Day 1: Tuesday, 30 October 2012
Session 3B: Disability/Community Projects: Supported Studios
JOSIE CAVALLARO: OK. Welcome, everyone. My name is Josie Cavallaro. I work
in arts development for Accessible Arts and thanks for coming to the session
Mapping Supported Studios in the Art World. I'm also Project Coordinator for the
Supported Studio Project. So before I start, I would just like to quickly introduce the
panel and the facilitator involved who will be facilitating a Q&A on the role of
supported studios will be Professor Colin Rhodes from the Sydney College of the
Arts, University of Sydney.
Gabrielle Mordy on the end there will talk about the Supported Studio Network, and
she is on the working party for that, and is also co-director of Director of Studio
Artes, based in Hornsby, New South Wales.
We also have Damien Minton from Damien Minton Gallery, a commercial gallery
based in Sydney, and Tamara Winikoff, who is the Director of the National
Association of the Visual Arts, NAVA. And we have Michael Kempson, who is a
Director of Cicada Press and teaches at the College of Fine Arts, the University of
New South Wales.
So I'll just hand it over to Colin to introduce Gabrielle.
COLIN RHODES: Thank you. My part in this doesn't really start for another 10
minutes or so, but the first thing that will happen is Gabrielle is going to spend a few
minutes just talking about the Supported Studios project, which is something that I
guess has been cooking for about 18 months in its active phase and probably for
longer than that before, and, as Gab, I am sure, will tell you, it really comes out of a
kind of a sense of a whole bunch of individuals who often thought that they were
working away on their own trying to do something and thinking they were alone in
the world, and the slow realisation that actually lots of other people are doing the
same thing, doing fantastic stuff, feeling like they're alone in the world. So it seemed
like a good idea to start thinking about how perhaps some of these contacts might be
formalised.
So the undertow of this afternoon's session, though, and the thing that we want to
focus on, is the agenda, if you like, or sub-agenda of the notion of being a visual
artist as something that one does as a job. Very often in any kind of conversation
about the visual arts or the arts in general in this country and many others is a kind
of presumption for an awful lot of people that if you are a visual artist especially - it is
a little bit like that for performing artists to some extent, but for visual artists
especially, there is this kind of presumption that even if you're quite famous, it is not
really a job that you're doing, that it's just this kind of thing that you do because you
like it, and I think in the sector that we're talking about at the moment, that's often
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kind of magnified.
So that's the sort of undertow. We'll have a Q&A around the panel. We will try to
have 5 or 10 minutes at the end of it all for audience questions as well, so if you are
cooking up questions, then we'll be very happy to answer those.
So, without further ado, having said some things, judging by a couple of raised
eyebrows on the panel, that people might want to come back to anyway, Gabrielle.
GABRIELLE MORDY: Thank you. Before I begin, I'll introduce essentially the reason
we're here today, which is Clarice Collien over here from Roomies, he will be making
art during the session, and also Matthew Calandra over here from Studio Artes, who
will be drawing during the session as well. You will see some of their artwork up on
the slideshow that is going on behind me.
So I feel very privileged today to be here introducing the Supported Studio Network.
Over the next 10 minutes, I will share with you an overview of the structure and
significance of this freshly launched network. To begin, I will outline how the network
defines a supported studio; that is, it defines it as a sustained creative environment
that fosters and supports the individual practice of visual artists affected by a
disability. Facilitated by practising artists, crucial to such studios are the opportunities
they offer artists to be involved within wider artistic networks, thereby assisting artists
to develop a professional career.
The network identifies the defining aims of the supported studio as being: number
one, to facilitate professional development opportunities for artists both individually
and as a collective; secondly, to provide technical artistic support; thirdly, to promote
artists in the marketplace, networks and audiences outside the disability sector; and,
lastly, to demonstrate a commitment to producing and presenting work of a high
artistic quality.
I myself work at a supported studio, at Studio Artes. We are a not-for-profit
independent organisation that offers a full-time art program to over 100 artists and
adults with disabilities. We offer a specialised studio artist program which assists
individuals who have a more vocational interest in the arts to undertake mentorships
with established artists, to find representation in relevant galleries and to be
generally involved in the mainstream art network. I've been involved with Studio
Artes since 2006.
In addition to Studio Artes, I am a founding member of the Supported Studio Network
Working Party. Directly following the 2010 Arts Activated Conference, when Josie
Cavallaro from Accessible Arts first suggested the formation of a network, I was
immediately keen. In Josie's own words, she was motivated to form the working
party and subsequent network as:
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"I was aware of the amazing work happening in studios but could see the challenges
studios were experiencing in trying to represent the work. I saw a need to form a
collective to galvanise these efforts".
