Art and influence: On The Edge at the ENCATC policy debate

17 June, 2016 by 1 Comment

ENCATC image

On The Edge’s Jon Price has been invited by the European network ENCATC to give a keynote address to its upcoming 6th Annual Policy Debate in Brussels on Wednesday 22nd June. The event addresses European Cultural Leadership and the Role of the Artist and is targeted at cultural professionals, researchers and policy makers from all over Europe. Jon will be talking about his recent work on the Discourse of Cultural Leadership as well as the wider trajectory of On The Edge research on related topics, from the Artist as Leader onwards. [Read more…]

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Holding the paradox

28 May, 2016 by 2 Comments
hands by Chris

photo: Chris Fremantle

How can art respond to complex social and ethical problems? When should the demand for solutions be resisted? And how might this affect our understanding of cultural leadership?

These were among the questions keenly debated in the first of our series of full day seminars on Cultural leadership and the place of the Artist which took place in Edinburgh on Friday 20th May.  Our thanks go to the artists, researchers and cultural organisers who attended and contributed so fully.  The day brought together participants from various phases of On The Edge research alongside new friends and colleagues from our project partners Creative Scotland and ENCATC.

Discussion ranged across different understandings of what is meant by leadership and how it relates to artistic production.  This led on to questions about the role of art in public life.  Some compelling suggestions were made about the distinctive capacity of art to embrace contradiction, to find potent material in the midst of uncertainty.  In a world of ‘wicked’, irresolvable problems, there is a value to being able to hold conflicting ideas in creative tension. Can art therefore help us to live with our difficulties?

[Read more…]

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Questioning cultural leadership

1 April, 2016 by 2 Comments

Who do you depend upon to make your role in the arts possible? Who looks to you for support? What form of change would you most like to see happen – and who can help you bring it about?

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Photos: Graeme MacDonald

On The Edge posed these questions to a diverse group of artists, researchers and organisers at the first event of its new AHRC investigation, Cultural leadership and the place of the artist, on 14th March at Woodend Barn, Banchory. Each question was approached through the viewpoints of a range of archetypal roles: artist, funder, teacher, policy maker, board member, parent, venue manager, volunteer.  We built a network in miniature of the relationships and forms of influence through which our actions are shaped in aesthetic, organisational and social contexts.  Opening up issues of leadership in culture beyond the operation of hierarchies, we tried to understand the interplay between policy and practice; artist and institution; individual and structure; action and influence. Among the discussions that followed we introduced the ten-year trajectory of On The Edge research from The Artist as Leader onwards and tested ideas for the new project. [Read more…]

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John Newling: The Map Room of the Last Islands

14 August, 2015 by 1 Comment

Woodend Barn, Banchory, Aberdeenshire
22 August – 23 September 2015

This major exhibition of previously unseen work is a powerful, and visually beautiful, illustration of the ways in which artist John Newling explores the relationships between the natural world and systems of value within society.

Since 2009, Newling has been creating art works that are constructed, primarily, through the growing, observing and preserving of Moringa Oleifera trees.  Often referred to as the Miracle Tree or Famine Tree, gram for gram, the Moringa leaves contain: seven times the vitamin C in oranges, four times the calcium in milk, four times the vitamin A in carrots, two times the protein in milk and three times the potassium in bananas. It is for this and other extraordinary properties of this tree that it has been referred to as the world’s most generous tree.

The paintings are maps of a kind, into and through which Newling explores his relationship to the trees and to wider ecology. They are a truly beautiful cartography of language, colour and shape; islands that Newling hopes may never be lost.

[Read more…]

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The Art of Valuing

4 March, 2015 by Leave a Comment
The Flemish-Dutch House deBuren (“the neighbors”) presents beauty and wisdom of the Low Countries, and offers a platform for debate about culture, science, politics and the society, not only in Flanders and The Netherlands but also in Europe and the world. It is a place where artists, journalists, academics and politicians get the opportunity to voice their thoughts through panel talks and debates, lectures, book launches, film screenings, concerts, and more.

deBuren, Leopoldstraat

Gate-crashing a Brussels event aimed at Arts Councils and Culture Ministries is to physically visit what is normally a virtual world. This is the land of European Cultural Policy: a place with its own language (policy-speak), its own currency (creativity), and – like much of Europe – a struggling economy. Its religion, naturally, is Culture, whose earthly embodiment is an uneasy trinity of Art, Audience and Sector. There is a great deal of debate as to whether Culture itself, the object of veneration, can be directly approached by the masses or only by initiates. Much time is spent unravelling a mystery called ‘engagement’, which seems to be much like transubstantiation but without the red wine. Finally, there is the sacred quest of ‘evaluation’, which is either a holy grail brimming with eternal funding, or an attempt to look on the face of God and doomed to end in madness (depending on your individual belief and/or job title).

