engage International Conference:
A Force for Change
15 - 18 November 2006
Main Venues: Whitworth Art Gallery and Cornerhouse, Manchester
Supporting Venues: Arts Council NW, Chinese Arts Centre, Manchester Art
Gallery, Bureau Gallery, Turnpike Gallery, Medlock Primary School.
A full conference programme, speakers' biographies, presentations (where
available), Soapbox précis and delegates' evaluation summary are included
within this page. If you need further information about any aspect of the
conference, please contact info@engage.org
For further information on speakers and their presentations, click
here
For the conference programme,
click here
For information about the workshop sessions,
click here
For the conference evaluation summary,
click here
Speakers' Biographies and Presentation Summaries
Wednesday 15 November
Jane Sillis, Director, engage
Jane Sillis is Director of engage, the National
Association for Gallery Education. Jane has over two decades' experience
working in the visual arts in the West Midlands, London and the South East,
principally with audiences new to galleries and mainstream culture. Jane has
worked as a consultant supporting programmes at galleries such as the National
Gallery, Tate Modern, Turner Contemporary and Tate Britain. Other clients have
included the Clore Duffield Foundation, the British Council and the Department
for Education and Skills. Jane was Arts Manager for Look Ahead Housing and Care
(1999-2005) devising an arts strategy and programme for vulnerable people; Head
of Community Education at Whitechapel Gallery (1994-99); and Education Officer
at Ikon Gallery, Birmingham (1986- 89). Jane was a Vice Chair of
engage (1998-2005) and a board member for Chisenhale Gallery. She is
a trustee of the intergenerational arts organisation Magic Me. Jane has a
Masters in Cultural Theory, University of Birmingham and has written and
published on the visual arts and gallery education.
Kirsten Gibbs, Deputy Director, engage
Kirsten Gibbs is Deputy Director of engage, the
leading professional association promoting access to, understanding and
enjoyment of the visual arts. Within engage Kirsten's
role includes leading on professional development (including the annual
conference and international summer school), and supporting and developing the
work of the Scotland, Wales and Watch this Space Coordinators and Area
Representatives. Kirsten project-managed the Collect & Share European
network for engage and is currently a partner in
two additional European projects: Lifelong Museum Learning and Museums Tell
Many Stories (both funded by the European Commission via Socrates / Grundtvig).
Kirsten was formerly Head of Education at Milton Keynes Gallery and at the New
Victoria Theatre in Stoke-on-Trent. She has also been a primary school teacher.
Dr Veronica Sekules, Head of Education and Research, Sainsbury Centre for the
Visual Arts, University of East Anglia Dr Veronica Sekules is Head of Education
and Research at the Sainsbury Centre for Visual Arts, University of East
Anglia, Norwich, where she was formerly a curator. She is responsible for
developing learning and research programmes, educational events and
conferences, artists' projects and residencies, outreach and training with
students, schools, teachers and the public. She was trained as an art
historian, specialising in the middle ages and 20th century art and is widely
published in these areas. She has an MA in education and is an active
educational researcher and writer. She is Vice-Chair of engage.
From 2004-06 she was on secondment to Tate Britain as project manager for the
'Visual Dialogues' project, producing interpretive resources for a regional
partnership of museums in the UK. She has been invited to work as a consultant,
to lecture and run projects and workshops for teachers, artists and museum and
gallery educators in the UK and internationally.
The Sainsbury Centre houses collections of world art dating from 4000BC to the
present, in buildings designed by Foster and Partners. It has lively exhibition
and education programmes and is located on the campus of the University of East
Anglia, Norwich.
Maria Balshaw, Director, The Whitworth Art Gallery
What are Galleries for? Art, Learning and the dynamics of change
Maria Balshaw started her career as an academic and took a DPhil in African
American Visual Culture from the University of Sussex. Her first appointment
was as Lecturer in Cultural Studies at University College, Northampton. From
1997-2002, Maria was Lecturer in American Studies and Research Fellow at the
University of Birmingham. Research areas included African American urban
culture and visual cultures in urban regeneration. In 2002, Maria joined
Creative Partnerships, the DCMS-funded national creative learning programme, as
Director for Birmingham, where she worked for four years. She then had a spell
as Director of External Relations and Development at Arts Council England, West
Midlands. In 2002, Maria became a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts and in
2004, she was awarded one of the first year Fellowships in the Clore Leadership
programme. In June 2006 she was appointed as Director of the Whitworth Art
Gallery in Manchester.
