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Nobody wants you but every­one needs you”

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.

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Are the cre­ative indus­tries good for artists?

Ever since the ear­ly days of New Labour in 1997, it’s been gov­ern­ment and arts pol­i­cy to inte­grate and progress devel­op­ment of the visu­al arts through the cre­ative indus­try umbrel­la and to embrace its eco­nom­ic imper­a­tives. As this sit­u­a­tion is like­ly to con­tin­ue for the fore­see­able future, through my new research I’m address­ing some key ques­tions. Do these indus­tries pro­vide a con­ducive envi­ron­ment in which visu­al artists can make a liv­ing and devel­op their careers? Are the con­di­tions and employ­ment prac­tices more favourable to ways of work­ing by some artists while oth­ers lose out?

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Enforce­ment, equa­nim­i­ty and an after­word – thoughts on sus­tain­ing fair pay for artists

Intro­duc­tion to fees to artists for exhibit­ing in pub­lic with exam­ples indi­cat­ing that sus­tain­ing such schemes is depen­dent on wide­spread and con­tin­ued accep­tance of the prin­ci­ple and rig­or­ous self-reg­u­la­tion with­in the sec­tor, and on gain­ing suit­able lev­els of pub­lic sub­sidy to the visu­al arts. Three financ­ing options are con­sid­ered in sup­port of equa­nim­i­ty. An after­word con­sid­ers whether in a polit­i­cal cli­mate of reduced sub­sidy to the pub­lic sec­tor, some new strate­gies are need­ed to finance the arts and artists’ contributions.

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Artists and pay — 20+ inspi­ra­tion and infor­ma­tion sources

This resource that includes com­men­tary, evi­dence and advice is intend­ed for indi­vid­ual artists, arts organ­is­ers, com­mis­sion­ers, train­ers and pol­i­cy­mak­ers intend­ed to achieve equi­table and inclu­sive con­di­tions in which indi­vid­u­als can flour­ish. It’s a basis for explor­ing fric­tions and mis­as­sump­tions about artists and pay and under­stand­ing why indi­vid­ual nego­ti­a­tion is a vital to ensur­ing pro­duc­tive exchanges and collaborations.

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Rethink­ing artists: the role of artists in the 21st Century

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.

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Cre­ativ­i­ty at the heart: the holis­tic approach

This paper com­bines argu­ments first pre­sent­ed by Susan Jones at an engage annu­al con­fer­ence in which she ques­tioned the effi­ca­cy of our insti­tu­tion­al­ly-dri­ven visu­al arts ecol­o­gy with new research and enquiry into future cul­tur­al, dig­i­tal and social envi­ron­ments for the arts. It calls for adop­tion of a more open, imag­i­na­tive, lat­er­al, col­lab­o­ra­tive and respon­sive approach­es to cre­at­ing cul­tur­al val­ue, premised on build­ing rela­tion­ships and rap­port with the dif­fer­ent kinds and band­widths of audi­ences and with the enablers and the mak­ers of art. Links updat­ed 17/05/2018

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Bite the hand that feeds you

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.

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A case for the arts

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.

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