New Funds, New Name, New Future

Visual Arts South West are delighted to announce that we have been successful in obtaining funds from Arts Council England which will help us strengthen the visual arts sector in the South West region over the next two years.

We have been awarded just under £150,000 by Arts Council England’s Grants for the Arts scheme.  This major award will enable us to deliver exciting new projects including:

• An artist mentoring scheme
• A programme to develop Critical Writing
• A major audience engagement study
• Collaborative work with the museums sector through New Expressions
• A Cultural Leadership programme
• Research and development for major new contemporary art biennial

 Working with artists, partner organisations, groups and individuals, our programme will foster new ways of working, strengthen existing activity and networks and encourage greater regional collaboration in order to build a strong and valued visual arts sector in the South West. 

Visual Arts South West, over the past two years has quickly established itself as a key resource for the region.  Our expertise and awareness of what the needs are of the sector has been recognised and supported by Arts Council England through the awarding of this grant and therefore signals a new period of activity and growth in our activities, for the benefit of the Region.   

Our new namefrom Turning Point South West to Visual Arts South West also marks our new independent status.  We will shortly be launching a new website which will map the visual arts in the South West, provide a valuable platform for critical exchange and discussion and be a tool to better connect artists, organisations and audiences.

Tom Trevor, Chair of VASW, said “Turning Point South West has come a long way in the past two years, with the support of Arts Council England. The change of name to Visual Arts South West marks a new phase in the development of the network, as well as our independence from ACE. This coincides with the national name change from Turning Point to Contemporary Visual Arts Network. Our aim is to be a strong voice for the visual arts sector in the region, and we are already developing a wide range of projects in partnership with agencies such as Alias, Engage, Curatorial network, Contemporary Arts Society and Audiences SW. We have devised and are delivering our programme under four key areas of focus: Collaboration, Audiences, Criticality and Economy. The major award through ACE Grants for the Arts will enable us to push forward with this partnership work, and develop a programme of activity across the region, working for a stronger visual arts sector.”

Artist Julie McCalden said “As an artist and co-director of Motorcade/FlashParade in Bristol I have benefitted enormously from Turning Point South West. Their critical, timely and relevant events have opened up a space to engage with the issues that concern the whole sector, through presentations and dialogue between artists and arts professionals. These network strengthening sessions are a fantastic opportunity to become informed and be involved in shaping solutions. The Turning Point South West Curatorial Bursary, which supported ‘Bread & Roses’, has had a huge impact on the development of my curatorial practice at M/FP.”

In addition to delivering new projects, we will continue our work supporting and developing excellence in artists and arts organisations, empowering the sector with greater skills and knowledge, providing greater opportunities for collaboration within the region and beyond, developing a better understanding of audiences and extending reach, and providing leadership and advocacy for the visual arts in the South West.

Frame and Reference

A new type of online arts magazine launches this month. Featuring news, reviews and criticism of work exhibited by galleries and arts organisations in the South East, Frame and Reference explores emerging  themes and ideas that resonate across the region.

Launched by the Contemporary Visual Arts Network South East,

Frame and Reference

provides high quality articles and insights by major art writers and critics.

Art critic and writer Richard Cork says: “

The freshness and immediacy of this compelling website is irresistible. Conveying the essential vitality of events, exhibitions, installations and much else besides, it undoubtedly generates enthusiasm and creates an appetite for creative adventure."

Take a look at

frameandreference.com

RELAY commission: ‘Exercise (Djibouti) 2012’ by John Gerrard

Image courtesy: Edmund Blok

"As troubling as it is breathtaking"-The Guardian

A major new simulation presented as a large-scale cinematic installation in the setting of the Old Power Station, Oxford.

Originating in found documentary images of US military exercises in Djibouti (Horn of Africa) and informed by research into athletic achievement, the work makes use of emerging technologies to reflect on the relationship between competitive sport, military training, theatrical performance and dance.

On a simulation of the barren Djibouti landscape, two teams of computer-generated figures meet daily at dawn to initiate a series of cryptic gestural routines – precise, repetitive, faintly antagonistic. The scene is a painstaking and extraordinarily detailed reproduction, constructed by hand within the virtual using photographic and satellite data guides from the real landscape. Neither completely synthetic nor strictly real, the work exists in ‘real time’ (Djibouti: GMT +3 hours), orbiting over a yearly cycle that incorporates the movements of sun, moon and stars.

Exercise (Djibouti) 2012 is part of RELAY, a region-wide programme of new visual arts commissions and live events across the South East to mark London 2012. It is commissioned by the Ruskin School of Drawing & Fine Art, Oxford University Sport and Modern Art Oxford and forms part of the London 2012 Festival.

The Old Power Station, Arthur Street Oxford OX2 0AS

Until 29 July Mon-Sat 12 noon -8.00 pm, Sun 12 noon - 6.00 pm

Due to the limited nature of the building, there is limited access to the installation.

Summit 2012 - Measuring Value, Part 3

The third and final video presenting coverage of the Measuring Value debate at our 3rd national summit.

Video coverage of the second debate, Alternative Economies, will following shortly.

Summit 2012 - Measuring Value, Part 2

The second video, in a series of three, presenting coverage of the Measuring Value debate at our 3rd national summit.

Summit 2012 - Measuring Value, Part 1

Following a few technical issues, we're pleased to announce that Part 1 of the Measuring Value debate, filmed at the 3rd national summit in London, is now available to view online:

RELAY commission at Milton Keynes Gallery

Image courtesy Stian Ådlandsvik

'Take These Hands'  is a series of new work by Norwegian artist Stian Ådlandsvik at Milton Keynes Gallery until 29 July. It was commissioned as part of Turning Point South East's RELAY programme.

The exhibition includes fifteen collages developed from photographs belonging to the National Spinal Injuries Centre archive at Stoke Mandeville hospital, and a sculptural installation created from two wheelchairs. The work explores ideas of human mobility and fragility; forms of dependency for disabled and non-disabled people, and our bodily relationship to machinery and technological devices. The materials and objects used to create the works have been dismantled and reconstructed to establish new forms and functions.

RELAYis Turning Point South East’s programme of free contemporary art events, exhibitions, and performances taking place around the South East of England in 2012. RELAY celebrates the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games by taking sport, art and location as starting points for a series of artist commissions. 

The exhibition is also supported by the Creative Campus InitiativeTake These Hands will tour to Bucks New University in High Wycombe in October 2012. Bucks New is a member of the Creative Campus Initiative The exhibition will be complemented by a short programme of talks and seminars exploring themes including prosthetics and the interactions of body and technology in visual culture.

About the  National Spinal Injuries Centre archive. The archive is a collection of photographs and documents, which includes historic images of wards, physio and occupational therapy and medical conditions. It charts the history of the oldest, and one of the largest spinal injuries centres in the world, established by neurosurgeon Sir Ludwig Guttmann in 1944 at Stoke Mandeville hospital. Having revolutionised the treatment and life chances for those with spinal injuries, in 1948 Guttmann organised the ‘Stoke Mandeville Games’ to coincide with the start of the London Olympics, thus sparking the beginning of the Paralympic movement. The National Spinal Injuries Centre collection forms part of the Mandeville Legacy, which comprises the Wheelpower collection and that of the International Wheelchair Sports and Amputees Federation.