As part of the a-n Artists Council project Artists Make Change, we’ll be asking a number of different artists about their own approaches and experiences of making change by asking them YOUR QUESTIONS.
Ask The Artist is an opportunity to ask the questions you’ve always wanted the answers to!
a-n Artists Council members Glen Stoker and Rachel Dobbs will be interviewing established artists and organisations whose practice involves long-term advocacy for change, and takes both practical and creative action towards addressing the problems they see in society.
The interviews sit alongside existing project strands – including the Artists Make Change Conversations, Case Studies and Group Discussions – as ways to find out and share with others how and why artists make change.
Ask The Artist #1 – Bob and Roberta Smith
The first interview will be with artist Bob and Roberta Smith, whose work often takes the form of painted signs, slogans, open letters and other ‘calls to action’. This includes Make Art Not War (Tate collection), Letter to Michael Gove, the Make Your Own Damn Music radio show, and Folkestone Is An Art School (Folkestone Triennial).
Bob and Roberta Smith see art as an important element in democratic life. Central to their thinking is the idea that campaigns are extended art works which include a variety of consciousness raising artefacts. Their ongoing concerns include art education, the UK government diminishing the role of the arts and design in schools, and creative resistance to established power structures.
Maybe you’d like to ask Bob and Roberta what it was like to run against Michael Gove MP at a general election? Or how paintings, repeated slogans and open letters serve to make change? Or what inspires them or drives their desire for change in the world? Or something completely different. It’s up to you.
Submit your questions for Bob and Roberta Smith
Taking part is simple, just post your question with the #ArtistsMakeChange hashtag and tag @AirSpaceGallery or email us via [email protected]. AirSpace will collate the questions and get the invited artists to answer as many as possible in an interview over video chat which will then be published on YouTube.
Deadline for submitted questions: 8 August 2020.