Originally founded in 1889, the Whitworth Art Gallery has been part of the
University of Manchester since 1958. The Gallery takes its name from Sir Joseph
Whitworth (1803-87), the Stockport-born engineer, who founded a number of local
institutions. Internationally famous for its collections of art and design, the
Whitworth Art Gallery is home to an impressive range of watercolours, prints,
drawings, modern art and sculpture, and the largest collections of textiles and
wallpapers outside London. The Whitworth seeks to promote understanding of the
cultural-historic significance of its works through their imaginative
interpretation and a full programme of activities for formal and informal
learning.
Maria's talk will be structured around a series of questions about what we see
as current practice in gallery education, and how we might understand galleries
as agents of cultural change in the 21st Century. Rather than presenting a
straightforward talk, she will set out a number of questions drawn from policy
documents and texts, and then interrogate the questions toward trying to
suggest some new ways of thinking about the role of the gallery in 2006. Rather
than talking about the gallery, and the role of learning as if they could be
separate things, She would like to suggest that we should see learning as an
intrinsic part of any art institution - and of art practice itself. More
importantly, at the present time, an integrated understanding of art and
learning is a necessary element of the dynamics of change for all cultural
institutions, and crucially important as we think about the value of culture.
Mariam Sharp, Head of Visual Arts and Literature, Arts Council England,
South West
Turning Point
Arts Council England is the national development agency for the arts in
England, distributing public money from Government and the National Lottery.
Mariam Sharp will outline the key national, cultural and political agendas
currently influencing galleries and gallery education, particularly change
within ACE, including the recent visual arts review. She will also talk about
engage's role as a key partner in delivering Arts Council England's
strategic priorities.
Lewis Biggs, Chief Executive, Liverpool Biennial
Chief Executive of Liverpool Biennial since 2000, Lewis Biggs was a founding
Trustee in 1998. He was Gallery Coordinator at Arnolfini, Bristol, 1979-84;
Exhibition Officer, British Council Visual Arts Department, 1984-87; Curator of
Exhibitions, Tate Liverpool 1987-90; and Director of Tate Liverpool 1990-2000.
He is General Series Editor for Tate Gallery Publishing's series 'Modern
Artists'.
Lewis will discuss regional change agendas, focusing on how gallery education
contributes to regeneration and to access, with examples from Tate Liverpool
and Liverpool Biennial and looking forward to Capital of Culture.
Thursday 16 November
Emma Geliot, Senior Arts Development Officer (Visual Art), Arts Council
of Wales
Emma Geliot trained as a fine artist at what is now the University of Wales
Institute, Cardiff. She graduated in the mid-1980s and began to combine art
practice with arts administration and management projects. These included
running the first and second Cardiff Visual Arts Festivals, co-running
Sculpture at Margam and numerous freelance curatorial, research and project
management jobs. She became Commissions Manager for the National Cycle Network
in Wales in 1996 and in 1998 fell completely over the fence to become the first
Director of the Artists in Residence Programme for Cywaith Cymru, Artworks
Wales. She moved to the Arts Council of Wales in 2002 and is now responsible
for the strategic development of the Visual Arts in Wales.
The Arts Council of Wales is the strategic development body for the Arts in
Wales. An Assembly Sponsored Public Body (ASPB), a Royal Charter Organisation
and a charitable body, ACW is also responsible for various strands of arts
funding, including the National Lottery and Welsh Assembly Government funds.
ACW manages a portfolio of revenue-funded clients, representing the diverse
range and breadth of arts activity across Wales, while actively engaging with
numerous partners to drive forward the development of the arts in Wales.
Dave Moutrey, Director, Cornerhouse
Cornerhouse - an arts organisation in a state of constant change.