From my perspective, as a time-poor, under-resourced arts worker who, in my efforts
working to promote the work of artists creating within our studio, I often feel as
though I'm stumbling my way along a very untrodden path. So the opportunity to be
linked with, and potentially learn from, other such arts workers and studios was a
no-brainer. As I am sure anyone who works in a supported studio can appreciate
and relate to, working in such entities has its challenges, and I myself often feel as
though I work in a very isolated organisation. I am generally so busy at managing the
daily operations of the art room and the many unexpected challenges this usually
involves that it leaves little time to investigate, let alone connect with, other such
studios.
So it has brought me much relief that Accessible Arts have taken the initiative to
coordinate and manage the Supported Studio Network, and it is this very purpose
that the network serves; that is - I am going to use the words of the network here "the Supported Studio Network aims to connect such studios to foster knowledge,
research and information sharing".
So, what does this actually mean that the network does? Well, firstly, the network
has a website, and on that site are case studies from supported studios across
Australia. Of course, this is not as yet a comprehensive list and further studios still
need to be represented, but what the site offers is a central hub where interested
parties can easily find out about the very existence of, and further details about, each
studio, including how each studio began and, importantly, how to contact these
studios. The site features a map of Australia where visitors can easily search for and
locate studios nationally and find links to international studios.
The networking benefits of the Supported Studio Network are broad. It offers the
potential to connect supported studios with each other. It broadens the awareness of
such entities within the disability sector and the network also opens conversations
between such studios and the mainstream art world. Again, using the network's own
terminology, it aims to encourage much-needed dialogue and critique between
supported studios and broader contemporary art communities.
Already, with the support of a foundation grant from the Vincent Fairfax Foundation,
the Supported Studio Network has commissioned articles from a range of arts and
culture writers, such as Glenn Barkley, a senior curator at the Museum of
Contemporary Art, who will contribute an article to international arts magazine
'Ceramics: Art and Perception', concentrating on the quality of ceramic art emerging
from supported studios. Such articles are also in line with the Supported Studio
Network's final specified objective, which is to promote the artistic value of supported
studios and their artists within contemporary art culture.
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So now, to clarify the objectives of the Supported Studio Network, I will recap the
network's specified aims. They are: to strengthen the network and knowledge base
of supported studios through research and information sharing; to create and source
resource material to assist the development of existing and future supported studios,
and I should mention that you can find articles and papers on the network's website
about the supported studio sector and you can also submit papers that you think
may be relevant.
The network also aims to encourage dialogue and critique of the function and artistic
role of supported studios within the broader arts community; to promote the artistic
contribution of supported studios and their artists as fundamental to contemporary
art culture; and, finally, to advocate for access to independent professional
development pathways for artists affected by disabilities. Importantly, the network
offers a community, and through subscribing to the network, anyone can join this
community and be kept up-to-date with events and developments in the supported
studio scene.
I would like to conclude with what I perceive as a crucial benefit of the Supported
Studio Network, which is its potential to broaden imaginations,
both individually
and collectively, as to what is possible, as to the capacity of artists working within
such studios and the kinds of opportunities available to these individuals. Whilst it
has much room to grow, it seems the very formation of a network and the initiatives
already underway are laying rich soil for the growth and development of supported
studios and, importantly, for the artists involved within these entities. Thank you.
(Applause).
COLIN RHODES: Thank you. That is a great introduction, and if one by one you
guys can give us a couple of minutes each of your thoughts. All three of you have in
various ways been supportive of some of the high-quality artistic activity that is
coming out of some of these studios and, in particular, engaging with individuals, not
least of which Matt here - oh, it's fantastic already, it is all happening! Cool stuff,
man! Michael has been partnering up with Matt over about the last 12 months in
Cicada Press, and so this has been something of a real development of the practice.
Maybe if I could ask you to kick off, since I've probably just done your two minutes,
mate! Then we will go through one by one and then we can start the Q&A.
MICHAEL KEMPSON: Thanks, Colin. Michael Kempson is my name. I run the
printmaking department at the College of Fine Arts at the University of New South
Wales. I had little, actually very small experience of working with artists with
disabilities until I was approached by Gabrielle, who happened to be a Masters
student at the time. I'm sorry - we have two minutes, haven't we? And so I'm going to
be very brief but we can hopefully flesh out the issues during our discussion.
I run a printmaking workshop, and printmaking as a discipline area within the fine
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arts is an area that inhabits the periphery. We have to work very hard to encourage
students to come and engage with printmaking as a part of their practice. One of the
things that I've established is Cicada Press, which is a custom-printing educationally
based workshop where we invite artists, some of national standing, to come into the
workshop and our students are actively involved in engaging with them to create fine
art outcomes and, in so doing, they get an understanding and an experience of very
diverse approaches to creative practice.
The connection was made with Gabrielle when I was asked to act as a mentor to
Matthew, and Matthew came into the workshop - well, actually prior to that we made
some decisions about Matthew, how would he function within that space? I went up
and visited him at Studio Artes and I thought: "I invite artists of all standing to come
in the workshop. Why not give Matthew the same opportunity?". And I suppose I'll
stop there and we'll flesh that story out a little later.
