Artists' News & Opportunities Bulletin

Please click on the link below to view the latest Artist's News & Opportunities Bulletin:

Issue 42

31 May 2012

Application forms now available for New Art West Midlands 2013

CALL FOR APPLICATIONS FROM RECENT VISUAL ARTS GRADUATES 

 

Please CLICK HERE to download the brief and application form. You will also find further details on the application process, eligability and regular updates on how the exhibition is developing. 

http://www.tpwestmidlands.org.uk/new-art-west-midlands-2013/

Join the conversation: presentations from our 3rd National Summit now available online

The 3rd Turning Point National Summit took place on 10 May 2012 at City Hall, London.

The day started with an opening address from Gavin Wade, Director of Eastside Projects and member of our TPWM Steering Group. 

CLICK HERE to read a transcript of Gavin's address, entitled 'The Doors of the Administration Building'. 

The Contemporary Visual Art Network has also posted the rest of the presentations from the day online. Click on the links below to view these:

Measuring Value 

Alternative Economies

Conceptualising Engagement 

Visual arts and the Education Agenda

The #tpnsummit Twitter hashtag is still active, please continue to add your thoughts and comments.  

IMPORTANT ANNOUNCEMENT FOR GRADUATES: NEW ART WEST MIDLANDS EXHIBITION 2013

The Barber Institute / Birmingham Museum & Art Gallery / Grand Union 

A new exhibition will take place in Spring 2013 featuring selected work by BA, MA and PhD art graduates from 2010, 2011 and 2012. Graduates from the following universities in the West Midlands will be eligible to apply:

• Birmingham City University

• Coventry University

• Staffordshire University

• University of Wolverhampton

• University of Worcester

Application forms will be available soon. To receive application details, email  newartwestmidlands2013@bcu.ac.uk

Information will also be available via our free fortnightly Artists' News & Opportunities Bulletin 

Artists' News & Opportunities Bulletin

Please click on the link below to view our latest Artists' News & Opportunities Bulletin:

BULLETIN 41

17 May 2012

TPWM Artist Residencies 2012- 2013

Faye Claridge, Descendants of the Unfamiliar, series of framed photographic prints, courtesy of the artist and Danielle Arnaud Contemporary Art, 2009

Four organisations in the West Midlands will lead on TPWN new artist residency opportunities: 

Library of Birmingham

The West Midlands based artist Faye Claridge will develop new work that engages with the work of Sir Benjamin Stone photographic archive in the new Library of Birmingham. Faye Claridge uses photography, video and installation and shows work internationally and through Danielle Arnaud Contemporary Art.  

 Faye Claridge says: 

I’m excited about the TPWM funded residency because it will allow me to work with a collection that I’ve been interested in for years, both for its content and its ostentatious ambition of creating ‘A Record of England’ in photographs. It’ll be fantastic to bring a new audience to Sir Benjamin Stone’s work and use the opportunity to look at how photographic projects from the turn of the 20^th century can be part of a critical debate about the role of photography today.

The Library of Birmingham is building on its recent programme of exhibition and publication projects, these include Brian Griffin; Face to Face A Retrospective, Take to the Streets, Magnum Street Photography, Perspectives, Ghosting the Archive: Keith Piper and Reference Works, Library of Birmingham by establishing this Artist-In-Residence commission in 2012/13.  There will be an exhibition of new work in 2014.

National Trust, Dudmaston 

The National Trust will invite an artist to explore the collection at Dudmaston Hall in Shropshire. The collection includes works from the 1920's to the 1960's by modern British artists such as Henry Moore, Barbara Hepworth and Ben Nicholson.

The National Trust will increase links between Dudmaston and contemporary art and artists and has identified partners and networks with which to work, including Shropshire Visual Arts Network, Shropshire and Telford Arts Partnership and Shropshire Audience Development Network. It already has links with the curatorial team at New Art Gallery Walsall from the time the artist Bob and Roberta Smith responded to the Epstein archive.

University of Worcester, with Movement Gallery and Worcester City Museum

The University of Worcester with partners Movement Gallery and Worcester City Museum and Art Gallery will work to support a new artist in residence. The artist will interact with the context of the City of Worcester with the City as site for intervention, production and discourse and as a resource that includes archives and collections.  The artist will have the opportunity to contribute to a critically engaged environment and will engage with other artists, curators, academics and the people in Worcester and the wider region. 

Eastside Projects

The Residency opportunity will focus on research and development and studio experimentation. Two short term residency opportunities for West Midland based artists will be offered to emerging and established artists. Eastside Projects works with a network of prestigious arts organisations outside the West Midlands and the artists will be hosted by these organisations to develop their ideas, thinking and networks and to develop new work in contexts outside the region. Mentoring will also be offered as part of the residencies.

We received several strong proposals and although not possible to fund them all, TPWM will work and help support groups and organisations that are keen to collaborate with each other. The proposals that have been selected all demonstrated a high level of support for the artist, a strong knowledge of quality and ambitious work and clear plans to develop links with others beyond the lead institution.

Each lead organisation (with the exception of the Library of Birmingham) will put a call out to artists to apply in due course and this will be included in TPWM's Artists' News & Opportunities Bulletin.

Turning Point 3rd National Summit: introducing the new Contemporary Visual Arts Network

Thursday 10 May 2012 saw members of the 11 regional Turning Point groups descend upon Boris Johnson's residence, London's City Hall, for the network's 3nd National Summit.

Also in attendence were artists, curators, gallerists, art educators and academics, who all came together to launch the Contemporary Visual Arts Network, or CVAN, which is the new name for Turning Point National and marks a new direction for their strategy, identity, brand and web presence. A number of the other Turning Point regions will now also be referred to as Contemporary Visual Art Networks, but after much consideration, Turning Point West Midlands will not be following suit and changing its name.

You can read or download the press release which outlines the new CVAN vision HERE. 

The morning's introductions included a rousing tour de force by our Steering Group member Gavin Wade of Eastside Projects.  In the coming days we will be uploading videos and some of these presentations, so even if you weren't able to make it, you can still feed into the debate. The audience and participants made good use of Twitter throughout, so please do add your voice to the debate using the #tpnsummit hashtag.

Throughout the day there were four key areas of debate: 

- Measuring Value

What new forms of measuring value could we consider in order to find ways of:

• Advocating for the need for a myriad of visual art organisations to receive public funding?
• Articulating the deferred value of small organisations investing in or commissioning early artistic practice and CPD that leads to bigger and better things?  

Find out more, and read about the panel...

- Alternative Economies

What other forms of non-cash economies can we adopt to enable artists and organisations to continue to develop their practice in this difficult financial climate? What forms of gift economies are artists embracing within their work? This panel featured Sarah Browne, an artist who recently held her first UK show at Ikon Gallery.

Find out more, and read about the panel...

- Conceptualising Engagement

Quality of experience is a key concept in Arts Council England’s strategy, and a KPI for many NPO organisations, however, Arts Council England has not produced a conceptualisation that would enable this concept. Doing so is vital activity, so how do we do it and what should we consider?

Find out more, and read about the panel...

- Visual Arts and the Education Agenda

What arguments can the visual arts collate to demonstrate the value and importance of visual arts education within all levels of education provision and how can the sector support investment and growth within the creative industries post Education? 

Find out more, and read about the panel...

There were very interesting contributions from panel members during these discussions, in addition to some excellent insights from people based outside the visual arts sector who offered their perspectives from a business or charitable point of view. We also enjoyed a presentation from artist Richard John Jones of Auto Italia South East. 

TPWM would like to thank the Contemporary Visual Art Network for hosting the day, and for all of you who made such a valuable contribution.