Wed 17 Jan 2007 from 14.15 – 16.15
Workshop Venues: Belmont Arts Centre, Shrewsbury Museum, Old Music Hall
We’re expecting approximately 50 – 60 delegates in total, mainly from local and regional arts organisations, free lanced artists and curators, and BA/MA and PhD students.
We invited three practitioners for each of the five workshops to present their practice in an informal setting and to speak about their work in regards to the overall issue of the workshop. Each presentation should be 15 minutes long to give enough time for feedback and discussion.The sessions are informal and open to questions and group debate. Each workshop will be lead by one of the presenters.
The focus of the day are the different notions of space in regards to curatorial and art practice in a rural context. The workshops are not meant to be conclusive, but to result in a brief presentation for the final plenum that concludes the important aspects discussed during the session. One of the intentions of the day is to set some conceptual and practical guidelines for further Rurality Commissions in Shropshire, and the results from each workshop could outline potentials and dangers.
Workshop Session 1: Curatorial strategies that operate within and across rural spaces
- What and where is the curated space?
- Who is visiting/participating in the space? Questions of publicity and access.
- The relationship between gallery based work and public commissions.
- Does the curatorial programme feed into wider regeneration policies?
- Any important differences to curation in an urban setting?
- Notions of networks and cross-overs between local, national and international settings.
- Etc.
With presentations by
Mark Segal, Director Artsway, New Forest
Martin Barlow, Oriel Mostyn Gallery, Wales
Gavin Wade, Artist Curator, Research Fellow in Curating at the University of Central England
Workshop Session 2: New Media as a trans-spatial tool for the rural environment
- Which social and physical spaces are being addressed in your work/project?
- How does the use of new media operate as a tool in regards to that?
- What is the space that is generated through the use of new media?
- Issues of existing and required infrastructure for the rural environment?
- Does perception of the media vary from rural to urban audiences/participants?
- Etc.
With presentations by
Mike Pearson, Performance Studies, University of Wales, Aberystwyth
Sue Gainsborough, Director Thomas Adams Media College, Wem
Wapke Feenstra, artist, Rotterdam
Workshop Session 3: Cultural Production vs Arts and Crafts vs Creative Industries
- Do we need a distinction between the three areas?
- Where are cross-over spaces and what’s their role/importance?
- The promotion of “Creative Industries†as a tool for so called culture led regeneration.
- Economic values and questions of trade and exchange.
- Etc.
With presentations by
Amanda Farr, Director Oriel Davies Gallery, Newtown, Powys
Trudi Graham, Qube Gallery, Oswestry, host of Notion Nanny
Amy Plant, artist, Multi Stop Shop
Workshop Session 4: The rural as a source for contextual art practice
Why working with the rural?
References from art/history? The rural as retreat, motive, backdrop, exotic other?
Links between project that deal with the rural and those sited in urban settings.
Autobiographical aspects?
Who is the commissioner and curatorial or political agendas behind? Etc.
With presentations by
Richard Walker, artist, lecturer University of Staffordshire
Matthew Cornford, artist and member of Cornford and Cross, Lecturer in Fine Art University of Wolverhampton
Torange Khonsari, architect and member of public works, currently in residency at Wysing Arts
Workshop Session 5: Art, Ecology and the landscape
Issues of scale in regards to the landscape and social interaction within it.
What is the political space of such projects? Activism, rural regeneration, green policies?
Short term intervention versus and/or long term sustainability.
Collaborations with other agencies/initiatives ?
The role of the local scale in regards to the national and international?
Etc.
With presentations by
Tim Collins, artist and Associate Dean, School of Art and Design, University of Wolverhampton
David Haley, MIRIAD, Manchester Metropolitan University
The Cloud Gallery, Shropshire artist collective