Dave Moutrey has been Director of Cornerhouse since April 1998. He took the
post after having worked as Director of Arts About Manchester for over six
years, during which time he was also Director of Marketing for Manchester, City
of Drama 1994. Internationally, he helped to establish an arts marketing
consortium in Canberra, Australia during October 1994; has worked on
international cultural tourism conferences in Prague, Graz and Amsterdam; and
presented papers at a number of conferences on arts marketing. Before working
at AAM, Dave Managed the Abraham Moss Centre Theatre in North Manchester. He is
a qualified teacher and community artist who has worked on over 30 community
productions with Greater Manchester based-groups. Dave is a member of the
Chartered Management Institute, BAFTA and ABTT. He is a school Governor, an
Advisor to Stage Exchange Yorkshire, and a Board Member of Manchester
Millennium Quarter Development Trust.
Cornerhouse, Manchester's centre for contemporary visual arts and film, is one
of the few places in the country where people can enjoy the very best in world
cinema and contemporary art. Since opening in 1985 it has achieved an
international reputation for artistic excellence and innovation. Cornerhouse is
registered as an educational charity. Comprising three galleries, three
cinemas, a bar, two cafes and two bookshops, Cornerhouse is a key cultural and
social centre for the city of Manchester and its visitors, with a footfall of
over 400,000 visits per year.
The environment in which all arts organisations work is a dynamic one; we only
need to look at the growth of the internet and the way artists and audiences
have embraced this technology to see how the pace of change has increased
dramatically. At Cornerhouse we have been in a state of constant change to meet
ever changing needs of artists and audiences, the biggest of these was the
creation of our education department two years ago. However, we are still
changing. Personalisation of the Cornerhouse experience for our audiences is a
development priority for our organisation and we are investing heavily in our
website and other areas of our programme to enable this to move forward. We are
also looking longer term. We know that after 10-15 years of growth in arts
funding the future is looking grim. Whitehall mandarins and politicians
involved in the government's Comprehensive Spending Review are all involved in
expectation management exercises. Furthermore, the Olympics and Cultural
Olympiad will suck huge amounts cash out of the system. Cornerhouse is
consequently looking at how we can become more self-sustaining. How can we
generate more revenue from our brand? What alternative sources of funding can
we find to support our key public value activities? Our education activity is
as central to finding solutions to this as our catering or other retail
activities. If you are not already thinking about these issues then you need to
start soon!
Neil Bromwich, Artist and Zoë Walker, Artist
PANACEA - How Art can Save the World.
Artist duo Zoë Walker and Neil Bromwich have worked together since 1999. Their
work explores the space between an imagined world and a real location,
collaborating with the public to make new work that explores sites and
landscapes in the UK, Europe and Australia. Major projects include; My Island
Home for the Victoria & Albert Museum; Fusion, a collaboration with the
plastic surgery unit at St John's Hospital, Livingstone and The Fruitmarket
Gallery, Edinburgh; Celestial Radio for COAST with Commissions East; and Love
Cannon Parade - Brick Lane, in association with the Whitechapel Gallery. In
2001, their project 'Small Planet' a live webcast, was simultaneously screened
at the ICA, Ikon, CCA, Baltic, and Tate Liverpool, as part of TV Swansong. Solo
Exhibitions include: ACCA Australian Centre for Contemporary Art, Melbourne,
Australia and Portable Paradise at the Economist Plaza. Other Exhibitions
include: Urban Nomads, The South London Gallery; Künstlerhaus, Vienna; Centre
Regional d'Art, Sete, France; Their work has been featured in; Freeze,
Contemporary, Flash Art, Art Monthly, MAP, Time Out, Untitled, Arts Review,
Archistorm, C'est la vie, Evening Standard, The Scotsman, Scotland On Sunday
and The Guardian.
Panacea is an artists-led initiative in collaboration with doctors and
scientists. Founder members Zoë Walker, Neil Bromwich and Michael Pinsky set
out to develop and test their own artist solutions to wellbeing - personal,
social and political. The project takes the form of an evolving series of
exhibitions, events programme and field studies which has so far been staged at
Centre de Creation Contemporain, Tours, France; John Hansard Gallery,
University of Southampton; La Parvis, Ibos; and Kielder Waters Northumberland.