TAMARA WINIKOFF: That's a good moment to stop. What happened next?
Tension? (Laughter) My name is Tamara Winikoff. I'm the Executive Director of the
National Association for the Visual Arts. And NAVA, as it is known by its acronym, is
actually the peak body for the visual and media arts craft and design sector in
Australia. And, of course, our primary aim is to represent and advance the wellbeing
and the successes of all artists, and that includes of course artists with disabilities.
But because there are organisations whose task it is to focus particularly on trying to
foster the opportunities for, and work of, artists with disabilities, we have tended to
not sit in the background to that work, but provide the kind of general support that we
do for the whole sector. However, I've personally had a bit of experience with arts
and disability, firstly when I was working at the Australia Council many years ago
where the arts and disability organisations were part of my spectrum of
responsibility, and through that I did become familiar with the work of organisations
like Accessible Arts and Arts Access and so on, the numerous organisations around
Australia, and with the very fine work that they do. And also more recently through
being invited to speak at a previous conference and now this one, I've had the
opportunity to have a look at the particular current concept of the connected
supported studios, the network of supported studios, which I think is a fantastic idea
because, as we know, through networking and through joining together, it is a way of
increasing both your capacity, the profile that you have and the ability to share ideas
and information and knowledge and resources.
So I really congratulate you for your initiative to join the supported studios together,
and I can see that there are ways that we may be able to assist with getting profile or
even greater profile for you, and of course in this age of celebrity, getting a profile is
very important; you have to be noticed. In fact, I always remember Damien at a
workshop that we asked him to speak at more generally, not particularly arts and
disability, saying to the artists who attended, "Don't send me your work; don't
approach me. If you create a buzz, I'll find you". And so I guess one of the things that
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the supported studios, through joining together, can do very effectively, I think, is to
create that buzz, to amplify the understanding of the word and the interest of the
world specifically in the work of the people who work within those supported studios,
both the artists and the people who help them to achieve their aims.
I'm really interested that one of the ways in which you choose to profile artists is to
have them attending at events like this where we meet each other and we see
first-hand the work of artists, the work that artists are doing, like Clarice and
Matthew, and I think it is partly one of the reasons that people don't know or don't
want to know about particular areas of work in the arts - I mean, generally being
recognised as being important as an artist is one challenge, and then the next
challenge is if you have a disability even more so.
So gaining that recognition, I guess, is a really important thing in being able to attract
resources, being able to attract attention and being able to open those pathways,
that I hope we'll talk about a bit more, towards successful professional careers.
DAMIEN MINTON: Thanks, Tamara. I'm under extreme pressure here, not because
of you, but because I know that Clarice is listening to everything I'm saying, even
though she's pretending to be doing her work! She's going to check up on me to see
what I've got to say! So I'll be as diplomatic as I can, Clarice.
My name is Damien Minton. I run a commercial gallery in Redfern. The thing that you
guys have got to understand is that most of the people, most of my clients, most of
the visitors that come into my gallery, are switched on. They understand the concept
of Art Brut, Outsider Art, Naive, whatever you want to call it. So for someone like
Clarice to be in my gallery, people love it because it is something fresh, it is
something switched on, it is something that they've not necessarily seen before. And
it is important for me - I'm beholden to be able to give my clients, the visitors into my
gallery, new experiences every month, every three weeks. That's why I look so
jaded. So that's a really important criteria for a commercial gallery.
So it is not that far off the mark with what we're doing here.
The thing about Clarice is that you'll find that most commercial art dealers, because
of that premise, are always looking. We're always out there wanting to know what's
going on. I'm fortunate enough that I get my fruit and vegetables every Sunday at
Marrickville, at Addison Road markets, and that's where Roomie is placed. So I've
been lazy in a way! But I have seen the work that Roomies have been doing for five
years. I have been very politely, quietly, acquiring some work, and quite often it is
Clarice's work. So there is a whole other debate, isn't there? There is a whole room
of these artists. Why is it that some emerge into something a bit more aesthetic and
a bit more orientated for someone like me to be interested, rather than people who
are just there who have some sort of disability and they're just doing their thing and
it's not art therapy, but it doesn't go much beyond that?
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So you are really looking at very specific individual characters who have got that real
get up and go and can do it. But what's more important - well, just equally as
important as that is the actual structure and the infrastructure around them, which is
what Roomie provides. I wouldn't be able to put on this show if it wasn't for Natalie
and for Ann at Roomies, who can be that bridge. That bridge is vital for me. Most of
the artists that I deal with have an understanding about how it works. I don't expect
Clarice to do that. I know that Clarice knows what a red dot looks like, and wants
plenty of them in two weeks time, and believe me, so do I.
