Category: “Discourse”

Pay pol­i­cy concept

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.

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

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

Read “​Creativity at the heart: the holistic approach” 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

Art won’t look after itself

A debate insti­gat­ed in the House of Lords that put a spot­light on the artists’ role act­ed as cat­a­lyst to dis­cuss the impli­ca­tions for future sup­port for artists through arts policy.

Read “​Art won’t look after itself” in full