Panacea is supported by the Welcome Trust and Arts Council England.
They will talk about the exhibition Panacea and the notion of artist solutions
to wellbeing, and how this, and other work such as Sci-fi Hot Tub, Friendly
Frontier and Celestial Radio, interfaces with the public, shifting between
public 'non-art world' spaces and the white-walled gallery. Panacea represents
a symbolic force for change, engaging new public audiences, educating and
changing how people read their own local and global environment, using a mix of
humour, social and political messages and inflatable habitats.
Victoria Pomery, Director, Turner Contemporary
Karen Eslea, Audience Development Officer, Turner Contemporary
Building Futures
Victoria Pomery took up the post of Director of Turner Contemporary in 2002.
She has previously worked at the Mead Gallery, University of Warwick; Angel Row
Gallery, Nottingham and Tate Liverpool.
Karen Eslea, Audience Development Officer for Turner Contemporary, has
previously worked for organisations including The Hayward Gallery, Whitechapel
Art Gallery, Chisenhale and Camden Arts Centre. She has worked for Turner
Contemporary since 2001.
Turner Contemporary, an international venue for the visual arts, is scheduled
to open in Margate, Kent, in 2010. Celebrating JMW Turner's links with Margate,
Turner Contemporary will show a changing programme of historical and
contemporary art. Designed by David Chipperfield Architects, Turner
Contemporary is a key element of the regeneration of Margate and East Kent. In
the run-up to the opening of the gallery, Turner Contemporary's team is running
a variety of activities from audience development initiatives including
residencies, commissions and professional development for artists, to PR and
marketing, fundraising and devising operational strategies for the new gallery.
Karen Eslea will begin the talk from the future, imagining Turner Contemporary
when it opens in 2010. Fictional reviews and diary extracts will reveal how
different visitors and staff felt about the opening event, the building and the
programme. Victoria Pomery will then use this introduction to examine the
complexity of change, and the contradictions and conflicts that can appear when
comparing visitors' aspirations and hopes for the gallery. Using the exhibition
Unité (an exhibition of contemporary French art) as a model, she will examine
how working with artists and other partners can involve audiences at many
different levels and help to change perceptions of a place, and the
possibilities for its future.
click here to
download a copy of Karen Eslea's presentation
Diana Walton, Head of Arts Award, Arts Council England
Introducing the Arts Award
Diana Walton is very happy to be heading up the Arts Award, since the award
recognises the creative aspiration of individual young people and their growth
as artists and leaders, as well as offering a valuable tool to arts
organisations, Local Authorities, schools and youth projects. Diana has worked
in many education contexts, but developed her commitment to young people's arts
through 15 years in community arts, theatre in education and youth arts. A
crucial experience was setting up and running Shropshire Youth Arts Network, a
youth arts centre and programme directly funded by Shropshire County Council
for 10 years. This experience has informed her work for Arts Council England
since 2000 and influenced the development of the Arts Award. She is delighted
that the arts and young people are a high priority for the Arts Council and
determined that the Arts Award shall carry Arts Council recognition to many
more young people.
The Arts Award is a national qualification which supports young people to
develop as artists and arts leaders. Young people aged 11-25 of all abilities
and interests can gain their awards through any art form. Taking part in an
Arts Award develops young people's creative and personal skills for further
education or employment. The Arts Award is run by Arts Council England and
Trinity Guildhall, supported by Canon(UK). For more information, please visit
the Arts Award website at www.artsaward.org.uk
Diana will outline how the award works in practice and discuss how the Arts
Award can be offered in gallery contexts. The session will include a short DVD
in which young people talk about their experience of taking part in the award.
Paul Collard, Director, Creative Partnerships
Creative Partnerships and Galleries
Paul Collard is the National Director of Creative Partnerships. Until December
2004 he was Creative Director of Culture, a high profile programme of cultural
events and projects based in Newcastle Gateshead in the North East of England.