But it is really important there are people like Natalie and Ann out there, coordinating
bridging. What's equally sensitive is that they don't hinder or they don't really stop
that creative flow of an artist, especially if you're in this field, because, believe me,
the commercial art world out there, especially in Australia, is very jaded. People are
sick and tired of 'Art' with a capital A, and they are always looking for refreshing
things, and that quite often comes through from this sector, from this industry. And
so that is why I think it is very exciting for me to be holding Clarice's first exhibition,
solo exhibition, in two weeks time, because she is really aware of what's happening,
and I've been really watching her work step up another gear. And you can see here,
that has got to be finished in two weeks time, and it will be. And it will be beautifully
framed. So I'll stop at that. Cheers.
COLIN RHODES: There are a heap of different issues that perhaps we might
explore. If I can just try to list a couple of them.
One is, I guess, this notion of the supported studio as what I often refer to as like an
academy, but like the old kind of version of what an academy is, not a place that is
like a modern-day arts school like Michael and I work at, where you take people in
and you process them and you turn them into artists. I mean, they're still incapable of
being taught of course, any good artist, but you try! The best ones escape.
But this notion of a supported place where people come and are not so much
students as people who are within a group of likeminded types, and if you read the
autobiographies by people like Matisse and this kind of stuff, beginning of the 20th
century, this is what they were all doing - they were engaging in their practice
amongst their mates and slightly older peers and occasionally people who had some
technical skills that they could give them in this sort of mutually supported space. I
think the supported studios give this kind of thing, and that allows people to develop
a practice.
Now, I think one of the things that you were saying, Damien, this notion that there
are a heap of different practices but some of which begin to stand out in ways that
when we are looking for art, and especially if we are looking for art to show, you start
to see these standout practices. If we are looking for people to work with and engage
in as mentors and this kind of stuff, it is a particular kind of practice that becomes a
standout thing. And if you are looking to support stuff as NAVA or some other
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organisation like that, then it is that sort of promise and that level of real practice that
wants to be supported, I think.
So I guess the first sort of question I'd have, and I may throw it back to you, Damien,
as the last person who spoke, is this sense of what kind of thing - I mean, other than
the sort of freshness and this sort of stuff, what sort of nexus are you looking at as
someone who wants to take an exhibit and engage in building a relationship with an
artist, with a practitioner, what kind of stuff are you really looking for and looking at
that plucks one person out of a whole heap who are nevertheless engaging in a
practice?
DAMIEN MINTON: I would answer that in a way that it is like me looking at any artist.
What I'm looking for is someone who is committed to their art practice and that
shows energy in their art practice so I'm not wasting my time with them and that you
can see that there is going to be a development through various stages. I've already
seen that with Clarice just in a very, very short time.
And the other thing is an aesthetic thing. In all those movements that I've just been
talking about, about Art Brut and Naive Art, there is not a training of what perspective
is. There isn't a training about what abstract art is. If you watch Clarice's practice,
she will fill in her little dots first. The vital core of what's going on is there, and then
she fills it in. But the beauty of Clarice's work is that, once she fills it in, there is no
delineation between the stuff, so there's that beautiful fine line between abstract and
configuration. And I think that if there is one thread and one theme through all of this,
it's that. Someone who can capture that, can develop that, will have a great
electricity off that surface, off that two-dimensional surface or that three-dimensional
form, and it's going to engage people's eyes and it's going to engage even the most
jaded of eyes and it's going to engage people who have a history and a knowledge
of what it is with the visual arts. So I'm looking for that even for SCA trained artists.
COLIN RHODES: OK, thank you. Tamara, the job of artist, where does that kind of
notion fit in in terms of how a person sits in the orbit of NAVA and the AusCo and
other fundraising bodies? If we accept that the supported studios are kind of
engaging the development of a practice, that this is not kind of hobbyism, it's not
therapy, but it's actually a practice, how are artists out of these studios to kind of
access some of the other project support? We heard a lot about the NDIS today, and
that's kind of not going to be geared to project support someone who is at work
engaged in a job doing a certain thing. So like any other artist, like from SCA and
NAS and CoFA as well, how do artists out of supported studios also kind of extend
their sense of engaging with the job of artists and the sort of financial support they
might need to help them in that quest? Easy question!
TAMARA WINIKOFF: As I think I was alluding to earlier, survival as a professional
artist is always very challenging, even if at some point an artist (inaudible),
sometimes that success is short-lived, and once again they have to find new
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audiences and new supporters for their work. So it is not easy for anyone.
I think that if you look at the relationship between artists and funding bodies and the
mechanisms for support, then what probably is the secret ingredient for artists with
disabilities is intermediaries who will act as the kind of conduit between artists and
those support structures that are not very well geared to understand arts and
disability particularly. And through, I think, those intermediaries being able to
publicise the work that the artists do and to create an environment of interest in this
kind of work, then it begins to build a relationship between the artist through the
intermediary with the funding body or the provider of a project or a commission or a
public art work or whatever it might be.
