Schedule & Themes



Schedule of the Day

9:00 - 9:30          Registration & Coffee/Tea        Back Lane West

9:30 - 9:45            Welcome and Intro         Murdoch House

9:45 - 10:45         Panel Presentation         Murdoch House

10:45 - 11:00       Coffee Break     Back Lane West

11:00 - 12:00       Panel Discussion chaired by Sovay Berriman        Murdoch House

12:00 - 12:45       Lunch    Back Lane West

12:45 - 14:00       Breakout Session 1          Murdoch House/CMR/BLW

14:15 - 15:30       Breakout Session 2          Murdoch House/CMR/BLW

15:30 - 15:45       Coffee break     Back Lane West

15:45 - 17:15       Panel Feedback & Further Discussion     Murdoch House

17:15 - 17:30       Thank you and close    Murdoch House

17:30 - 18:00       Performance by Petra Dish   Back Lane West



Themes

Below are the provocations from each of the four speakers for the symposium, some have given some links and readings, for you to start consider issues around each provocation before the event.
From Owen Griffiths

In a time of increased isolation, in a moment at the early part of the 21stcentury where the future already feels over…Lets stop thinking about place in cycles of regeneration. Lets stop talking about economic regeneration entirely.

What if we used biodiversity as tool for re thinking place, community, connections, economies and identity. Lets think of scale, context and location as a tool for survival and find new international common ground.



From Sophie Hope

Umm. Mmmm. Ahhhh... Huh? Exploring the sounds, speech, utterances and un-articulated moments in project meetings.'

Let's open our mouths and look inside. How are words, sounds, utterances formed through this fleshy wet orifice? Which pre- articulated thoughts get caught at the back of your throat? What preparation does your tongue do while you listen and prepare your response? Where in your body did that laugh originate? Is the mouth a space where listening and speaking meet and mingle? How do secretions, dialects, silences, jargon all swill around and influence our sonorous encounters in a project meeting with other artists, funders, collaborators, participants, community groups, activists, curators? Which words and phrases do we end up repeating, so much so they loose meaning? Our mouths breath in and out complex political landcsapes. Let's reflect together on how this busy orifice influences the way we communicate, interpret and interact.

Further Reading:

Creative Commons Cardiff: https://www.artsprofessional.co.uk/news/cardiff-campaign-protect-grassroots-culture?utm_source=Weekly-News&utm_medium=email&utm_content=nid-211410&utm_campaign=17th-May-2019&fbclid=IwAR06e7wgDXWxnWWyVmKOhFi1VRYDQ6vALqnF8ZlpIUOzf-5R5Xq0xVuTk10

UK Movement for Cultural Democracy: http://culturaldemocracy.uk/

US Dept of Arts and Culture: https://usdac.us/

Social Art Summit booklet: https://static.a-n.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2019/04/Research-Paper-Social-Art-Summit.pdf
From Rose Hatcher

Community as commodity. As cultural workers we are expected to produce vast data streams to justify and monetise our ‘impact’ on the ‘community’. Does this practice prove our worth and encourage worthwhile activities, or does it dehumanise and take us away from our true communities?

From the perspective of having worked in the grassroots and diy space of the Fish Factory with many hardships but creative freedom, I would like to talk about new expectations entering my world which are both creating fantastic opportunities and increasing pressure to conform to the cultural mainstream and accepted notions of progress.

Further Reading:

Kamiel Verschuren: B.a.d Foundation - creating innovative, useful, sustainable spaces in the Netherlands- http://www.foundationbad.nl/about-b-a-d/

East Street Arts - diversifying to become sustainable - https://eaststreetarts.org.uk/
Fish Factory in Iceland - from similar beginnings they have made quite a different project. In isolated East Iceland they are working to grow and enrich their tiny local community by engaging international artists in their residency programme - https://inhere.is/
Ort Gallery - a space with a social agenda at it's core - http://ortgallery.co.uk/about/


From Anthony Schrag

I begin the question with two quotes: “A democratic society is one in which relations of conflict are sustained, not erased.” (Laclau and Mouffe, 2004) and “Conflict, division, and instability, then, do not ruin the democratic public sphere; they are conditions of its existence,”(R. Deutsche, 1996). This suggest that the public is therefore always striated: it is defined by - and sustained through - conflict: In a world that is becoming increasingly binarised between left and right, how are local authorities, artists and arts organisations working towards including those who hold different perspectives, politics and beliefs? In regards to Arts, Community and Change, how are we ensuring we’re not only trying to make everyone just like us, and that our politics are the right ones?  


Readings/Media

- Mouffe, C. (2007b) ‘Agonistic Politics and Artistic Practices’ Glasgow School of Art website (https://vimeo.com/60549192)

- Schrag, A. (2015) 'Benefits of Being A Bit of An Asshole’ Journal of Arts and Communities, Intellect, 6: 2&3 [download] 

- Rancière, J. (2006) ‘The Ethical Turn of Aesthetics and Politics’ Critical Horizons 7:1 in Malaise dans l’Esthetique. Paris: Galilee. 2004. pp. 143 – 173. [download]

- Bishop, C. (2004) ‘Antagonism and Relational Aesthetics’. October, Volume 110. Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press, pp. 51 – 79.

- Belfiore, E. (2002) ‘Art as a means of alleviating social exclusion: Does it really work? A critique of instrumental cultural policies and social impact studies in the UK’ International Journal of Cultural Policy, 8:1, pp. 91 – 106. [download]



Examples:

- Christopher Schlingensief - Please Love Austria - http://www.schlingensief.com/projekt_eng.php?id=t033

- Santiago Sierra -A group of homeless women paid of face the wall - https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artists/santiago-sierra-6878/santiago-sierra-performance-and-controversy

- Artur Zmejewski - Them - www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ob3t9l-PzXU or some extra information here: https://culture.pl/en/artist/artur-zmijewski

Cultivator

Cultivator is a 3-year business and professional development support programme for the creative sectors in Cornwall and Isles of Scilly. In the past 3 years, Cultivator has worked with over 600 creative individuals and businesses from visual artists to musicians, from museums to design agencies. The programme is funded by European Structural and Investment Funds, Arts Council England and Cornwall Council.

www.cultivatorcornwall.org.uk