Artist-led

Sluice arti­cle masthead

Effec­tive strate­gies for retain­ing the artist-led as a vital ingre­di­ent in social and arts well-being in future involves artists seek­ing out allies and syn­er­gies beyond the restric­tive hier­ar­chies of the con­tem­po­rary visu­al arts. 

Read “Seen but not heard: the artist-led quandary” in full

Con­di­tions for motility

“This is a moment fraught with pos­si­bil­i­ty.” Isabelle Tra­cy, Par­al­lel State: State of the Nation pod­cast 27 March 2020

This text in the Covid19 port­fo­lio is on the future of artists’ liveli­hoods. It starts by evi­denc­ing the impact of exter­nal trends on visu­al artists’ liveli­hoods. It then iden­ti­fies some of the pol­i­cy mis­as­sump­tions and struc­tur­al bar­ri­ers that lim­it artists’ liveli­hood prospects before demon­strat­ing that visu­al artists as a ​‘spe­cial case’ with­in the arts work­force are deserv­ing of indi­vid­u­alised atten­tion with­in arts poli­cies. It con­cludes by out­lin­ing the core qual­i­ties for pur­suit of liveli­hoods through art prac­tices that enable many artists to con­tribute to soci­ety over a life-cycle as a point of ref­er­ence for pol­i­cy-mak­ing dur­ing the Covid19 emer­gency and into the uncer­tain decade ahead. 

Read “From myths to motility: doing better by artists” in full

The chance to dream

Although not a major aspect of artists’ liveli­hoods, grants and awards to artists are a vital con­trib­u­tor to sus­tain­ing art prac­tices over a life-cycle. This paper starts by out­lin­ing the ben­e­fits of direct fund­ing to indi­vid­ual artists, describes dif­fer­ing arts pol­i­cy per­spec­tives on this in Eng­land over the last thir­ty years and pro­vides a case study of Arts Coun­cil Eng­land’s Grants for the Arts Scheme 2003 – 14 before mak­ing an argu­ment for new, nuanced, localised approach­es to nur­tur­ing and sup­port­ing the wider con­stituen­cy of visu­al artists and diver­si­ty of art prac­tices in future.

Read “The chance to dream: why fund individual artists?” in full

A provo­ca­tion around the role and val­ue of and expec­ta­tions for artists with­in cul­tur­al and social change. Rather than expect­ing oth­ers to artic­u­late artists’ val­ue on their behalf, I am propos­ing that artists take respon­si­bil­i­ty them­selves for this and for advo­cat­ing for and trans­lat­ing their val­ue to others.

Read “"Nobody wants you but everyone needs you"” in full

Draw­ing on past UK evi­dence , this essay pro­vides analy­sis how the land­scape and dri­vers for artists’ res­i­den­cies have changed and insight to inform more pro­duc­tive res­i­den­cy prac­tices with­in future arts policies.

Read “Residencies: practices and paradoxes” in full

Cov­er: Work­ing artists aspect of arts and labour

This essay for the 2014 Seoul Art Space, Seoul Foun­da­tion for Arts and Cul­ture Inter­na­tion­al Sym­po­sium briefly cov­ers UK arts poli­cies for sup­port to artists’ devel­op­ment, com­ments on their impact on artists’ social and eco­nom­ic sta­tus and sug­gests a rethink­ing of the artists’ intrin­sic role in soci­ety as a vital part of secur­ing and sus­tain­ing con­tem­po­rary visu­al arts in the future.

Read “Rethinking artists: the role of artists in the 21st Century” in full

Modes of prac­tice postcard

This provo­ca­tion com­mis­sioned by Stoke Air­space for an Artists’ Soup Kitchen address­es and con­firms the impor­tance of the role and val­ue of artists with­in cul­tur­al and social change. The four sec­tions are designed to open up a dis­cus­sion on ​‘what now?’ and – more impor­tant­ly – ​‘what next?’ for Air­space and artists and future artists locat­ed in Stoke.

Read “​Bite the hand that feeds you” in full

In reac­tion to gov­ern­ment arts fund­ing cuts, Leeds Met­ro­pol­i­tan Uni­ver­si­ty in part­ner­ship with Cul­ture Vul­ture and the Audi­ence Agency, ini­ti­at­ed a pub­lic debate at which a pan­el of indus­try experts debat­ed what arts fund­ing is for and who is most deserv­ing of it. A short provo­ca­tion by Susan Jones argued for more recog­ni­tion and resources for artists and indi­vid­u­als to coun­ter­act the slow, pon­der­ous­ness of insti­tu­tions whether for the arts or oth­er­wise. View the whole event includ­ing the audi­ence ​‘ques­tion time’ at the end using the link provided.

Read “A case for the arts” in full