So I think the essential ingredient is to find effective mechanisms that will be that
intermediary between the artist and those who support them. And, in fact, for all
artists that could be a great thing, to have an agent, to have somebody who would
pick up on all the other things. It is hard enough to be creative and to do the work
without having then to do all of what goes with it, to find the money, to get the
publicity, to organise your business and so on. It is a heavy load for artists to
maintain their creativity at the same time as having to be successful as a business.
So I guess that's what I would see as the secret ingredient, and certainly the
supported studios offer that. But I think the challenging thing at the moment is that
we're seeing that we're in a contracting environment as far as political commitment is
concerned. The threatened closure of the art courses in the TAFE in New South
Wales is a most recent example of that, but what we're seeing is right around the
country State Governments are decreasing the amount of money they're giving to
the arts, so it is an even more challenging moment.
COLIN RHODES: Thanks for that optimistic portrayal of where we are!
Unfortunately, it is the truth. I mean, it is certainly, I think, at that sort of level, and
thinking about some of the things that we heard speakers talk about this morning, it
would be great to think that someone like Clarice or Matt or John here or with one or
two others here sitting in the room might before too long be in the running for
something like an Australia Council new work grant, this kind of notion that a
particular amount of money to allow you to make new work, to engage and do this
sort of thing seems to me a good moment in terms of, I think, a necessary invasion, if
we're going to, as someone else said this morning, wrest some of the power from
certain others. Gab, did you want to add to what Tamara was saying? You looked
like you wanted to speak.
GABRIELLE MORDY: I am patiently waiting! I would agree that it is a heavy load for
any artist or any aspiring artist to attempt to make a professional career as an artist.
But I can only speak on behalf of the people I work with at Studio Artes, and I would
say that it is an especially heavy load for some of the artists that I work with at Studio
Artes who I think I could speak on behalf of Matthew and say that before Matthew
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attended the College of Fine Arts, I don't think he knew that the College of Fine Arts
existed. I don't think he knows that you can go to TAFE and do an art course. I don't
think he knew about the medium of etching and how well his line drawing would
translate into the medium of etching. Even if he did know about the College of Fine
Arts, which obviously he now knows about and loves, Matthew struggles with
transport, so he not only needs somebody who is able to look at his work and see
that it would translate well into another medium; he needs somebody who could say
"There's an institution like this college which could help progress not only the quality
of your work but your career, your level of exposure". He needs somebody to help
him catch the train and get there. Matthew was able to attend the College of Fine
Arts because we received a grant, a creation presentation grant, from Arts New
South Wales to five of our artists, to have them mentored at Studio Artes, but that
required somebody to know about the grants available at Arts New South Wales and
somebody to write the grant application. And I think essentially that is the role of a
supported studio, and that's exactly what you are saying, Damien, that the value of a
supported studio is giving people the space to explore their creativity, which Matthew
has had for the 10 years he has attended Studio Artes, and it was really in about
2009 that his artwork started to just blossom and become electric.
So number one, just that safe supportive space, but it is also that bridge that can link
artists working within supported studios with other individuals and organisations
which could be a benefit for them. But I think that also takes recognition that, within
supported studios, there are professionals working who actually are aware of these
different opportunities, and that's because of their training and their background and
their expertise. So I guess I am just emphasising the value and the role of supported
studios and the fact that speaking on behalf of our own studio and now being
connected to the network and speaking to people working in a lot of other studios,
supported studios, I think supported studios themselves need support to continue to
offer this.
COLIN RHODES: So a kind of engaged and proactive advocacy, I suppose, and sort
of agency, is really important. We see these kinds of slides that are rolling by. A
couple of the slides, you may have noticed, are from a studio in Oakland, California
called Creative Growth. In fact, as if by synchronicity, there they are. These are both
products that Marc Jacobs, the designer, put into a range. There is a whole range of
beach wear, fashion wear, bags, things like that, that Creative Growth artists
contributed to - not in a kind of Marc Jacobs nicking their designs and doing that, but
actually in an engaged, fully-worked-out commercialisation project in which creative
growth and the artists were part of a commercial agreement. That came about
primarily because the Director of Creative Growth, Tom DiMaria, approached Marc
Jacobs and did quite a lot of this advocacy work.
One of the outcomes of that, of course, was that you have this great
commercialisation thing going on, a lot of very happy artists from an ego perspective,
in the sense that your stuff is all over the place. From a financial perspective, you're
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actually getting paid for it. And, moreover, it is another way of getting money for
Creative Growth. Part of the rake-off of that, if that's the correct term, is for Creative
Growth also to add to its own funding to be able to continue in this sort of way. So
this mixture of fees for artists to engage at Creative Growth, of public funding and
also some of that private commercialisation funding is part of that whole kind of set
of things that everybody has to juggle. But, as Gab says, at the centre - and I am
sure anybody who is engaged in a studio like this will agree - that's part of the great
juggling act.
