After lunch on the second day Su Jones, Director of a-n The Artists Information Company presented a challenging take on the current cultural climate. Asking us, if the surrounding uncertainty produces a conservative behavior within the sector? While we are all heads down and noses to the grindstone minding our own business trying to survive, she asked us if we should look at what we can do together. Seeing as we are all in this together, I think she suggests we can all get out of this together.
The third presentation on the second day of the conference was by Andrea Hawkins, executive director of Lanternhouse in Olderston in Cumbria. Hawkins explained the origins of the organisation was a work in progress not presentation space as imagined by it’s founder John Fox. She went on to explain that it’s intension was as a place to create ideas so art could exist in a multifunctional space. The organisation re-imagined itself as a space about process with the aim to broker relationships with community and artist to encourage participation.
The second speaker today was Microsillions, a Swiss based collective propose collaborative educational model that starts from education not from art. They presented images of their work that included collaborative projects on the boarder context of art and education. They addressed issues of the evolution of the discipline across Europe, talking about this from perspective of practitioners as a way to avoid presenting one view.
The first presentation of the morning was by Generate, an education programme associated with Turner Contemporary and initiated by educationalist Johnathan Barnes in collaboration with artist Ian Bottle. Bottle presented a series of images of the project showing parents with young children having invited them into the studio. He explained that he wanted to see what he could learn form this process of asking children to work with adults.
After lunch on day one was a choice of break out sessions to attend, all of which delegates had to previously sign up to. I attended the session by speaker Claudia Zeiske director of an organisation called ARTocracy in Aberdeenshire. Zeiske started off by stating that ‘the town is the venue’ and is the phrase that informs the work of the organisation ARTocracey which is part of Deveron Arts. www.deveron-arts.com
The sixth speaker was Dan Thompson who called him self a social artist and has founded the empty shops network and riot clean up. First of all he asked everyone to get up and enjoyed the microphone power of people doing what he told them. He then told people to tweet which was very frustrating as there was no reception in the conference room.
The fifth speaker was Fiona Whelan an artist who spoke about her work with Rialto Youth Project. The context in which she worked was Dublin where there is a very antagonistic approach to young people. Rialto Youth Project has been running for 30 years.
The fourth speaker was Dr Mick Wilson an educator, researcher and writer who started off by proposing a new project for the remaking of formal education. He outlines a current curatorial trend for educational practices which he coins the ‘educational turn’. He referenced Documenta 12’s theme education artworks realised through and educational praxis educational activity as artwork. He goes on to talk about his research into the ‘educational turn’ with his colleague Paul O’Neil. Stating that there is a recognition by curators for practices to be educational and constitutive.
The next speaker was Dr Joli Jensen from University of Tulsa and author of “Is art good for us?”. This was a dense presentation of Jensen’s theory proposed in her book, critiquing the prevailing assumption that art is good for us. She starts off by referencing debates from the 50’s about main stream media being a poison toxin and art as positive antidote to that. She outlines an American model of investing in yourself for a better education, better economic growth, fighting social problem, inclusion needed in every walk of life from cradle to grave. The jibe being that what ever we need in the world art can fix it.
The second speaker was Karen Eslea, Head of Learning and Education at Turner Contemporary. She spoke quite personally about how working in Margate enforces a strong sense of place. She made a presentation about the current exhibition at Turner Contemporary called ‘Nothing in the World but the Youth’.
Source: turnercontemporary.org