Lecture 4

15.11.2019

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Arts&Heritage

Judith King

Started as a painter

Reinvented herself as a curator, bringing artists into different places

Set up the agency: Arts&Heritage

Historic houses, churches, landscapes, museums, ancient sites

Advocating the use of artists in heritage sites

Used to be a suspicion about bringing artists into places like this

The audience actually increases when artists are brought in

An issue for heritage companies is a lack of young people visiting

Hugh Locke

Questioned how history was presented in historic houses

His work challenged the heritage of these places

Lava flow of cups and saucers

Young women being introduced to men over and over at tea parties

Theatrical, evocative, emotional

Opportunities for artists to make work in interesting places

People aren't going to see art, they are going to see the history of a place

'We do not want to compromise artistic vision of work'

Artists responding to National Trust Folly Buildings:

Fountains Abbey and Studley Royal

• Empty folly's were often ignored

• Gary McCann created a huge crow, huge nest etc to encourage visitors to explore the whole place

• Chandelier zoetrope Matt Collishaw

• As the audience increased, so does the budget

• Giant camera obscura

Ushaw College: Former catholic seminary

• Matt Collishaw

• Wanted works to go inside the huge chapel

• The chapel seemed very lonely

• Chuck Close hung up realistic tapestry portraits

• Contemporary response to fight between Catholics and Protestants in history

• Created a robot eagle 

Funded by Arts Council England

Working with museum staff by introducing them to artists and provides a budget for them

At the end of 2022 they will have worked with 43 museums

Cheatons library in Manchester

Books on alchemy and magic - images of hands

Artists 3D printed hands holding precious objects 

Cocktail event 

Norton Priory

Time passing

Sound bowl sculpture inside ice house

Lion salt works

Dance piece about the making of salt

VR experience at museum

Bronte Parsonage Museum Yorkshire

Visitors are overwhelmed by so much information

Parsonage wanted to engage the local community

Bronte sisters male signatures were put into the landscape of the Yorkshire moores

Major research project

• www.research.ncl.ac.uk/mcahe

Marcus Coates

• Bird experts had to pretend to be a certain bird and talk about their life

• Touched on contentious issues

Walking Looking and Telling Tales: The Cherryburn Commission

Birthplace of Thomas Bewick the print maker

• Museum presented his print work very well

• Bewick walked everywhere and drew wherever he went and if he had no paper he would draw on his thumbnail

• Drew a picture of his own funeral 

• Artist proposed to walk around Cherryburn and make a series of paintings 

• The museum had built a wall to create a fake bedroom as the real bedroom was too dangerous for visitors to see

• Made mini landscape paintings comparing the landscape now to Burich's landscape paintings 

• What is the meaning of the English countryside now?

• Placed these in the small pockets of the wall

• Paintings included derelict buildings such as an abandoned petrol station

• Projects have a positive effect on the artist too

Where do you find out about opportunities?

• Trust New Art, Canals and River Trust, Forestry Commission, Creative People and Places, Meadow Arts, Arts&Heritage

• Attend conferences and seminars to hear first hand from organisations who are commissioning artists

• Look on arts jobs: Arts Council England, Contemporary Visual Arts Network, A-N, newsletters, social media

How do people find out about your work?

• Exhibitions/projects/galleries

• Publications/journals/invitations

• Social media

• Websites

• Applications to other opportunities

• Speaking with other curators and artists

• Visiting group shows and studio projects 

Responding to the commissioning opportunity

• See the call out

• Request the artists brief

The Artist's Brief

• Usually brief

• Length of brief can vary

• Describes what they want to achieve by commissioning an artist

• Example: Hexham Old Gaol: tells the story about prisoners such a jailbreaks, religion, identity, class

• Budget

• Timescale

Expression of interest

• Are you genuinely interested?

• Your work has to make sense with the historic background

• Visit the site

• Initial response to the brief

• A short paragraph about your practice

• Initial ideas

• Do research to find hidden stories

• A summary CV and images of past work

A short description of what you want to do and say that you want to keep researching

Read the brief carefully for what they require

The proposal

• The proposal is a more detailed document and you will be paid for developing it

• Make a site visit and meet key staff

• Describing it in detail

• Describe how the work will be made, transported to the site, installed and taken down

• Detailed budget and installation timetable

• Risk assessment

Matt Stokes with Hexham Old Gaol

• Found actors and singers

• Filmed ballads being such in the jail

• Paid £500 to meet with curators and get more information

• Makes it clear what interests him, what he is going to see and read

• Gives visuals on who he would like to focus on

• Residency style approach

• How he is planning to install it

• Just because you have a clear understanding of what you are going to do, doesn't mean that they will

• De-install information

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