Contemporary Visual Arts Network - Journal

Looking for inspiration and ideas to take your creative / cultural business to the next level?

2013-06-18T09:07:39Z

Yorkshire and Humber Contemporary Visual Arts Network (YVAN) is running a free professional development seminar – The Business of the Arts – for anyone in the region working in the contemporary visual arts sector, 1.30-5.30pm, (plus networking afterwards) Monday 1 July in Sheffield.

This free seminar forms part of YVAN’s Cultural Entrepreneur Programme (CEP) that is supporting six cultural entrepreneurs working in the contemporary visual arts and design sector. But we’ve decided to open the session up to anyone from across Yorkshire and Humber region who may want to come along.

Who is speaking?

The sessions will focus on business planning and development, including how to sell work online, on site and through events and third parties. Leading creative industries consultant and author of T-shirts and Suits David Parrish will share his extensive knowledge of working with small to medium sized creative enterprises with practical steps in how to understand your business and develop its potential. Laurence Lane and Paulette Brien from Manchester-based International 3 will share their expertise in helping artists to sell their work, fresh from leading the YVAN and Arts Council England supported Market Share programme. As CEP 2013 project managers Andrew Palmer and Helen Palmer will also give an overview of the initiative.

Who is it for?

This event will be of genuine interest for any independent people who want to see how some cultural and creative entrepreneurs can and do grow their enterprises. The event also includes a social session for further networking and conversation – and even perhaps finding out more about CEP and how a future course might help you.

Where?

Showroom Cinema and Workstation Creative Business Centre

15 Paternoster Row

Sheffield, S1 2BX

www.showroomworkstation.org.uk/location

Places are limited, so please book early to avoid disappointment, and also to let us know how many seats to put out and drinks vouchers to print. For more information, visit www.cvan.org.uk/yorkshire, or the CEP blog at yorksculturalentrepreneurprog.tumblr.com.

To sign up for this free seminar, go to: cep-businessofthearts.eventbrite.co.uk

If you have any queries, do please email Jennifer Dean on j.dean06@gmail.com

Six cultural entrepreneurs selected for YVAN project

2013-06-01T06:08:13Z

Six cultural entrepreneurs with ambitions to either develop new businesses in the contemporary visual arts, or to expand existing businesses, have been selected by the Yorkshire & Humber Visual Arts Network (YVAN) to join their pilot Cultural Entrepreneur Programme (CEP).

Network event at Google on Wednesday 03 July 2013

2013-05-20T19:06:35Z

Photo credit: Marc Wathieu / Foter.com / CC BY-NC

This special event will take place on 03 July 2013 and will include:

CVAN/ Google knowledge exchange

With a global population of highly networked early adopters; artworks delivered to galleries by tweeted downloads; artists being digital engineers and audiences more technically literate - there is a new set of challenges for audiences, galleries, curators and funders to embrace with their audiences.

A chance for Google to meet CVAN and be introduced to its work and for CVAN members to meet Google and the Google Cultural Institute.

Creating groundswell for visual arts

How can we better interact with audiences and mobilise support? What do we need to consider for the future? What will audiences for visual arts look like in 10 years time and, how will they engage with contemporary art?

With current challenges to the arts and engaging public support, the event will explore: ‘What is the DNA of groundswell? What do we need to know to activate groundswell through our collective audiences?’ It will also test bed ideas, knowledge share and begin to activate a plan for action.

Marking the end of the CVAN Knowledge sharing project

‘Back to basics’ session exploring how CVAN can communicate more effectively across its distributed networks using technology and non-technology tools. CVAN is a diverse network and whilst some CVAN people are technology focused some have more limited knowledge and restricted access.

Who should attend?

Contemporary visual arts people who are contributing to creating groundswell for visual arts and are interested in debating ways to mobilise the sector and public. This includes artists, representatives from artists groups as well as people working within visual arts organisations.

The event is free. There is a limited capacity of 100. Places will be bookable on Eventbrite from Friday 24 May.

A limited number of bursaries will be available for artists interested in attending the events and engaging their own networks to help create groundswell for visual arts.

