PANEL DISCUSSION
"CONSIDERING PERCEPTIONS"
LUCAS: Okay. So we'll get started on our first panel session of the day.
So the title of this panel is called "Considering Perceptions". And the idea here is to explore some social perceptions of artists and artworks created from supported studios. In order to have a diverse range of points of view, we have people representing commercial galleries, supported studios and artists.
And so on the panel today on this panel this morning are Sim Luttin from Arts Project Australia; and Sky Saxon, who's an artist who works with the supported studio called Studio Arts; and Gab Mordy, who's an arts worker at Studio Arts, and Damien Minton from his eponymous gallery is that correct term; and Evan Hughes from The Hughes Gallery.
So the order of talking is going to go in this direction, isn't it, Josie?
JOSIE: There is.
LUCAS: Yes.
JOSIE: But there is also one artist (inaudible).
LUCAS: So we have a presentation from Greg Sindel, who also works with Studio Arts. So Gabrielle will introduce that when we get to it.
So I think some of the interesting things that were raised by Glenn's talk around these questions about how to frame things, what kind of information to provide to audiences or to collectors before or after the presentation of the work itself how to separate out that kind of extra info from the experience, the aesthetic experience of the work, are that some of the issues that I think the speakers here today may address in their discussions, from their own experiences of working in this area.
So first of all we're going to start out with SimLuttin from Arts Project Australia. So you can feel free to stand up and
SIM: Stand.
LUCAS: prance around, yes.
SIM: And hopefully that one works. If everyone can hear me.
I want to thank Josie and Accessible Arts for coordinating this forum, and for inviting me to participate on behalf of Arts Project Australia here today. I'm the Gallery Manager and Curator at Arts Project Australia, and I've been working at the organisation for about five years.
I'm going to focus on two main projects at Arts Project, which we're currently working on, that we found highly effective in breaking down common barriers and perceptions in the community and I'll come to those shortly.
I'll start by giving you a brief context of where I'm coming from, and briefly highlight three common perceptions we regularly deal with in the gallery.
Slide 2. So we're a centre of excellence that supports artists with intellectual disabilities, promoting their work and advocating for inclusion within contemporary arts practice. This underpins everything we do at the organisation. And while we have a beautiful, lightfilled studio, I'm not going to be focussing on that today. I'm going to be talking about the way that we've collaborated, artists, curators and organisations in connecting our artists with the broader contemporary art community. Next slide.
There are still common perceptions that we experience every day at Arts Project Australia, through projects we embark on. And we're trying to change these perceptions and move them forward and change the way people think and respond to our organisation and our artists' work.
The first perception is that we should exhibit our artists' work in public spaces for free, because it's good publicity. And I'm not talking about galleries here. I'm talking about public spaces, other alternative spaces. We think it's about making the right professional choices for our artists, and also being time and cost effective for the organisation. We want to build relationships with reputable businesses and organisations that will present our artists' work professionally, always.
Whether they exhibit the work, lease it or buy it, we are always looking for angles that generate an income for our artists. So we tend to stay away from hanging work in cafes and businesses, and instead direct them to support our organisation and artists through our leasing program.
Was that the next slide? It's also commonly perceived that we should give away our images cost free, because it's good publicity for the artists. We get approached by individuals and organisations regularly to use our artists' images for free, because it's good publicity and they're doing us a favour. You don't go to a lawyer to get a service for free, So about five years ago, when our team came on board, we decided to stop this practice once and for all. And since then all requests to use images are done through a nonexclusive image licensing agreement, and images are provided for a fee, 100% of which goes to the artists. And I'm not talking about newspapers and magazines, this is for people just wanting to use great images.
Next slide. The final perception is that we should discount or donate artwork because it's good for publicity. Yes, it's good to get the artists' work out there. However, you have to draw the line and use your discretion. With similar commercial considerations to a traditional gallery and Arts Project, we're a notforprofit organisation, but we're also straddling that fence of operating like a commercial gallery. So with this in mind, we price our artworks very reasonably. And because of this we don't discount our artwork. It's my experience that this isn't a deterrent, and 95% of the time, or even 98% of the time, the client comes around and eventually purchases the work anyway.
So with that context in mind, the two main projects I want to talk about briefly is our External Curator Program and the collaborative project, "Knowing Me Knowing You".
