What you leave behind is not engraved in stone monuments, but what is
woven into the lives of others. Pericles
A residency, for me, is being given permission to explore in a certain space,
for
a
certain
amount
of
time
with
or
without
money/people/materials/expectations. I’ve carried out residencies in
Cambridge Registrar’s Office, the Marine Theatre, Lyme Regis, a university, a
barn in Suffolk, a bach in New Zealand, a radio station and a shepherds’ hut.
To name but a few.
My time studying the subject of visual anthropology taught me the importance
of gaining overt permission in the peopled places I like to explore. While
acknowledging my own subjectivity, and committing respectfully to the culture,
I work at holding a position of observer. Sometimes I fail, sometimes I
succeed, but getting too comfortable is usually a sign that more work needs to
be done.
However even, to be acknowledged, and accepted in as an artist can still be a
blessing, a thrown gauntlet, or a rodeo ride on a loose cannon.
What makes the difference to my experience is the knowledge, level of
interest and experience of the people managing my access. To be recognised
by knowledgeable, experienced, meritocratic arts professionals as worthy of
selection for a funded period of time is a huge professional achievement.
For artists to be acknowledged as professionals worthy of government funding,
implies a state that understands the worth of the arts to the widest sweep of
society. Should the capillary life of residencies have informed policies on
improving physical and mental health, on regenerating areas of deprivation?
The matrix of possibility around the opportunities for residency is complex and
can result in an equation of damaging mismatch. I agree that failure,
experimentation and tangents are all potential catalysts, but I’d like to see
Britain’s non-arts sector entities viewing the artist on site as a norm, not as an
exotic novelty.
I know that my residency life has informed my professional development
immensely, as has The Practice of Everyday Life by Michel de Certeau, who
says ‘Everyday life invents itself by poaching in countless ways on the
property of others.’ and offers notions of ‘tactical agility’ in the face of
institutional strategy.
I noticed that the Black Mountain College exhibition is in town again. I saw it
at the Arnolfini in 2005, and I curated the Southbank/Hayward Josef Albers
Screenprints exhibition in 2009. The work in each exhibition is absorbing and
dense with complex ideas, concentration and energy. It remains fascinating
and I suggest that is in part due to its inherent tactical agility.
The Black Mountain College grew out of resistance to orthodoxies. To the
American orthodoxy of sidelining the arts in education, and Josef and Annie
Albers determination to continue their progressive practices despite a new
orthodoxy that literally forced the closure of their work environment. The
College was clearly an exceptionally rich arts education/residency experience
for the artists concerned, and for the public it’s left a legacy that truly endures.
Sam Thorne, now Artistic Director of Tate St Ives is a co-founder of Open
School East, an organisation in London that puts the arts at the centre of
interactions with emerging artists, geographical community, with a central
commitment to ‘foster cultural, intellectual and social exchanges between
artists and the broader public.’
And so, within a national context of students occupying Central St Martins to
protest against encroaching elitism, and Bob and Roberta Smith championing
the lack of austerity of the imagination, Sam Thorne introduces some key
questions for ‘Making Time: Conversations About Residencies in the South
West’:
What can residencies offer to artists? And to communities?
What are the possible futures of residency programmes? What or where are
the alternative models?
How can they address a given context, and span of time?
And how can we work together across the South West?
A presentation from Low Profile documented ways in which residencies
develop artists and their ideas. From the freedom of a self-propelled camping
residency with fellow artists, which eventually resulted in ACE funding a
project, to a modestly funded ‘critical moment’ in the Forest of Dean and onto
funded, open-ended models which gave space for affiliation, self reflection,
confidence and relationships which led to commissions. In conclusion Low
Profile acknowledged residencies nurtured ‘sustained work and better work’
and called for artists to be consulted in regard to the development of
residencies.
Having shortlisted Low Profile around 2006/7 I was encouraged to hear their
progress, and as a socially engaged artist I was particularly interested in the
language used to describe their practice which engages with communities and
the public. It seems that there is still scope for improvement when socially
engaged artists articulate their practice to other practitioners, for example
those in live art. This difficulty of language and mutual understanding echoed
a discussion at the ‘A Time and a Place - Exhibition Symposium’
(http://www.newbreweryarts.org.uk/making-a-visit/main-gallery-exhibitions/atime-and-a-place/a-time-and-a-place-exhibition-symposium) where, just a
week earlier, robust efforts to define ‘what a residency is’, produced endless
individual and institutional computations and understandings.
