when Alan Rogers moved there on a more permanent basis his “youthful, romantic love affair” with its warm Mediterranean light was soon replaced by the realisation that day-to-day conditions for contemporary artists were far from ideal.