The Artists' International Development Fund is a new initiative created by The Arts Council England and The BFI. They state that "The programme offers early stage development opportunities for individual, freelance and self-employed artists based in England to spend time building links with artists, organisations and/or creative producers in another country." (Arts Council England. (2014). Artists' International Development Fund.Available: http://www.artscouncil.org.uk/funding/apply-funding/apply-for-funding/artists-international-development-fund/. Last accessed 24th April 2014.) I feel that this would be incredibly valuable to me as i would like to travel to different countries in order to create my artwork and would benefit greatly from contact with international organisations and artists as I go. This kind of funding is given out in 'rounds', the current one having a deadline of may 2014. I will not be ready to apply for this but there will be plenty more opportunities at various point in the future. The Arts Council website state their aim for this initiative being to "produce an increase in the amount of international collaboration among artists between the UK and other countries across the arts and creative industries." (Arts Council England. (2014). Artists' International Development Fund.Available: http://www.artscouncil.org.uk/funding/apply-funding/apply-for-funding/artists-international-development-fund/. Last accessed 24th April 2014.) I am particularly interested in this as I feel it would be unique way of developing myself as an artist and creating an internationally concious art installation.
The Winston Churchill Memorial Trust
A similar initiative to the AIDF comes from an organisation known as The Winston Churchill Memorial Fund. This is a group which funds British citizens so that they can travel to other countries in order to widen an individual's experiences. "The Trust’s objective for the Travelling Fellowships is to provide opportunities for British citizens to go abroad on a worthwhile enterprise of their own choosing, with the aim of enriching their lives by their wider experience – through the knowledge, understanding, and/or skills they gain - and, on their return, enhancing the life of their community by their example and the dissemination of the benefit of their travels." (Winston Churchill Memorial Trust. (2014). What is the objective for Churchill Travelling Fellowships?. Available: http://www.wcmt.org.uk/about/who-are-we-funding-of-travelling-fellowships-and-bursaries.html. Last accessed 24th April 2014.) Although I aim to work within the arts, this kind of funding could easily be attributed to my kind of work and intentions. It is definitely something I am going to look into once I finish my degree as I want to recieve funding in order to travel.
SITE
SITE Gallery is an exhibition and installation space based in Sheffield. It has been active for many years and aims to "show work by nationally and internationally based artists, often commissioning new work or offering audiences a UK premiere. The programme maintains a balance between photography, installation, electronic media and film & video work." (SITE. (2013). Artists' Information. Available: http://www.sitegallery.org/information/artists-information. Last accessed 24th April 2014.) As I have been based in Sheffield for the past three years and love the city, I am drawn towards trying to exhibit my work here, for this reason i would really consider SITE as a possible future location for my work and was fortunate enough to have conduct an interview recently with their curator, Sara Cluggish. In this interview I asked her several questions regarding SITE's aims and objectives when it comes to commissioning and presenting film art, she had a great of helpful information for me. In particular I began by asking her about her role at SITE as the curator and how she works with the artist to realise the exhibition, she stated that "We always try to create a situation where the artist is learning something from the experience, so it could be something completely new or we're showing an existing piece of work in a new context. We want people to read that work in a new light." [1] As a new artist looking to break into the industry it would be invaluable to me to learn from the experience, much of what Sara had to say relates to how an exhibition is put together, she goes on to discuss "The kinds of things I might give feedback on is the environment which we want to display the work, for example if the artist is displaying a moving image piece of work or a projected light piece like we have on at the moment, then I would work with them to make decisions like okay we need to paint the space black or we might potentially need to build a light lock." [2] Due to the nature of installation and exhibition work, it is vitally important that the space itself not only suits the artwork but also allows for the audience to engage with it, in this sense a piece of work shown in one gallery may look entirely different in another, this is due to the way the artist collaborates with each gallery and is something I would be really interesting in accomplishing if I were to try and have my work shown around the United Kingdom. Sara confirms this later on in my interview with her by saying "every exhibition is different, you always want to start from square on in terms of your space, when thinking about the space. Thinking about the needs of the artwork at the end of the day. We always strive for the best possible outcome for that work." [3] possibly the most important piece of information i gathered from SITE was what Sara had to say regarding residencies, her words were "When we invite an artist to come and do a platform residency with us, we convert our main gallery into a working studio as we have a smaller adjacent gallery as well which they are free to use, this is generally over a condensed period of time, could be anywhere from three to four weeks with the artist working in that space, on view and open to the public so that they can view the process five days a week. This allows our audiences to come in and chat with our artists, to put forth questions about that working process, of the nature of artist production, what it is, the potential for it. We really want to create the atmosphere of discussion and open up a dialogue"[4] . This concept interests me greatly,. to not only show the work but be putting something together in front of an audience would be a great learning experience, if it is at all possible for me to do this kind of event then I would definitely jump at the opportunity.
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