He has been deeply involved in the arts and regeneration strategies since 1983,
working at the Institute of Contemporary Arts, British Film Institute London,
and as Director of the International Festival of Arts and Ideas in Connecticut,
USA (1997-2001). In 1987 Paul wrote a groundbreaking report for the government
on the role the arts can play in economic and social regeneration, which
stressed the importance of engaging local communities in regeneration
strategies. He was appointed National Director of Creative Partnerships in
November 2004 and took up the position in January 2005. As National Director,
Paul provides leadership for Creative Partnerships, taking overall
responsibility for the programme, its policy, strategic planning and delivery.
Creative Partnerships is the government's flagship creativity project for
schools and young people, funded by the Department for Culture, Media and Sport
and the Department for Education and Skills. Set up in 2003, it is now working
with around 2500 schools and has made links with 7000 more throughout England
focusing on areas of significant economic deprivation. Visit
www.creative-partnerships.com for more information.
Paul Collard will speak for a few minutes about the work of Creative
Partnerships followed by a short panel discussion with a gallery educator, a
teacher and an artist.
Barbara Taylor, Director, enquire
enquire: tools for change
Barbara Taylor has directed the enquire programme since October 2004. Prior to
this she was the Director of Bury St Edmunds Art Gallery for 12 years, and
previously worked for Northern Arts (regional arts association) and as a
freelance curator, writer and consultant.
The enquire programme is managed by engage in
association with Arts Council England. enquire is funded by the Department for
Culture, Media and Sport and the Department for Education and Skills as part of
the Strategic Commissioning Museums and Galleries Education Programme.
This presentation coincides with the launch of the research reports from the
first phase of enquire, 2004-06 and discusses how the programme is developing
tools that the gallery education sector and related professions - artists,
teachers and youth workers - can use to affect change.
Amber Walls, Development Coordinator, envision
Rebecca McKnight - Young People's Programme Manager, Cornerhouse
Collaborating with young people to effect change in gallery practice
Amber Walls is currently Development Coordinator of envision,
engage's pioneering programme supporting venues across the UK to
collaborate with young people to develop youth-friendly practice and policies.
Amber has worked in a variety of roles broadly encompassing gallery education
and the arts in education, health, regeneration and community development
contexts. Amber's work over the past few years has focused on using creativity
to build the confidence, skills and engagement of young people experiencing, or
at risk of, exclusion and disadvantage.
Rebecca McKnight is a freelance artist and arts educator and currently works at
Cornerhouse as the Young People's Programme Manager. Rebecca is responsible for
LiveWire, Cornerhouse's informal education programme for 14-18 year olds and
will be discussing her experiences of developing the LiveWire Management Team
(a group of young people who programme and manage LiveWire with her). Rebecca
will be leaving Cornerhouse at the end of December to pursue a two-year public
art residency at the University of Salford and to develop a body of research
relating to the Canadian Arctic where she will be doing a two-month expedition
in 2008.
envision is engage's pioneering programme
supporting galleries to engage more effectively with young people aged 14-21,
and championing young people's active involvement in shaping the future
development of venues. This presentation will use envision to explore how
contrasting venues have been engaging young people in diverse activities
designed to create new practice and policy and embed a youth-friendly ethos at
the heart of the organisation. The presentation will highlight some of the key
challenges and explore different approaches used to tackle these. A more in
depth look at LiveWire - Cornerhouse's informal education programme for 14-18
year olds - which started its life as an envision action research project, will
reflect on young people's role as decision-makers within the organisation and
what impact LiveWire has had on institutional change.
Karin Malmquist, Education Curator, Moderna Museet, Stockholm
Zon Moderna: Art Gets Real
Karin Malmquist has worked for many years with art educational development
projects focusing on contemporary art. She has also worked with courses in
contemporary art for teachers from all over Sweden, where lecturers from
different disciplines have been invited to provide different perspectives on
art. She was the editor for Contemporary Art for Teachers, a publication
generated from the documentation of these courses. She has previously written a
book about contemporary art for the same target group. Since 2004 she has been
responsible for Zon Moderna, an art educational project that aims to lower the
threshold to Moderna Museet for teenagers. She is currently working on a book
about Zon Moderna that will be published in December 2006.
The Moderna Museet opened in 1958 on the island of Skeppsholmen in downtown
Stockholm. It is the most visited art museum in Sweden. A new building,
designed by the Spanish architect Rafael Moneo, was inaugurated in 1998.
