Sonya Dyer considers the key challenges facing mid-career artists and makers in this essay written in response to Pivotal Moments, the conference she organised in September 2018 in collaboration with the SPACE-led professional development programme London Creative Network.
a-n Research editor Dany Louise highlights reports and evaluations from several UK-based art festivals and biennials that provide useful insight into the continued investment in large-scale art presentations and projects.
Report advocating for the implementation of specific methods of evaluating “the cultural spillover effect”, via the presentation of four international case studies.
a-n’s newest website development draws together more than 250 cultural policy and strategy documents into one place, offering free access to an index of over 20 years of research from across the visual arts and creative sectors in the UK.
Explores the various approaches, impacts and outcomes of art and engagement found across the CPP programme.
In a piece originally published by The Conversation, Eleonora Belfiore looks at what Tate Modern’s new Switch House extension says about the organisation’s attempts to engage with a wider, more socially and economically diverse audience.
Second learning summary of the first three years of the Creative People and Places initiative.
Presents the findings of the 3-year Cultural Value Project, which attempted to understand the value of arts and culture; and the difference they make to individuals and to society.
New research commissioned by Axisweb highlights the contribution made by artists whose practices exist outside of the traditional gallery system by exploring the structures that enable and impede their visibility and success.
Getting across the value of the arts to society in this unforgiving political climate needs more passion and fewer generic advocacy tools This month, I’ve been reminded how in the pre-internet days of the CND and the Greenham Common peace […]
Since 2000 there has been an unprecedented surge in self-employment. According to the RSA, there has been a 40% increase in micro-businesses and one in seven of the workforce are now self-employed. I recently joined the UK’s freelancer community and […]
Here in the UK, as the Paying Artists campaign revealed in 2014, the majority of contemporary artists are barely surviving financially, with no or low pay the norm. In real terms, nearly three-quarters of artists are getting just 37% of […]
As artists find themselves at the end of the cultural food chain, Susan Jones suggests a new activism to reaffirm their status The so-called golden age of arts funding has given way to debilitating austerity, particularly for artists who find […]
Are traditional arts organisations the best vehicles for meaningful participation or should we be looking elsewhere? These are dangerous times for people and for our world of arts values. Uncertainty can cause us to be safe, edit complexity, be secretive, […]
Republishing a selection from my writing on the Guardian. Collectively, these texts raise issues and concerns about the visual arts infrastructure, arts policy and conditions for artists’ creativity.
Reports and commentary from the a-n resources, Research papers and editorial features that provide evidence about or discuss issues around artists’ employment and livelihoods. See also my separate bibliography of evidence on artists’ pay 1986-2016.
The visual arts education charity AccessArt is asking parents, teachers and ‘creative adults’ to think more about the importance of art education.
A new report commissioned by the Arts and Humanities Research Council argues that the UK’s cultural sector operates like an organism rather than a mechanism – it is an ecology of culture. John Holden, the report’s author and Visiting Professor at City University, London, explains.
A major new arts initiative led by the BBC and What Next? launches this week with a series of events and debates across the UK.
The final report of the Warwick Commission inquiry finds the future of cultural value as lying in a seamless relationship between the cultural sector and the creative industries, coupled with a focus on enterprise and creativity in schools. Liz Hill and Frances Richens report.
Learning from the first two years of the ACE funded major national programme Creative People and Places.
Selected texts, news reports, arts funding features and commentary since 2001.
A new Collaborative Doctorate Award devised by Warwick University and a-n, and funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council, has been awarded to Brighton-based artist Emilia Telese.
A new collaborative research study from Warwick University and a-n will explore the impact of artist-led initiatives on cultural value.
The recently published Arts Council England report, The Value of Arts and Culture to People and Society, has been attracting criticism from academics for the quality of its research and its subsequent findings. Mike White, Research Fellow in Arts in Health, is unimpressed by its ‘holistic case’ for arts and culture.