The main aim of our ongoing External Curator Program is introduce prominent curators to Arts Project Australia, and our artists. As a result, we've worked with a broad range of curators in Melbourne and Sydney, including Professor Colin Rhodes, Lindy Judge, Alex Baker, Mark Feary, Kimberley Hammond, Jeff Newton, and next year we'll be working with Glenn Barkley from the MCA.
We want the experience to be in-depth, meaningful and professional, where we learn best practice initiatives and learn from experienced curators. And the external curators then learn about our organisation in detail, and come to know significantly more about our artists they become interested in.
These partnerships often lead to other opportunities, which we feel would not have eventuated without this intimate knowledge of who our artists and we are. And it's these opportunities, the ones that take on a life of their own, beyond Arts Project, which we think is one of the greatest measures of success in extending our reach and breaking down the barriers.
Some of the curators knew us, but it was the opportunity for them to come and spend considerable time at our organisation. For interstate curators we've worked on, we correspond regularly online. That has created links that will extend well into the future, and likely change the way those curators work with other supported studios, organisations and artists.
The curators have the freedom to make the connections between our artists and the broader contemporary art world, which challenge common perceptions of how our artists' work should be presented, viewed and critiqued. This opens a conversation about how artists who have intellectual disabilities work should be presented.
We've even been accused by a prominent Melbourne artist of looking too much like other commercial galleries and other arts organisations. So it's interesting to hear that, and it made me ask the question so what's wrong with that? We want to continue to challenge ideas about presenting artwork professionally in the broader contemporary art context.
It's interesting and important to challenge these preexisting and perhaps slightly protectionist paradigms of how work should be presented. By inviting experienced curators who do what they do best, and include our artists' work in the mix. It's also important if we want in to the contemporary arts sector, so to speak, if we want to frame it that way, that we actively invite this sector into our world.
Okay. The second project I will touch on is "Knowing Me Knowing You", and we're currently in the thick of this project. Our aim is to make wide and lasting connections between Arts Project Australia's contemporary artists and external contemporary artists. More broadly, we want to break down the gap between artists practising with a disability, contemporary artists and the contemporary arts sector.
We invited curator Lindy Judge, who we'd worked with on two previous collaborative projects, to work on a truly collaborative exploration involving 10 of our studio artists and 10 artists over one year. Some of those artists were wellknown to each other and had worked together previously, and others were new to the project.
We engaged cinematographer Shelly FarthingDawe to document the project from beginning to end, and that will be edited into a short documentary in early 2014, that we'll share with the broader community. So we committed to the project, then sought funding to back it. And thanks to Arts Victoria and the Beason Foundation, it's funded according to standards we've set, based on NAVA recommendations, including that artists are paid and supported accordingly.
The project culminates in a range of finished artworks exhibited at Arts Project Australia in February 2014, as part of our 40th anniversary program. Apart from having artistic outcomes, the project question's a collaborative process itself, by exploring the complex nature of collaboration between external artists, and artists with an intellectual disability.
Initial perceptions held by the external artists in the beginning were around how the collaboration would be managed, what support our artists might need and what support they would receive; what were the project expectations, and how were the communication between artists, curator and organisation be handled.
So perceptions we've challenged included that it's a good experience for the artists at Arts Project. We sometimes still hear this, and it's very onesided, and the fact is that "Knowing Me Knowing You" has been pivotal for all artists involved. It's provided opportunities to introduce new mediums, art forms, environments, and ways of working that many of our artists wouldn't normally have, and vice versa.
Other perceptions challenges challenged included that true collaboration is difficult. And don't get me wrong there were challenges, and it takes a lot of work. However, collaboration creates opportunities for artists to expand their current practice and develop their communication skills in challenging circumstances. All of the artists had to make concessions for each other and adjust their regular working routine to accommodate another person with different ideas, needs and ways of working. And many of the external artists commented that they learnt so much from the experience and that they'd do it again.
Another perception was that communication is hard. It can be, but that's not a reason to do it or not to do it. It takes time, patience and nurturing to make collaboration work like any relationship. Overcoming various communication difficulties between artists was trying at times, but through perseverance and a genuine willingness to connect, most obstacles were overcome.
The final perception challenge was that establishing an equitable working framework is hard, or isn't possible. We think it is possible, and that collaborative projects must start with a framework of equality. In this case, all artworks were completed collaboratively from start to finish, negotiated by the artists. The project was set up with clear systems of conduct that established the ethical ground rules for the project, which we expected all artists to follow at all times.
