Editorial
How do artists sustain and develop artist-led initiatives?
By Sally Reay
As a designer maker and artist I have actively been involved in a range of artist-led initiatives in the South West over the last few years. I am particularly interested in using my time as Alias Guest Editor to share some of my experiences and to hear how other artists in the region have dealt with the pressures and challenges and the successes and highlights of working on artist-led initiatives and in sustaining and developing them in the medium to long term.
Fellow Alias Guest Editor,Dominic Thomas, in his article ‘The Rise of the Artist-Led Group - an Administrative Practice?’ has already established the breadth of artist-led initiatives in the UK and has outlined some of the reasons why artists are motivated to initiate and run these activities. He also raises some interesting questions about the future of the artist-led scene in the UK. Please read his article for more information.
However, I want to take a much more practical approach by encouraging artists in similar positions to share their experiences in a bid to find some solutions and commonality between us. To this end I am going to present case studies of three very different types of artist-led initiatives that I’ve been involved in as a way of stimulating discussion.
These case studies will be published on the Alias website over the coming weeks and I will be encouraging comments and response from artists working on similar projects in the South West. In the meantime if you would like to share your experiences, thoughts and comments please email them tosally@aliasarts.org and I will publish them on this website.
Bristol Creatives - Artists’ Networkwww.bristolcreatives.co.uk
Mivart Artists - Open Studioswww.mivartartists.co.uk
South West Open Studios - Development & Supportwww.southwestopenstudios.org