Moderna Museet has one of Europe's finest collections of Swedish and
international modern and contemporary art with key works by Pablo Picasso,
Salvador Dalí, Meret Oppenheim and many others. It also hosts a large
collection of photographs from the 1840s and onwards. Using the collection and
temporary exhibitions as a starting-point the museum employs educational
activities to convey, deepen and develop knowledge about 20th and 21st century
art. The goal is to generate a profound encounter between the work of art, the
visitor and, whenever possible, the artist.
Modern and contemporary art can play an important role in the life of a
teenager. Zon Moderna was initiated as a way of lowering the threshold to
Moderna Museet for upper secondary school pupils in Stockholm. The basis of the
art education project Zon Moderna is to work with a core group that consists of
15-20 upper secondary school pupils from schools all over Stockholm. The
starting point for each Zon project is a current exhibition at the museum. Each
Zon project is led by an artist together with one of the museum art educators.
The pupils visit the museum regularly throughout a complete school term. Over
the three years that Zon Moderna has existed, several of Sweden's most
prominent artists have participated in the project. Zon Moderna has affected
the entire museum, since the pupils have been in contact with everyone, from
technicians to press officers and photographers, from conservators to curators.
With the Zon Moderna project as a starting point Karin will discuss the role
that modern and contemporary art and the art museum can play for teenagers who
are seeking to formulate their own world view far from that of parents and
other figures of authority.
Lysele Assarapin, Education Coordinator, Public Programmes, Museum of
Contemporary Art, Sydney
Dis/place: Making work in exile
Lysele Assarapin has worked in museum education and interpretation for 18
years. She has worked at the Powerhouse Museum and the National Museum of
Australia in various positions including Education Officer, and Coordinator of
Education and Public Programmes. She has developed a range of programmes for
students (primary, secondary) as well as for the general public and specialist
audiences. Lysele is currently Education Coordinator, Public Programmes, at the
Museum of Contemporary Art, Sydney. In the last five years at the MCA Lysele
has been active in developing and implementing innovative programmes which
provide access to contemporary art.
The Museum of Contemporary Art is Australia's only museum dedicated to
exhibiting, interpreting and collecting contemporary art from across Australia
and around the world. With a continually changing programme of exhibitions,
there is always something new, exciting and inspiring to see at the MCA. Vision
Statement: 'Engaging with contemporary art and ideas'. Purpose Statement: 'To
make the MCA an internationally respected and locally valued national
organisation dedicated to exhibiting, interpreting and collecting contemporary
art.'
This paper explores how galleries and museums can work with marginalised
communities to effect cultural and perceptional change within the contemporary
art context. Using Mona Hatoum: Over My Dead Body (2005) at the Museum of
Contemporary Art, Sydney, as a catalyst for exploring themes of exile, diaspora
and displacement, the three-phase project Dis/place: Making work in exile was
developed as a community-based initiative partnering MCA, ICE (Information and
Cultural Exchange) and Campbelltown Arts Centre. Both ICE and Campbelltown Arts
Centre are located in greater Western Sydney, approximately 30-50 kilometres
from the city of Sydney. The project targets recently arrived migrant and
refugee artists to Western Sydney, home to Australia's largest migrant, refugee
communities. It provides selected artists with the unique opportunity to
develop their artistic practice through a series of professional development
workshops and enables them to network with personnel and artists within the
contemporary art world. Dis/place: Making Work in Exile investigates how
galleries can provide a platform for art practice in response to the refugee
and migration experience in Australia post 9/11. The project will culminate in
the production of new works for an exhibition in 2007 at Campbelltown Arts
Centre.
Friday 17 November
Lindsey Fryer, Head of Interpretation and Education, Tate Liverpool
Currently Head of Interpretation and Education at Tate Liverpool, Lindsey Fryer
was previously Education Officer at Arnolfini Gallery, Bristol. At Tate
Liverpool, Lindsey heads a team of seven Education Curators in the fields of
Family, Community, Schools, Young People, Public Programmes and Interpretation.