Surreptitious Networks - North East Contemporary Visual Arts Network event

2013-05-03T17:13:15Z

Monday, 20 May 2013, 11am - 6pm
Tyneside Cinema, Figgis Room,
10 Pilgrim Street, Newcastle upon Tyne, NE1 6QG

North East Contemporary Visual Arts Network is funding 3 critical writing bursaries on offer for emerging artist/writers in the Greater North to reflect and respond to academic research undertaken by CRUMB research associate Isabella Streffen as part of her fellowship through the AHRC Cultural Engagement Scheme. This is the first of a number of pilot projects that North East Contemporary Visual Arts Network is a partner in to explore how artists’ academic research within Universities is disseminated and explored within the visual arts sector for mutual benefit and by doing so, seed new connections and test new partnerships.

This artist-led workshop will be led by CRUMB post doctoral research associate Isabella Streffen and co-chaired by Dr. Sarah Cook of CRUMB and will focus on the “surreptitious networks” operating within artistic practices. The aim is to reveal how artists expose, work with, critique and create inadvertent or hidden networks in the development of their practices. The workshop will share knowledge from the practices, strategies and critical perspectives of four artists working with digital and non-digital networks:

Graham Harwood

Lise Autogena and Joshua Portway

Joanna Griffin

Isabella Streffen

Information about the contributors can be found here.

Discussion will touch upon methods and meaning of network creation, both deliberate and accidental and the relationship between the human and non human with questions likely to arise such as:

What other types of network emerge as the by-products of digitally networked practices?

How can the exploration of networks most usefully seed other networks?

What strategies do artists use to navigate and manage networks in their practice and how do the “echo networks” of digitally networked practices differ from those of non-digital practices?

Morning presentations will be broadcast by basicfm, while the afternoon workshops will offer a chance for participants to engage more closely with each of the artists to discuss strategies.

Details of the bursary can be found here. Bursary applicants are invited to apply for one of three bursaries by emailing A CV and a piece of written text to juliab@balticmill.com by May 13th and will need to be available to attend the event on 20th May in Newcastle. Selected applicants will be sent a briefing pack. Bursary recipients will have their articles co published by CRUMB and a-n.

If you would like to attend the event, potential delegates are asked to apply by email to streffen@mac.com with a Biography a short (200w) statement about what they would make of the opportunity by 15th May. Selection will be done by CRUMB and delegates will be notified by 16th/17th May so please hold the date until confirmation.

This project is a CRUMB Professional Development Workshop in collaboration with Pixel Palace and in partnership North East Contemporary Visual Arts Network and A-N.

Winners announced as New Art West Midlands celebrates region’s emerging artistic talent

2013-03-25T10:02:40Z

An altar featuring felt budgies and foil-wrapped ‘turds’ and a bicycle wrapped in wool are among the varied exhibits now on show in three Birmingham galleries as part of the award exhibition New Art West Midlands.

The best new work produced by recent graduates from the region’s five university art colleges was celebrated on Thursday 7 March in a prize-giving at the Barber Institute of Fine Arts, University of Birmingham.

Rafal Zar, a graduate of Birmingham City University, was awarded the £1,000 first prize following a unanimous decision by judging panel Nicola Kalinsky, Director of the Barber Institute; Simon Cane, Acting Director of Birmingham Museums Trust and Wendy Law, Director of Turning Point West Midlands, part of the national Contemporary Visual Arts Network supported by Arts Council England and hosted by Birmingham City University.

Rafal Zar - awarded the £1000 first prize

Runner-up prizes of £500 each were awarded to Corey Hayman, a graduate of Coventry University and Stuart Layton, who studied at the University of Worcester. These graduates also received bursaries to make new work for the exhibition.

This year’s New Art West Midlands project, part funded by Arts Council England and Birmingham City University via Turning Point West Midlands, is the first in an annual competition and exhibition initiative that promotes and encourages the region’s emerging artistic talent.

Exhibitions now open to the public at Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery, the Barber Institute of Fine Arts and Grand Union in Digbeth display the work of some 22 emerging artists, chosen from a long list of applicants by selectors Jeremy Millar, artist and tutor in Art Criticism at the Royal College of Art; Lynda Morris, Chair of Curation and Art History at Norwich University College of the Arts and Keith Piper, artist and Programme Leader of the MA Fine Art programme at Middlesex University.