I’m reminded of Michel Foucault’s ‘meaning as a site of struggle’, and of the
current cultural focus on empathic versus psychopathic traits. If it is true that
the most powerful echelons of our society are bursting with individuals who
lack empathy, while the empaths busy themselves nurturing others to achieve
happiness, active citizenship and mental wellbeing, often through creativity, it
is reasonable to assume there will be a gap to mind, mindfully, and that
reciprocity is bound to hit a wall eventually.
For non-arts organisations to see any worth in hosting residencies, our
professional sector needs to write a clear message regarding the potential of
reciprocity and convey it consistently.
As the country’s money has dwindled, so has the populist grasp of the strong
evidence in favour of artists’ value. Those on the political right have a history
and expectation of art equalling money, and may well see an artist’s residency
as a financial, medium to long term investment.
Although it is important to bear in mind that not everyone working in the
commercial art world will be leaning to the right politically, it is not a simplistic
situation, and it is not one in which we can afford to be polarised. I’m lucky
enough to have a sliver of private patronage from art collectors, yet the
majority of my practice lacks a ‘product’ for resale. They support me to work in
communities, because they believe that such interventions are conducive to
making communities better places for everyone, including themselves. It’s
worth noting Suzanne Moore recently quoting William Morris ‘I do not want art
for a few any more than education for a few, or freedom for a few.’
So I’m hoping for some printed words that invite entities across the United
Kingdom to extend their own invitations out to artists. And I’m hoping that arts
professionals will champion the words and encourage reciprocity on the basis
of social cohesion, the transformation potential of John Berger’s new ways of
seeing, and/or financial investment.
An issue emerging from both Cirencester and St Ives, was that of the
expectations of non-arts organisations. Personally I have no problem if robust
advocacy and residency preparation work has been done on both sides, then
it should be a win-win situation. But if my win is a development in practice and
theirs is a prize for tourism, that’s fine by me. But I know this view is not
universally shared, and dissenting voices were heard across the symposia. A
residency can be an intimate relationship, and as such it requires prior,
informed consent on both sides.
It was said more than once by representatives from hosting organisations,
that to tell an artist ‘to do nothing’ during a residency seemed to engender a
frenzy of activity. Artists were certainly seen, by these respected
representatives, as industrious and capable of successfully reciprocal
relationships.
Artists also have a reputation for embracing a nomadic lifestyle. I like to
equate the artist with the bee, travelling from one inspirational residency to the
next, gathering the nectar of inspiration and experience, and pollinating the
host with new knowledge, experience and expansive thinking. Gathering the
nectar and making it into honey to feed back and nourish communities is an
amazing feat. But it took a crisis for our bees to be acknowledged and offered
new pockets of possibility across the country.
Which brings me to Pierre Bourdieu’s cultural capital. I fervently believe there
are more non-arts organisations across the south west, that will offer
residency opportunities, once they’re approached by advocating experts. I
believe this because my most creative achievement has been to grow two
children in the middle of Cambridge, where they spent hours in, for example,
Kettle’s Yard, artists’ studios, the Museum of Zoology and the Fitzwilliam
Museum.
Neither of my grown children are artists, one is a chef and one is an A&E
nurse. But they have the cultural capital to seek out the intrinsic worth of art,
and to welcome it into their workplaces. Evidence of benefits to the NHS have
supported the Arts & Health initiatives, which seem very well partnered by arts
expertise, and the marriage between food and art, brings us full circle to
Jamie Oliver patronising the Open School East.
The seductive south west of England has the greatest density of artists
outside London. It also attracts tourists and their pounds. They pay for
improvements in internet coverage, house renovations, food quality and
commercial art. The region is clearly very good at hosting tourists, and at the
sector level of arts organisations coupled with residency artists, we seem
confident with our progress. So let’s send each of these successful strands
out to our non-arts specific organisations, via our best advocates, and see
what we can do in partnership with likeminded people in unlikely places.
Across the symposia, I heard supportive case studies and interesting
developments from VASW, New Brewery Arts, Wiltshire Council, Kelmscott
Manor, Fox Talbot Museum, Tate St Ives, Hauser & Wirth, Back Lane West,
Kestle Barton, Cast, and Clawson & Ward (Studio 36). In addition, artists
shared their experiences, which included the challenges, confusions,
slowburns and unexpected triumphs and domino effects of being in particular
spaces/places.
In addition to urging artists to keep any eye on these named organisations,
here are some other things I heard along the way. If you literally can’t afford to
spend hours, nights and days on residency proposals, there maybe some
institutional streamlining of selection processes in the pipeline. It’s always
worth approaching a different arts specialism or non/arts organisation in your
location, with a clear proposal. The tension between freedom and funding
endures. Say yes as often as you can.
For a broader take on residencies, look at Hondartza Fraga’s great research work for East St Arts,
Nancy Clemance, April 2015