Lindsey is part of the Senior Management Team and the Programme Team that
delivers exhibitions, displays, education, interpretation and audience
development programmes. Lindsey also chairs a cross-Tate Interpretation &
Education strategy group. She is a Vice Chair of engage;
Board member for Bluecoat Arts Centre, Liverpool; Trustee of the Field Fund, St
Helen's; Trustee of Artists First, Bristol; and was a member of the National
Advisory Committee for Creative and Cultural Education which published All Our
Futures; Creativity, Culture and Education (DfES/DCMS).
Tate Liverpool shows the national collection of modern art and contemporary
exhibitions such as Jake & Dinos Chapman; The Real Thing: contemporary art
from China; Peter Blake; and the Liverpool Biennial. It has a world-renowned
interpretation and education programme working in and beyond the city and
region. Programmes include Interpretation; Family; Tate Teachers; Tate Schools
and Outreach; Young Tate; Community; Public Programmes, including FE and HE
partnerships.
Catrin Webster, Artist
The Travel Project - Education as Practice
Catrin Webster is currently studying for a practice-based PhD at the University
of Wales, Aberystwyth: What is contemporary perception of landscape and how is
it informed or directed by the visual arts, especially painting? She is excited
by the potential of painting to explore, reveal and consolidate experiences of
place in both urban and rural situations and how other media such as film, TV
and photography can inform the language and process of painting. Recently she
has converted her transit van into a mobile home and studio, with a glass
carrying rack on the side, which is used as a large-scale easel for making
paintings up to 3m2. She has had various exhibitions and residencies, including
several solo shows in Italy, including a performance in the Gallery of
Contemporary Art and Mapping Wales at Salla Uno. She has also exhibited in
France, Oman and Iceland as well as group exhibitions in Spain and the UK, such
as 'Expanded View' at the Icon and 'Pure Fantasy' at the Mostyn. Her next
exhibition will be in Aberystwyth Arts Centre, February 2007. There is a
performative element to her work and direct engagement with the public has
become a dynamic element of the creative process. Education work relating to
her own practice has become an integral part of her work, enabling face-to-face
dialogue, exchange of ideas and participation.
In conjunction with the Aberystwyth Arts Centre (and numerous sponsors), the
Travel Project began by giving an opportunity for creative exchange while
working directly with groups of children from Birmingham and rural Aberystwyth.
A train carriage was used as a studio to explore the experience of the journey
from urban to rural and vice versa. The Travel Project created an opportunity
for everyone involved to observe, explore and investigate the story and
situation of city and country folk. The work and ideas generated by this
interaction have now fed back into her practice and will form the exhibition -
'In Transit - The Travel Project' in the Aberystwyth Arts Centre next
Feb/March.
Nicola Jennings, Cultural Leadership Programme Director, City University
The role of museum educators in leading change in 21st century museums
Nicola Jennings is the Director of the Cultural Leadership Programme at City
University, London. She joined City just over a year ago to set up the new
postgraduate course, designed to provide development for emerging leaders in
the cultural sector. Before joining City, Nicola spent four years at the
National Gallery, most recently as Head of Strategic Development Projects where
she helped the Gallery to identify and develop projects contributing to its own
strategic plans as well as being attractive to external funders. Nicola started
her career in television where she spent 15 years producing, directing and
executive producing documentaries for a number of UK and international
broadcasters.
The new Cultural Leadership Programme at City University, London, provides
postgraduate development to mid-career professionals from a wide range of arts
forms including dance, theatre, visual arts, museums, literature, film and
music. In this first year, all 48 participants have been women benefiting from
scholarships provided by the European Social Fund. As Work-Based Learning, the
Programme encourages participants to relate the knowledge and skills acquired
on the course to their day-to-day work, and attendance is mainly in two-day
blocks once a month. Each participant also has a senior mentor from the sector.
From 2007-08 onwards the programme will be open to men too, and participants
will have the choice of taking a postgraduate Diploma or going on to a Masters
degree. More information can be found at
http://www.city.ac.uk/cpm
In the late 1990s and the first few years of the new Millennium, the crisis of
leadership in the subsidised cultural sector hit the headlines. Generally this
crisis has been related to low morale, underfunding, low pay, lack of career
paths and problems with Boards. The author believes, however, that there is a
much deeper and more significant crisis related to the speed at which our
social, economic, political and technological environment is changing. Cultural
sector leaders are having to cope with a lot of change - particularly related
to a collapse in traditional and euro-centric notions of cultural value - and
some of our existing leaders may not be adequately prepared for this process.
