Especially here in the South West of England. Never mind the bloody caravans the place is awash with these creative types. And then I move down from London and only add to the mayhem.
Now don't get me wrong, the more artists the better! Especially for companies like us who are always on the look out for new talent to exhibit with us.
It does however throw a number of frogs into the boiling pot that tend to do none of us any favours.
Funding is of course the biggest issue. I had a 2 hour meeting with our local MP all about this last week. And his response was actually quite enlightening I thought...'We want to help the Arts but there are just so many of you...!' And he is right. To a degree.
The difference however, between a self proclaimed artist doing sketching work of ones pet at the weekend and a trained fine artist struggling to get the very best sculpture/conceptual work shown is quite well, different.
And now as we are seeing the doom day arrive of mass spending cuts, I must say I actually welcome shaving expenditure to big organisations that 'enable' the arts as most of the money seems to go towards staffing, admin and utilities - and the artists involved may just get a free pint :) Is this what funding for the Arts is for? Surely not...
The next issue is of course how do you stand out from the crowd?? Its rather like trying to play Chinese Whispers at a Rage Against The Machine gig.
So to do this we decided that the quality of work we exhibit has to be paramount.
**I often wonder is this elitist? Well our customers and spectators will expect the best from a contemporary art organisation like us so we have to ensure we can provide the best**
One solution that was suggested to me was if all these groups, organisations, enablers etc work together to form a mass art company that covers all areas. Well, not too sure about how that could work to be quite honest...it's rather like saying we should have one radio station, one TV channel, one clothes shop....then of course we are delving into a political agenda that I think by all accounts didn't work out too well for some people and countries...
Competition is healthy and so is diversity.
What we aim for in our company, what we strive to succeed in and what responses we get from the people enjoying what we offer seems to work thus far. So I think we'll keep doing it.
Plus I'll bring a loud speaker to the next RATM gig, that should do it.
The notion of showing only those "preferably by artists who have been trained at a tertiary level in their practise" may be a bit limiting. Not all graduates are good, not all self-taught artists are bad. Perhaps a support criteria could be that the artist recognises and demonstrates that art is primarily an intellectual process. This is what distinguishes it from craft which is primarily focused on skills and process.
ReplyDeleteAlso, I'm not sure I like the idea of one large body to deal with everything. Behemoths are slow, expensive and eventually corrupt/
The decisions you are making and actions you are taking appear to be sound.
HI Tom,
ReplyDeleteMany thanks for your comment, Yes I certainly agree that not all graduates of art are good, and we do actually have a number of fantastic self taught artists and photographers who exhibit with us. I suppose the real element that is necessary is the of the quality of work and like you say an interest in the intellect aspect of the work too. Thanks for posting always keen to hear what other people think.