What had to be acknowledged from the outset was that there was a power imbalance. So we did our best to ensure the external artists were acutely aware of this, and would adjust the way they approach the project accordingly. So decisions were made involving both artists, equitably.
We really think these two projects outlined today has set new benchmarks for the way we'll work with artists, curators and peak organisations into the future. It's an approach based on transparency, openness and professionalism, that always puts our artists first.
If we work this way, we think others will too. And that's how we can shift perceptions and effect change. And I just wanted to finish on the next slide, which is a video, that goes for no time, if it works.
LUCAS: So are we going to jump to Greg's video next? Yes.
Our next two presentations are presenting points of view from artists. And I think one of the really good things that Josie and the team were able to do is think about different modes of presentation.
So Greg Sindel has chosen to present today, rather than in person, by putting forward a video for us to watch. And then, so we'll just watch that and then we'll pass over to Sky.
Yes. Gabrielle, do you want to say a few words about it?
GABRIELLE: Thanks. I don't really have much more to say except Greg's been coming to Studios Arts for about maybe, like, a decade, and it's been Greg's dedication to his art's practice that has been a key inspiration in starting a program like the Studio Artists program that we initiated at Studios Arts about two years ago.
Greg would normally be here in person, but he's on his biannual holiday, which was scheduled much, much earlier in the year and could not be changed. So he has decided to present in a digital format today. So I don't really need to say anymore.
LUCAS: While we're waiting for the video tech to be sorted out, we'll move on to Sky Saxon, and then we'll come back to Greg's video in a minute.
So, Sky, would you like to are you going to sit down and speak or stand up? Up to you. I'll pass over to Sky Saxon, who's an artist from Studio Artists.
(Applause)
SKY: I have been coming to Studios for several years. Over the last two years, I joined the Studio Arts program. This program is especially for artists who have grown out of Studio Arts.
About the Studio Arts program, my life would not be very interesting. In the Studio Arts program I have been able to develop and publish my own thing. And so this work, "Kinokuniya Books" I have developed and worked as a performance artist at Carriage Works, and I'm about to show my own puppet and animation work at Gaffa Gallery.
Before the Studio Arts program, I didn't think the world saw me as an artist. I didn't see myself as an artist. I saw myself as different to everybody else. I saw myself as my character Skyfawkes. Instead of having skin, I saw myself having fur, which is like a second layer of skin. In my imagination, I see myself with fur. That means I can do what foxes do. Making the puppets of Skyfawkes in the Studio Arts program has helped bring my characters to life.
I like working in the Studio Arts program because there are less people I can talk with, a more indoor voice, and I don't have to yell with an outdoor voice.
I also like really making puppets with Ella, the puppeteer master from Erth. If I didn't show my work in exhibits, I would be sadly disappointed. I really like prefer to exhibit my puppets and work at Carriage Works and Kenya than places I have exhibited in the past.
I like showing my work to people that really like books and art.
In August I spent the week working at Carriage Works, experimenting with different ways to make puppets, and made my own set of wings, inspired by my character Midnight. After I made the wings, I strapped them onto me, I walked out of the studio door and started running. Everyone followed me to the big open foyer space.
I first walked fast enough that I felt like I was actually flying, and at the end I was so exhausted, but I felt like I had achieved one of my major goals. Showing my work at Kenya and Carriage Works made me feel really good, really involved. They make me feel like I had levelled up from a drop down. It made me feel like I'd powered up. It made me feel useful.
There is a difference to showing my own artwork at Carriage Works, to showing my artwork at Studio Arts Gallery in Hornsby. The feeling is different at Carriage Works. I feel like I'm walking on the water, like I have a magic force field.
After showing my work at Carriage Works, mum told me that she thinks I'm strange. I also think I'm strange, but I think this is cool. It is cool to be able to play with the strange parts of myself to make artworks from this place and share with an audience.
I want the world to see me as an artist. When I flew at Carriage Works in front of the crowd, I felt happy, I felt glad I didn't crash into a pole. I felt proud of myself.
It can feel scary and hard to be an artist, but it is worth it for the feeling of exhilaration it brings me.
(Applause)
LUCAS: Thanks very much, Sky.
We're going to try one more time with Greg, Greg Sindel's video. We'll see if we have any luck this time.