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Energy Cities and Cultural Development

8 October, 2014 by 1 Comment
Walk Among The Worlds by Maximo Gomez. Photo: Alain Sojourner http://alainsojourner.com/nuit-blanche-toronto-2014-walk-among-the-worlds/

Walk Among The Worlds by Maximo Gomez. Photo: Alain Sojourner http://alainsojourner.com/nuit-blanche-toronto-2014-walk-among-the-worlds/

We’ve never been to a conference on the cultural and creative industries at a University that didn’t have someone providing a theoretical critique of the subject. On 1st October Robert Gordon University and the City of Aberdeen co-hosted an event which drew on the experiences of other energy capitals to understand cultural and creative industries development. Pacem critique, this was a morning full of insight into the sorts of strategies, policies and actions that make a difference to cities and see the arts thrive as part of their communities. It benefited from specific experience of being a European Capital of Culture (something Aberdeen aspires to) and it was a good renewal of the process of building a culture and arts development agenda for Aberdeen.

The subtitle was ‘Global Energy Cities and Cultural Illumination’ but the real point is that Energy Cities with strong industrial stories have specific challenges not answered by the narrative of post industrial regeneration.

Jon Price, Chris Fremantle and Mark Hope were amongst a number of researchers and research partners from or associated with Gray’s School of Art (part of the Robert Gordon University) attending the conference. These notes and comments are an immediate response to the presentations from the four cities represented.

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Notes from Spectres of Evaluation Conference, : Rethinking Art, Community, Value. 6-7 February, Melbourne 2014 Centre for Cultural Partnerships, University of Melbourne and Footscray Community Arts Centre

15 February, 2014 by Leave a Comment
Photo credit: Sophie Hope

Photo credit: Sophie Hope

Notes from Spectres of Evaluation Conference: Rethinking Art, Community, Value. 6-7 February, Melbourne 2014

Centre for Cultural partnerships,

Faculty of the VCA and MCM, The University of Melbourne with Footscray Community Arts Centre

This conference was a milestone in a three year research project on the evaluation of arts interventions in social contexts and communities. The PI, Lachlan McDowell, who is also the Head of the Centre for Cultural Partnerships (CCP), described the research as moving beyond evaluation as advocacy, exploring both quantitative and qualitative methodologies in ways that captured value and that are also critical, addressing the potential harm of artistic intervention. The research also positions community cultural practice in relation both to a global arena and in relation to so called ‘high art’. The area of Community and Cultural Development in Australia embraces social art practice, community art and socially engaged art and this complexity was reflected in the conference participants.

[Read more…]

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Time of the Clock and Time of the Encounter

14 October, 2012 by Leave a Comment

2 leaves mirror image

Sounding Drawing establishes an encounter between music and the visual arts and between time and space working with artists and musicians from Belgium and Scotland. Where music is unequivocally time based, drawing is situated at a point of tension between time and space. Drawing is both an object and a process. In grasping the difference, how can we engage with each point of view towards a co-creation? How can we share what we create in ways that open up further participation and new, richer ideas about time and experience?

In this work we are not seeking to present a completed body of work but starting points for exploration and dialogue extending the experimentation through new encounters with participants, viewers and audiences.

[Read more…]

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Shifting Cultures of Expertise Seminar

3 June, 2012 by

Gray’s School of Art Research. Robert Gordon University. Aberdeen, Scotland. UK.

Is the culture of expertise gaining importance or losing its place in society?

Is it evolving into a more complex culture of co-authoring?

Photo by ttstam on Flick

10am – 4.30pm   13th June 2012

Event funded by Institute for Innovation, Design & Sustainability Research

Keynote speakers:

Dr Amanda Ravetz Research Fellow, Manchester Metropolitan University.

Amanda Ravetz is a visual anthropologist with expertise in the theories and practices of observational cinema; and the interdisciplinary connections between anthropology and art.

Dr Johan Siebers Senior Lecturer, University of Central Lancashire.

Johan Siebers is a philosopher, specializing in the history of German 19th and 20th century thought, speculative philosophy and the philosophy of communication and culture. [Read more…]

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