The exhibiting artists all graduated in the last three years from Birmingham City University, Coventry University, Staffordshire University, University of Wolverhampton and University of Worcester.

New Art West Midlands catalogue - available from all exhibiting venues

Wendy Law said judges had been impressed by the wide range of subject matter and media. “The artists selected displayed an awareness not only of what is going on in contemporary art today - they are working with and commenting on political, historical and social issues,” said Wendy. “There is a real maturity across the work in terms of the ideas and their execution.”

Nicola Kalinsky said that all three winners had displayed not only maturity and professionalism, but also potential for growth as artists.

“Rafal Zar’s work is very coherent and assured: It’s visually very striking, and creates resonances drawn from popular culture that are both familiar and also alien. There was an ambition to his work which interested us all. Corey Hayman and Stuart Layton’s pieces were also very individual, very urban, and had a remarkably assured quality and authenticity about them.”

Simon Cane added:

‘This was a remarkable opening year for the New Art West Midlands project and the culmination of a hugely worthwhile collaborative project between the three galleries, Turning Point West Midlands and the five universities. It certainly augurs well for the future of New Art West Midlands – and is a revelation of the immense artistic talent and creativity being nurtured in – and by – the region and its art schools.’

New Art West Midlands continues at Birmingham Museum & Art Gallery and The Barber Institute of Fine Arts until 19 May 2013, and at Grand Union, Digbeth, until 16 March 2013.

The New Art West Midlands catalogue is available at all exhibiting venues for £10.

Collaborative Acts - Thursday 14th March 2.30pm – Scratch Night from 6.30pm, MK GALLERY

2013-03-13T13:37:23Z

Artists and curators from across the east and south east regions of England, are invited to attend Collaborative Acts - a space to hear more about opportunities to work together with others and how groups of artists are doing this already - either as informal networks or as collectives.

MK Gallery will provide an informative, informal environment to meet other artists, hear about diverse ways of working and seeing the outcomes of collaborative practice.

Speakers include: Gareth Bell-Jones, Artists and Programmes Curator at Wysing Arts Centre, will introduce the Escalator Visual Arts Programme with Escalator artist Florian Roithmayr, before contributions from Emma Jayne Taylor from Artworks MK and Carousel art collective.

From 6.30pm join us for a special MK Gallery Scratch Night Introduced by artists Jamie George and Fiona James. Artists Jamie George and Fiona James, who each participated in the most recent Escalator artists’ retreat; Space of Attention at Wysing Arts Centre will introduce an evening of overlapping and interrelated video and sound with contributions from their fellow retreat participants Jenny Chamarette, Annie Davey, Natasha Hoare, Sidsel Meineche Hansen, Stephanie Misa, David Morris, Rosalie Schweiker and Khadija von Zinnenburg Carroll.

Tickets are free and event attendees will be provided with dinner (5.30pm and 6.30pm, with a pay-bar) and are invited to stay for a special MK Gallery Scratch Night from 6.30pm, programmed by artists from the most recent retreat at Wysing Arts Centre.

Book your ticket now via eventbrite http://collaborativeacts.eventbrite.co.uk/

Collaborative Acts is part of a programme of events hosted by Contemporary Visual Arts Network East and South East to generate collaboration across the wide range of artists groups, networks and projects active in their regions. www.cvan.org.uk Collaborative Acts is funded by the Arts Council, England Knowledge Sharing Project.

New Art West Midlands

2013-02-14T09:53:02Z

Turning Point West Midlands is pleased to announce the launch of New Art West Midlands (NAWM) is a new platform to showcase work by selected art graduates and is a partnership between TPWM, Birmingham Museum & Art Gallery, The Barber Institute, Grand Union, and Birmingham City University, Coventry University, Staffordshire University, University of Wolverhampton and University of Worcester.