I look across over here and think about Arts Projects Australia, where one thing that
comes to mind is commercialisations through a wine labelling agreement that has
been engaged in. And there are other examples all around the place.
Michael, maybe from a specifically kind of fine art level, and especially in the great
tradition of the artists' kind of print editions and this kind of thing, maybe you would
like to say some more about that particular and that close relationship?
MICHAEL KEMPSON: I would also like to build on the idea of education and the
models and forms of education that you raised in your initial remarks there. I don't
think any of us doubt the rights of artists with disabilities to have access to
meaningful educational opportunities, and I am a bit of a believer of that old
educationalist Paulo Freire who stressed the importance particularly in education of
mutual respect and the importance of lived experience in learning, and to come back
to the story that was truncated after my two-minute introduction, we decided to invite
Matthew to come to CoFA and work with some of the artists that we had in the
studio. I have never seen an artist - and this was the case with Matthew - I am sorry
to say this, Matthew - but he was shaking with excitement to be given the opportunity
to come to CoFA and to produce some work.
The artists that we were working with at the time, and he worked on an equal footing
with them, were Reg Mombassa, Fiona Hall, Euan Macleod and Elisabeth
Cummings, and these are artists of immense stature in this country. Matthew more
than held his own in the production of his work and in the engagement and the
relationship that he had with our students. Because education goes both ways, I
think. Yes, it is important for artists of any level to be given opportunities to allow for
development of their work, to be allowed to be given opportunities to allow their life's
journey to be built upon and developed, and there is that old saying "There is no
evidence of life without growth", and I think that that's a really important thing.
I suppose just to finish off, my students have benefitted from having Matthew
working with us. Gabrielle and I are plotting further potential projects to give other
artists opportunities, and we hope that it is an ongoing and meaningful relationship
because the joy of running your own research institute within an institution - because
universities are ultimately at times inaccessible to artists with disabilities, but I can
invite whoever I want to come and work with us and I see the value in inviting artists
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like Matthew to come and study with us.
COLIN RHODES: Thank you. It is, I think, a really important point because within the
contemporary university, and especially within art schools, they tend to be in
universities these days in the tertiary sector, that old kind of value that was still very
much alive in the '60s, when no-hopers like John Lennon went to art school, for
example, with no qualifications or anything like that, and somehow kind of managed
to scrape a living subsequently, it's true. Now you need high scores just to get into
art school. I think one of the things that Michael just said - and which struck a chord
with me because I also like opening little doors and letting people in - is the sense
that there are still contexts in which you can be more open, you can sort of make
judgments about a certain kind of quality and enthusiasm and desire and possibility
for that mutual kind of learning and growth, and open the doors to let people in. And
what you did with Matthew is exactly one of those things, I think. It is actually a really
important point, instead of saying "Oh, we just work with them". But it is actually to
my mind something that doesn't happen enough, and to see it happening I think is
really important.
In a sort of similar way I guess, because I'm Dean at Sydney College of the Arts, it
means if I want to nick just a little bit of space, I can get away with it. So I nicked a
little bit of space a couple of years ago and started a gallery where people like
Matthew, people like John, people like Kevin Mayer, who is also here, over there - hi,
Kevin - are able in the context of the university, the arts school, to show in a very
public context, and the only criteria I have for that work is that I think it's really good
work. I won't show anything I don't think is really good. So it is that same kind of
thing, it's coming back to what you were talking about, Damien, I think, and you too,
Michael, that sense of seeing stuff that looks great and where you are making the
opportunities if they don't exist in other places to show that stuff. Did you want to add
something to that? We'll go for that in one minute. I can see you're bursting. Let's
have a question then. I think we have to use the microphone because it is being
recorded.
NEW SPEAKER: Hi, Michael. I have a question for you. In terms of accessibility,
how do you make your printmaking studio accessible for people with disabilities?
MICHAEL KEMPSON: I suppose it depends on the disability. With Matthew actually, I have to confess I developed a studio at CoFA that is fairly 'heightist',
basically centred around my height, and even our shorter students sometimes need
to stand on platforms to reach the working benches, and just simple ergonomic
issues like that are things we have to consider. We have to consider occupational
health and safety as a major component. How do I make it accessible?
My first way of trying to make it accessible is connecting with the artists that we invite
into the studio, finding out about their story, asking them to tell their story, connecting
I think that sense of community, which I think is fairly crucial, and one of the
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sub-currents that I sense in many of the supported studio networks - the desire for
studio networks to connect and support one another, I am actually learning a lot
about the people who choose to, and are interested in, supporting supported
networks. I don't have huge experience. I try to deal with people the way they
present themselves. I do a lot of work with remote community indigenous artists, and
in a different sort of a way, I try to connect with them as artists that we should treat
with respect. I'm sorry I can't say any more than that.
COLIN RHODES: Thank you. A question over the back there?
SIM LUTTIN: Hi, I'm Sim from Arts Project Australia. I'm the Galleries and
Exhibitions Manager and I'm here with Sue Roff, our Executive Director, and James
McDonald, our team leader.