The apparent lack of diversity within this existing cadre - amongst whom there
are very few women and people from minority ethnic backgrounds - may be a
significant factor in this. In this context, museum and gallery educators -
whose skills are predicated on understanding and communicating with a wide
range of social groups - have a key role in leading the development of multiple
narratives about what culture can mean in contemporary society and ensuring
that even as values and identities change, significant numbers of people
continue - or begin - to engage with the rich and precious cultural heritage
contained in our museums and galleries.
click here to
download a summary of the presentation
Vince Hagedorn, Director, Mentfor
Mentoring
Vince Hagedorn believes: 'Mentoring is the application of a core set of skills
that underpins how we learn and develop. A good coach is also a good mentor. As
we have dispersed geographically from our family and childhood roots we lose
much of the natural mentoring that has been a vital component of learning in
human development. By encouraging the spread of good mentoring in all its forms
we are replacing that loss. Mentoring is a uniquely successful way of helping
people to get the most out of their creative, economic and social potential and
is essential for the health of communities and the economy.'
The East Mentoring Forum is a social enterprise company limited by guarantee
that is applying to become a Community Interest Company (CIC). Its mission is
to develop a community of mentors, practitioners, researchers, policy makers,
funders and coordinators/managers. Whilst EMF started in the East of England,
its website and activities have attracted a worldwide following and
www.mentfor.co.uk the web-enabled knowledge base about mentoring, has become a
leader of its kind. With nearly 2,000 members; 1,000 affiliated 'mentoring
aware' companies and organisations and access to over 12,000 mentors and their
mentoring schemes, EMF has a collective wisdom on the issues surrounding all
kinds of mentoring and works at all levels to ensure the increases in volume,
quality and awareness of mentoring. Anyone with a valid interest can join
through the website (free) and access the full knowledge and materials
available. Libraries and other organisations can also be affiliated - just
email vince@mentfor.co.uk with your, and the organisation's, details.
The theme of the presentation is mentoring; what it is; how it can be organised
and what are its benefits. Through interactive questions and answers we will
explore the relevance of mentoring (or coaching) to the delegates and try to
develop an idea of an action plan. This is a vast subject and no doubt the
delegates will have varying degrees of knowledge and experience about
mentoring. We will try to deal with the matters of common interest.
To read a summary of the presentation visit
http://www.mentfor.co.uk/article.asp?id=656&groupid=1
Charles Landry, Director, Comedia
The Art of City Making and the Role of Cultural Institutions
Charles Landry studied in Britain, Germany and Italy. He founded Comedia,
Europe's leading cultural planning consultancy, in 1978. He helps cities change
their thinking and see how they can use their resources and potential
imaginatively. See www.comedia.org.uk He has lectured widely in Europe, the
USA, Australia and Africa and has presented over 150 keynote addresses on a
diversity of topics. He has been appointed the 'Thinker in Residence' for Perth
in early 2007 having previously been 'thinker' in South Australia, advising the
premier and state on greater Adelaide's future potential, 2003.
Comedia has worked in 35 countries including Canada, Japan, Australia, Bosnia,
The Netherlands, Bulgaria, Germany, Spain, Italy, Russia, Poland, South Africa,
Finland, Sweden, the USA, Hong Kong, Ukraine, Croatia, New Zealand and Yemen.
During that time it has undertaken several hundred projects concerned with
revitalising public, social and economic life through cultural activity;
quality of life studies; cultural industry development projects and city and
regional strategies. Most recently COMEDIA has been involved in six major
programmes. They concern an international study on creative cities and creative
urban milieux; the social impact of the arts; the future of public libraries
and the development of the idea of the informed citizen; the role of public
parks and public space; the future of the non-profit sector; the viability and
vitality of cities.
What is the shape of the emerging cultural landscape and what are the
characteristics of its cultural climate. How might cultural institutions
respond? Are they marginal to these larger developments or are they central?