The exhibition takes place across 3 venues:

Birmingham Museum & Art Gallery - 15 February - 19 May 2013
The Barber Institute of Fine Arts, University of Birmingham - 8 March - 19 May 2013
Grand Union, Birmingham - 15 February – 16 March 2013

NAWM is a major development for the TPWM network, providing a significant opportunity for artists to show work across these reputable institutions at a crucial time in their development.

A catalogue has been produced to accompany the exhibition and includes essays by independent curator Rachel Bradley and Lisa Beauchamp, Curator of Modern and Contemporary Art Birmingham Museum & Art Gallery, and by the three selectors, Lynda Morris, Jeremy Millar, and Keith Piper.

Information on other TPWM Projects can be found at:

http://www.tpwestmidlands.org.uk/projects

Applications open for YVAN Cultural Entrepreneur Programme (CEP)

2013-02-04T16:32:04Z

Munro House, Leeds - the sort of creative enterprise the CEP is intended to encourage.

Do you live or work in the Yorkshire and Humber region? Are you interested or active in contemporary visual arts? Have you got a great business idea that could contribute to the region’s visual arts market? Do you consider yourself as a budding cultural entrepreneur?

If you answered yes to all these questions then you may be just the person we’re looking for to take part in the pilot Cultural Entrepreneur Programme from March – December 2013.

The Yorkshire and Humber Visual Arts Network (YVAN) is looking to recruit 6 Cultural Entrepreneurs with ambitious and innovative ideas that have the potential to become new business activities that will generate revenue in the contemporary visual arts sector.

If you are interested in applying for this exceptional opportunity, please download the application form as a Word document HERE or a PDF HERE. Alternatively, contact Project Manager Andrew Palmer on andrew@palmersquared.co.uk or telephone 07913 397541 to request further information.

The deadline for submissions is Friday 1 March, 12 noon.

YVAN is working with partners including Arts Council England and the Contemporary Art Society (CAS) on the development and delivery of this programme, as part of the CAS national visual arts market development plan.

Radar Love - Including Young People

2013-02-04T13:08:59Z

We are delighted to announce a programme of consultative events, organised by CVAN South East, as part of our new initiative – RADAR, supported by Artswork South East Bridge as part of its investment in Networks.

RADAR is a programme of research and activity that aims to enhance and develop cultural opportunites for children and young people in the South East by working in partnership with its key visual arts orgaisations.

Our first RADAR event entitled "Listening To Young People' will take place at Milton Keynes Gallery on Thursday 7th February 12.30 and will be hosted by specialists from the gallery and young people from Lost & Found, MK Gallery’s youth forum. Bringing together a range of expertise we will ask how the visual arts sector can be better orientated towards young people ? The event will be followed by the preview of an exhibition by Lost and Found (see picture).

Places are free but limited and can be booked via Eventbrite.

How to Survive the Open

2013-02-04T11:09:50Z

Edward Sellman, Ascension, Winner of the Attenborough Prize 2011

East Midlands Visual Arts Network’s Open Season presents How to Survive the Open featuring art critic and journalist Jessica Lack and writer, curator and artist Gordon Dalton

New Walk Museum and Art Gallery on Thursday 7 February 2013 at 6.00 – 8.00pm

In partnership with five regional venues, EMVAN presents Open Season, a collectively branded programme of open submission exhibitions and a series of associated events that will consider the 'Open' from the perspective of the artist, the project manager, the curator and the critic. Each event will feature contributions from a variety of individuals.

The ‘Open’ exhibition is where many artists take their first steps into the art world, work with their first curator, present to their first public audience, win their first prize, make their first sale. Yet despite this, and a rich pedigree, which includes the Royal Academy’s Summer Exhibition, the John Moores Painting Prize and the London Open, the format divides opinion and has many detractors who question its quality and its relevance. Whatever your viewpoint, it is clear that the ‘Open’ generates a great deal of debate!

Jessica Lack and Gordon Dalton have each carried out a written review of the Open Season exhibitions, which will be featured on www.emvan.net shortly.

To book a place at this event call: 01332 290 606 or visit: https://uk.patronbase.com/_DerbyQuad/Productions/66J2/Performances

For directions to the venue, visit: http://goo.gl/mfjlY