Hi Simon, Marc, Sarah et al
I remember being invited to go to meetings about The Public in the very
early days. It was (at that stage) a hugely ambitious initiative coming out
of Jubilee Arts (a lively local community arts organisation) punching
energetically and optimistically above its weight. I went to a meeting with
some other artists at Will Alsops as he was working on the building, and the
philosophy and approach (at that time) seemed very much about having the
building (whilst being ambitious aspirational) be grounded, and emerge from
local desires, aspirations, needs.
The building was - in theory - going to be supported in part by becoming a
home for a number of dot-com/creative industries (I'm not sure if that is
still part of its remit but it was then) which at the time did seem a little
unrealistic given that - notwithstanding the ambition of the regeneration of
the area - even M & S had abandoned Sandwell (you could still see the
imprint of the old M & S lettering on the building it used to occupy).....
Anyway they commissioned a bunch of artists (from outside the area)
including me to come up with proposals for semi permanent artworks for the
building for the planning stages of the proposal. I began to smell a bit of
a rat when I submitted my proposal and there was no discussion or feedback
or anything curatorial in relation to it. It became really clear that we had
all been commissioned to write proposals simply to get the building through
planning and none of these proposals were discussed or taken forward (its ok
we were paid, but it was still just a bit cynical)...
It then seemed that they were going to work more with local artists which I
thought was perhaps more appropriate in any case...
What I have found really depressing is all the coverage about the dedicated
'digital art gallery' and the fact that it is not working....first of all
I'm not sure how I feel about the idea of a dedicated 'digital art gallery'
and I obviously can't comment on it curatorially or anything as I haven't
seen the work...all I have seen is the media coverage which has presented
the concept of digital or media art in the worst possible light....not just
the 'not working' aspect (you can feel every mainstream curator run
screaming from any digital projects now for years to come if they weren't
already)...but the snatches of images of the kind of work in there
represented it rather as a kind of game space (which is fine if that is what
it was being called)...
Anyway I think its just a bit depressing that a) what started out as an
ambition to give a gift to West Bromwich in the best possible way has ended
up becoming one of the most notorious failures of recent years. b) so much
money has been chucked at (and is still being chucked at) the mess when
other good projects are so regularly turned down for funding (and so many
organisatiosn had such massive cuts this time last year)
C) that this dumb project is getting so much coverage about the failure of
digital art which will impact the sector negatively for years to
come....even those projects that are arguably light years away from the kind
of work that the Public was aiming to foreground will all be lumped
together....
The one thing to welcome (in my view) is the departure from the Arts Council
of the impressively useless Chris Frayling (who quite incredibly doesn't
seem to understand why people have been so upset at him and ACE over the
last year or so) :-
http://www.guardian.co.uk/artanddesign/2009/jan/28/arts-council-chief-frayli
ng-departs
I particularly like his Mike Leigh anecdote.
Best
Susan
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http://www.susan-collins.net/
FORTHCOMING:-
SUSAN COLLINS: SEASCAPE
De La Warr Pavilion, Bexhill-on-Sea
4 April - 15 June 2009
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