This is more of a comment than a question, but I guess you could speak to it. Having
a studio network is fabulous because I think, as Gabrielle highlighted earlier, it is
very difficult for people - we work with artists with intellectual disability - to make
those connections to the mainstream other than through a supported studio. I just
wanted to again highlight the importance of a safe environment for the artists to work
in, and some will go on to create art as a vocation but others are there to create as
an expression of their own artistic pursuits.
We work really heavily as a supported studio to make those connections with the
broader arts community, and it is so vital that we are doing that. One of our artists
recently received a Victoria Credit Suisse Art Award, Patrick Francis, to allow those
opportunities for the artists to aim much higher than they would out in the community
on their own. Also, making those connections with commercial galleries is extremely
important, and we work very hard to, I guess, set a certain standard of which the
artists really are striving for to connect with the broader mainstream. So, again, I
wanted to highlight the importance of this type of network because access is very
difficult for artists in the community without these sorts of organisations to help
broker meaningful relationships with galleries, curators, art dealers, universities.
MICHAEL KEMPSON: I fully agree. One of the intentions of the mentor relationship
that we had with Matthew was to connect him with what many would describe as the
broader arts industry. One of the simple consequences of Matthew's time at CoFA
was that our students were organising an exhibition and they sought to have
Matthew involved in that exhibition - and vulgar commercial success, Matthew sold
out and no-one else sold a thing! So he's a real star at the moment. But, yes, I agree
with the points that you make.
COLIN RHODES: Another question next to Sim.
NEW SPEAKER: Hi, I'm from Indonesia. I'm a researcher and an artist with a
disability. I was wondering if I could ask about mentorship, about whether you see
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value in having artists with disabilities mentored by other artists with disabilities in
sort of a reciprocal relationship whereby the mentor also learns about being a mentor
and sort of building that network of self-sustaining community, or what your thoughts
were on that, thank you. That's for the man in the grey suit - Damien.
DAMIEN MINTON: I don't think I'm equipped to answer that. It is more something
that (inaudible) infrastructure of - I mean, for all (inaudible) I'm a couch psychologist
(speaks without microphone).
NEW SPEAKER: I think perhaps Gabrielle would be the best person to answer that,
about mentorship and facilitating.
GABRIELLE MORDY: We organised a formal mentorship between some of the
emerging artists working within Studio Artes and some established artists. But what
has actually happened in the process, because during that mentorship and through
some other programs that we ran at Studio Artes, artists like Matthew, as Michael
mentioned, have been exhibiting in mainstream galleries and have been going
off-site and working in different artists' studios and things like that. And what has kind
of in a really lovely way and a kind of organic way happened is that - because over
100 people access Studio Artes art program, and other artists working within our
studio have begun to notice these first-round of artists like Matthew going out and
being mentored. I actually had one of artists within Studio Artes approach me last
week. She struggles a lot with literacy but she had taken the time to type out a
two-page letter to me explaining that she had noticed what Matthew had been doing.
She has noticed that Matthew has been going to some kind of organisation - she
didn't know exactly what it was called - and she has noticed he has been drawing on
these plates, on these metal - she didn't know how to even name them. But despite
not being able to name the institution or the technique, she was writing to me to tell
me that she wanted to do that. She went into quite a lot of detail that she wants to be
represented in a gallery and she wants to be able to access these different kinds of
educational opportunities. So it was great to see the mentorship we had organised
has actually inspired other artists within Studio Artes, so I guess does that kind of
answer your question?
NEW SPEAKER: (Question asked without microphone).
GABRIELLE MORDY: I guess I'm answering that by saying yes.
I don't know that it will be formally organised and called that, but essentially it is
already inspiring that organically and happening.
MICHAEL KEMPSON: I would imagine in circumstances where Matthew comes
back to CoFA hopefully with a group of three or four other artists, that he will be the
facilitator because he is familiar with the routines of the workshop and the people
who are there. So even in a simple role like that, he'll be an invaluable connection.
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TAMARA WINIKOFF: I think the other thing to take into account is that in artists with
disabilities working in a communal environment, there is a kind of mutual exchange
of skill and ideas and so on, and even just being together within a supportive
environment is a form of informal exchange. I think that the other possible way in
which this can be facilitated is in doing joint projects. I remember many years ago
when I was at the AusCo, there was a very imaginative and insightful doctor at the
children's hospital in the adolescent medical unit and he was accessing Australia
Council grants to bring artists into the hospital because his view was that, regardless
of circumstance, everybody had the right of access to both cultural experience and
cultural expression, and one of the projects that was particularly successful was a
magazine that was run by the kids and it gave them the empowering experience of
being able to go and talk to anybody they wanted in the hospital and to interview
them. They interviewed the Director of the Hospital and the Head of Nursing and so
on. I guess what was fascinating about that project was that it was a really
empowering experience, you know, that from them being kind of the victims of their
own illness, the kids then saw themselves in a rightful position within the hospital
system, that they were just as much integral to the hospital system as the doctors
and the nurses.
