Artsadmin Artists’ Talk Programme: Course Rationale
Artsadmin has been invited to co-ordinate a series of artists’ talks for the
members of Crafty Folk.
A total of 7 artists will give a talk at Crisis on 7 Monday mornings from June until
November 2007, there will also be 2 sessions at the Tate Modern as part of their
Summer University.
The artists will be identified through recommendations by Artsadmin and by
Crafty Folk undertaking their own web research.
The following Artists will be approached:
• Graeme Miller
• Heather Ackroyd & Dan Harvey
• Faisal Abdu’Allah
• Cindy Oswin
• Franko B
• Harold Offeh
• Duncan MacAskill
Tate Modern Art Summer University
Event Outline:
Held over a long weekend from Friday 21 to Monday 24 September 2007.
A non-stop series of artist presentations. Each artist featured in the opening
screenings will talk about their previous, current and future works. Discussion
may encompass art from across a variety of media.
www.artsummeruniversity.co.uk
Artists:
Hiroharu Mori, Yael Bartana, Rä di Martino
Filipa César, Meiro Koizumi, Guy Ben-Ner
Tellervo Kalleinen & Oliver Kochta-Kalleinen, Miranda Pennell, Julika Rudelius
Guido van der Welve, Dora García, Cao Guimarães
Jeroen Kooijmans,Hans Op de Beeck, Karin Kihlberg & Reuben Henry
Graham Gussin, Rui Calçada Bastos, Johan Grimonprez
Concept developed by Manuel Saiz, produced and coordinated by Public
Programmes, Tate Modern.
The aims of the talks are to:
• Give inspiration to Crafty Folk by inviting professional artists to talk about
what drives their practice, their creative processes and means of making work
• Give an insight of their day-to-day life and work – what does an artist do?
• To introduce a range of different media operating within contemporary arts
and crafts, to explore form and content
• To enable constructive dialogue between the artists and Crafty Folk about
artistic practice
• To develop a greater self-awareness and a wider awareness of
contemporary art by encouraging visits to exhibitions and shows
• To offer practical resources to develop the members’ creative and
professional potential
Anticipated Outcomes:
• The members will have been introduced to a wider creative process of artmaking
to inspire them in their own production of work
• The members will feel more confident to engage with contemporary art
and craft practice, and to talking about their work with other people
The talks will develop a stronger critical approach to art practice and will
encourage the users to consider further study (e.g. Art Foundation).
Evaluation
By Manick Govinda
Head of Artists’ Advisory Services Artsadmin
Introduction and Background:
I project managed the series of artists’ talks delivered to members of Crafty Folk.
The first thing I needed to establish was who exactly are the members; what are
they like, what kinds of work are they interested. My visit to Crisis to meet the
members gave me an insight into the members. They are intelligent, spirited,
and articulate; enjoy debate, dialogue and convivial argument and disagreement.
They would not suffer fools lightly. It was also important to involve them in the
decision making process when it came to selecting some of the artists to be
invited. I asked them to look at our website: www.artsadmin.co.uk to get an idea
of the types of artists we work with.
Crafty Folk selected four artists and the recommendations were emailed to me.
They were: Graeme Miller, Heather Ackroyd and Dan Harvey, Cindy Oswin and
Bobby Baker.
A good choice of experienced and mature artists. It highlighted to me that early
career artists, no matter how successful, that recently came out of college
wouldn’t be appropriate to deliver talks. They would have been eaten alive! The
artists needed to have a passion for art and life – they needed to have had a
lived experience and a high degree of maturity without the pretensions of art or
cultural theory.
I also wanted the choice to be representative of the kinds of artists Artsadmin
works with and develop a longer two-way relationship and dialogue with the
members.
Final Meeting:
The series of talks came to a close on 17 October 2007 led by Manick Govinda,
Head of Artists’ Advisory Services at Artsadmin. My presentation was more
about how artsadmin works with professional artists, how we support them and
how we work with communities and young people. I also showed them a video
work by Painter and Performance Artist Bobby Baker entitled How To Live, a
gentle satirical performance lecture about the mental health/self-help/therapy
industry (Bobby was lined up to give a talk, but due to health reasons was unable
to do so).
It also gave myself and our Education Co-ordinator, Sam Trotman to get
feedback about the series of talks that we delivered. The response was
overwhelmingly positive. The key things they got from the programme were:
• The level of passion and commitment that the speakers had to their work,
truly a full-time vocation, “artists who live and breathe their work 24 hours
a day.”
• They felt that the programme was a unique opportunity to hear what drives
artists, how they work, what inspires or moves them and how they work
technically and formally. This is a rare opportunity to hear artist’s talk,
most of the time they only get to see the art works at exhibitions.
• They liked Faisal Abdu’Allah and Graeme Miller’s talk most. The only talk
they found disappointing was Cindy Oswin.
• When asked whether they would be moved to see any of the artist’s work,
the response was more complex. In short, they said no because once
they heard the talk they felt that they had already experienced the work!
• They were not impressed with the Art Summer University programme at
Tate Modern – a glut of too much video work.
The final session also allowed myself and Sam to see the members’ work as they
had an exhibition in a bar/restaurant in Commercial Street. The dialogue with the
members was constructive and our feedback about their work was positive. All
of them have a strong degree of passion and talent for what they do.
I have offered to give one-to-one advice and guidance to Crafty Folk members. I
have had a meeting with Joseph de-Haan and will be meeting with Carlos
Gonzalez in early November. The purpose would be to discuss any specific
ideas/projects with them, to set them some tasks (e.g., improving their CV,
writing a statement of practice, researching recommended art/photographic
agencies, commissioners, galleries and funders) and to meet every 3 months for
an hour to report back on progress, issues and developments.
Conclusion
As a project, Artsadmin is grateful to Shiraz Bayjoo for commissioning us to
deliver this programme of artists’ talks. We are would also like to thank Nicola
Gilcreest for being her role in supporting and enabling the talks to happen at
Crisis. It has enabled us to build a relationship and dialogue with Crafty Folk and
a sense of trust and mutual respect has developed. I will continue to support the
members as individuals by offering advice and guidance through our advisory
service.
However, it would be a pity to end the relationship with Crafty Folk as a
collective. We would welcome the opportunity to discuss further strategies of
collaborating with Crafty Folk and working with Shiraz Bayjoo and Crisis to
develop an accredited structured course for the members. We are grateful to
OSW for helping us be part of this important pilot and hope that it will find ways of
supporting the relationship further. Lastly both the invited artists and Artsadmin
are indebted to Crafty Folk for their honesty, conviviality and high level of
intellectual and emotional engagement in the programme.