News feature - Page 19 of 20 - a-n The Artists Information Company

Chisenhale Gallery, The Showroom and Studio Voltaire reveal how their artistic and research ethos will lead the way for their fundraising priorities in their joint, Catalyst fund-supported project, How to work together.

All a-n’s UK Artist + AIR members get free, specially tailored public and products liability insurance with their annual membership. Here, a-n’s Director outlines why making sure you’re properly covered is essential for every practising artist.

Hotel Elephant’s recent move from the Heygate Estate to Newington Causeway in South London sees the launch of its first shop and café, along with studios, a gallery and projection room within 15,000 square feet of warehouse space.

Despite a major Kurt Schwitters’ show at Tate Britain last year, the future of the German artist’s Merz Barn in Cumbria remains uncertain. Ian Hunter of the Littoral Trust, which bought the dilapidated barn building in 2006, explains how things stand with the project and why the continued involvement of artists is key to its future.

From the Turner Prize to the recent Lumiere festival, the visual arts has played an important role in Derry-Londonderry’s 12 months as the first UK City of Culture. But as the year draws to a close, what will its legacy be for art and artists in the city?

The role of the artist studio within processes of redevelopment in cities has been brilliantly captured in a fascinating publication, The Nomadic Studio: Art, Life and the Colonisation of Meanwhile Space. Tim Clark speaks to Michael Heilgemeir, the photographer behind it.

The third British Ceramics Biennial in Stoke on Trent highlights both the importance of artistic creativity to the industry and the appeal of ceramics to the fine artist. We report from the Potteries, once the world’s centre of china production and now struggling to find its place in a global market.

The new Serpentine Sackler Gallery, designed by award-winning architect Zaha Hadid, is an impressive new London art space – but it’s the inaugural, site-specific exhibition by the Argentinian artist Adrián Villar Rojas that steals the show.

ArtSOUTH brings together 15 organisations and ten artists for a series of new art commissions across Hampshire, the Isle of Wight, Portsmouth, Winchester and Bournemouth. Curator Judy Adam discusses the rationale and process behind the commissions, while artist Graham Gussin explains how he pulled off a tricky collaboration with a collective of choreographers and the British Army.

After last year’s hiatus, the artist-focused art fair returns to London during Frieze week, offering a snapshot of grassroots practice in 2013. We find out more from Sluice co-director Karl England and talk to some of this year’s participants.

For her solo show at the Grundy Art Gallery, New York-based artist Zoe Beloff has created a Freudian dreamland that draws on the famous psychoanalyst’s visits to Coney Island and Blackpool Pleasure Beach. The result, reports Bob Dickinson, is a thrill ride into a fictional past.

For the third of our features looking at summer shows across the UK, we talk to 2009 Turner Prize nominee Lucy Skaer about her Mount Stuart commission, a series of poetic and precise interventions in this neo-gothic house on the Isle of Bute.

For its summer shows celebrating the building’s 10th anniversary, Liverpool’s FACT has invited artists to pick apart the very fabric of the venue. For the first in a short series of features focusing on summer exhibitions across the UK, we talk to Helen Evans of HeHe and architectural artist Katarzyna Krakowiak – and hear from FACT’s Director why allowing artists to drill a fracking well in your gallery is a good thing.

Tino Sehgal, the 2013 Turner Prize nominee, lights up this year’s Manchester international Festival with a riveting and joyous sound piece, writes Bob Dickinson.

For only the second time, Iraq has a national representation at the Venice Biennale. Curated by Ikon Gallery Director Jonathan Watkins, what sets it apart from the 2011 pavilion is that all the artists featured still live and work in the country. S Mark Gubb takes a look at the work on show and finds out how you pull off an exhibition from a country that has no curators, and of which curators on the outside know nothing about.

Working internationally is key to the development of many artists’ practice, but without gallery representation the hurdles are considerable. With the 55th Venice Biennale soon to open, we speak to three artists – including one showing in Venice – about the challenges of working abroad without a gallery, and also get the views of an independent curator.

The Venice Biennale is the world’s biggest and most important international art event. But how do the exhibiting artists get chosen to represent their country at the national pavilions or collateral exhibitions and how does the process differ from one country to the next? We take a look and find that, although in differing forms, the open call is becoming increasingly popular.

The third Cr8net creative industries conference, themed around ‘Digital Diversity’, started badly for our correspondent. But thanks to adept chairing and a whirlwind visit from Ed Vaizey, this annual one day event managed to transcend its achingly cool Shoreditch venue to explore some genuinely important issues.

As the debate continues around Margaret Thatcher’s legacy ahead of her all-but state funeral, one thing is sure – the influence of her actions and ideas continues to be felt across the UK. Formed in the midst of her first term, a-n is no exception. Here, Director Susan Jones remembers the dawn of Thatcherism and trawls the a-n archive for pertinent references to the Iron Lady and her policies.

Bookmaking and self-publishing are becoming increasingly prominent forms of artistic practice. Catherine Roche considers the rise in popularity of artists’ books and what it means to ‘publish’ in a post-digital age.

In January, three UK makers began Watershed’s Craft + Technology Residencies, bringing together making and design with digital, networked technologies. Taking place in Bristol, Plymouth and Falmouth, we talk to the participants and discover how digital technology is influencing their practice.

The venerable London Art Fair is playing host to some interesting interventions in its Art Projects strand, enabling unrepresented artists to get a piece of the art fair action. We look at some of the methodologies being employed and test the temperature of the art market in 2013.

The three-day Institutions by Artists conference in Vancouver brought over 400 artist, curators and academics together to discuss and debate the past, present and future of artist-run organisations. We report from what was an expansive and lively international gathering.

Unlike many international art biennials, Liverpool Biennial has deep roots in its host city’s contemporary art scene. As the festival reaches an intriguing point in its 13-year history, with a new director and considerably reduced budget, we assess its importance to the city’s visual arts infrastructure.

Is a campaign to raise the threshold of the Artist’s Resale Right in the UK a threat to the incomes of already low-paid artists or a justifiable attempt to protect the art market infrastructure?