COLIN RHODES: I'll have to move on. We're running out of time and I've had
someone waiting very patiently over here for some time. So we can carry this on
obviously over tea and all the rest of it, but the last formal question over here,
please.
NEW SPEAKER: I guess the question is really about the relationship between these
supported studios and Disability Services, and the role we have been talking about,
this really valuable role, of the people who perform that role of the bridge and assist
to write grant applications and do all that stuff. I am wondering what per cent - I have
worked in supported studios and ostensibly most of the time as a disability support
worker, and I have written a lot of successful grant applications as a disability
support worker for somewhere between 14 and 20 bucks an hour.
In order for this role to be valued, most of the time they are people who have gone to
art school, have university degrees and are performing this high-functioning role. I
am just wondering about that as a point of discussion really. The question is what
percentage of the supported studios are associated with disability service providers
and do they actually employ the facilitating artists as artists or as arts facilitators?
COLIN RHODES: The answer is it varies. I think in an area like Arts Projects
Australia, for example, the majority of people who are in the studio on a day-to-day
level are actually arts workers. They're people coming out of an art background who
are engaged in that sort of supported thing.
NEW SPEAKER: Paid, like, 40 bucks an hour?
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COLIN RHODES: I have no idea what your rates an hour are because I'm too polite
to ask.
NEW SPEAKER: We negotiated a new EBA last year and all our staff are paid
significantly more than Disability Services.
COLIN RHODES: But as a general thing, in the public sector in general and where
supported studios are in the public sector - and I can see lots of nods in various
places - bottom line is wages are pretty crap, and I think in a general sense, that
sense of actually having the sort of recompense for the job of work they're doing, as
you say very high functioning in terms of that advocacy, in terms of grant writing -NEW SPEAKER: (Person speaks without microphone).
COLIN RHODES: That's right. It is one of those things where too often, because
we're talking about passionate, engaged people who want to see something happen
- too often those other people - you know, people like that who are passionately
engaged - are taken advantage of and feel they have to do things, even though that
recompense is not there. That's a continuing Public Service kind of problem
throughout the whole sector. Probably a moment to stop. I know Josie is trying to
wind me up.
GABRIELLE MORDY: Just one thing on that, and then there is an ongoing issue.
Hopefully by establishing the Supported Studio Network, it is also about
professionalising that space for arts workers within the disability sector as well. So it
is a starting point for that.
COLIN RHODES: It has to be part of the conversation going forward for sure. Do we
have time to ask our panelists if they have one last comment going along the panel
before we stop? Thank you. So start with whoever has the mic. Mike?
MICHAEL KEMPSON: I don't really have anything further to say other than I want to
continue, and I am sure on behalf of my students at CoFA, we want to continue to
develop the relationship.
TAMARA WINIKOFF: I don't think I have either but just to say how much being
reconnected with the arts and disability sector has been a reaffirmation of my respect
and esteem for the work that's being done.
DAMIEN MINTON: I've got a revolutionary idea. Those of you working in supported
studios, use a phone. Get on the phone and actually invite Martin Brown, Roslyn
Oxley, in your next exhibition to actually open that exhibition because we in our
trade, we're interested. We are engaged and they will come along and they will open
it and you never know who they will see within that exhibition.
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GABRIELLE MORDY: I did invite Martin Brown to the last exhibition but he wasn't
available. I called him a few times and I finally got to speak to him but he was
unavailable on that date. So anyway, I'll try him again. As a final comment, I wanted
to thank Josie for her initiative in kick-starting the network and I would encourage
you all to go and check out the website of the Supported Studio Network. Thanks.
COLIN RHODES: Thank you to all our speakers for this afternoon. (Applause). And
thank you all as well. I am sure, as we go out, if people are still wanting to talk and
stuff like that, we're all very happy to continue that conversation.
JOSIE CAVALLARO: I'll be here in the studio at afternoon tea if people want to
continue that conversation further and ask further questions.
Thanks to the artists as well. I was about to do the thank yous. Thank you very
much. I would just like to thank everyone again and have a small gift for everyone.
So thank you, Clarice. We look forward to your show in a couple of weeks. Gabrielle,
Michael, Tamara, Michael, and Matthew over there doing a portrait, and Colin, thank
you.
GABRIELLE MORDY: I just wanted to make sure, if you are a New South Wales
based either supported studio or network or artist, that you've heard about Amplify
Your Art. It is a new grant initiative supported by NSW Government through Arts
New South Wales and ADAPT. And it is for professional development for artists
across art forms and it is up to the value of $10,000. So please come and grab a
flier. The applications are open now and close on 10 December. All the information is
on our website and I am project managing that. So if you would like to have a chat,
give me a buzz post-conference.
(End of session)
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