One day symposia at the Whitechapel Gallery – organised by Visual and Material Culture Research Centre, Contemporary Art Research Centre, Kingston University. Co-organised by Dean Kenning and Gavin Grindon

I entered the conference room at the Whitechapel Gallery, with a palpable sense of urgency, wondering how are we going to proceed with the question of art’s use, in the light of the biggest cuts to the public funding of arts since government funding began in 1940 (Arts Council England’s budget has been cut by 29.6%). The cuts to the arts need to be seen as part of the wider assault on public services by the Con-Dem government, which under the pretence of crisis is embedding even further the process of privatisation of education, social welfare and culture. While the arts await the cull, with a huge sense of uncertainty, what do we have to say in its ‘defence’? Should we defend it, and what is it that we want to defend?

(For a brilliantly written article on the currents cuts and their effects on the education and the arts, see Claire Bishop’s recent article ‘Con-Demmed to the Bleakest of Futures: Report from the UK’ on e-flux.)

Can an organic farmer Save the Arts?

Artist and writer Dean Kenning, co-organiser of the symposia, spoke of the ‘Save the Arts’ campaign as an example of the campaign which justified the benefit of art in terms of economics, while drawing on the culture of prestige and celebrity to send the message. ‘Even if you are a philistine, art is good for the economy’, said the organic farmer in David Shrigley’s animation, commissioned for the campaign by the Paul Hamilyn foundation (and what could be wrong with a piece of paid activism?) It was obvious that a campaign such as Save the Arts pandered to New Labour’s vision of art whose aim, to quote Claire Bishop, ‘was not to foster greater social happiness, the authentic realization of human potential, or the utopian imagination of alternatives, but rather to accelerate the processes of neoliberalism’. Accepting that ‘reasonable cuts were necessary’ and failing to convince anyone, let alone the government of the arts use to society (even when it is economically profitable), the campaign fizzled out by the end of October 2010.

What alternatives did the symposia offer?

The symposium set out ‘to challenge the idea that art should be allowed to take critical positions safe from any real intervention’, asking ‘if art can play a more directly functional role in culture’ and ‘how subversive is the social uselessness of art?’ (from the handout). This seemed to put criticality (passive) in opposition to intervention (active), while suggesting a possible subversive role of the art and I was growing curious to hear more.

In his short opening talk, Kenning asked if we can distinguish arts use from instrumentality and proposed that art shouldn’t be afraid to become actionism. Actionism is different from activism, it uses strategies that we don’t recognise, signs that lead us beyond ourselves and our unconscious, said Kenning. While I found the proposition of actionist art intriguing, I felt it needed qualifying – what kind of art are we talking about? What forms does it take? To what end, to what and whose use? Perhaps the answers were coming in the remainder of the symposia.

As the day was strictly divided between art theory in the morning and art practice in the afternoon (why this division?), I have decided to meddle a bit with the order, and begin with artists.

Jane Trowell and James Marriott from London based artist and activist group PLATFORM whose work focuses primarily on the issues of climate justice, spoke about their exhibition ‘C Words: Carbon, Climate, Capital, Culture’ at the Arnolfini gallery. From the energy inefficient perfect museum climatic conditions set in the policies of global insurance companies, to the murky relationship of BP and the Tate PLATFORM indeed painted a convincing and troubling picture of the complict role that art institutions play in the sphere of global politics, private capital and ecology.

Dimitri Vilensky from the collective Chto Delat? What is to be done? had to present his talk via a video link, due to the rejection of his visa by the ever more paranoid immigration authorities. Vilensky spoke of arts importance as that of having anti-functionality, escaping instrumentalisation by the art institutions. The way to escape this, was to work outside and inside art institutions, proposed Vilensky. He explained their project Activist Club, in terms of a practice of emancipation, connected to education (but not to systematic education he pointed out), where the shift from worker to activist was important, as a way of creating ‘mental prototype for political action’. For more on Chto Delat?’s practice please see their ‘Declaration on Politics, Knowledge and Art’.

PLATFORM expressed some reticence about working within arts institutions, while Chto Delat? seemed to advocate a form of reverse instrumentalisation, in which it is not the arts institutions that are instrumentalising us, it is us that should instrumentalise the spaces of those institutions.

While on the subject of art institutions and instrumentalisation, the example that Marina Vishmidt brought in, made everyone shudder in disbelief. Symptomatic of neoliberalisation of art institutions, she referenced the forthcoming exhibition at the Whitechapel Gallery of the Government Art Collection, selected by non other than the Prime Minister’s wife Samantha Cameron; Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg; Lord Mandelson and other members of the political elite. Thinking it was an act of ill-placed irony the audience laughed and shuffled uncomfortably in the seats (sitting lest we forget in the Whitechapel gallery). Perhaps, by the end of this cull there will be no curators or artists left but the government itself? Ultimate art de tête!

Vishmidt continued by explaining the current cuts to public funding and tripling of student fees as attempts at real subsumption of cultural and educational sectors, proof that social production organises around debt and devaluation of labour power.  In this process, art labour can be used as a legitimating process of the new normal claimed Vishmidt saying that ‘it is the workers remuneration that should be brought to art, and not vice versa’. It is here that she referenced the work of New York collective of artists called W.A.G.E. (Working Artist and the Greater Economy) who are campaigning for artists to be paid for their work.

While the work of W.A.G.E. is indeed important in addressing unjust practices of remuneration of artist labour, I still find their lack of critique of neoliberal ideology which facilitates and promotes exploitation somewhat troublesome.

All this raises further questions – would artist union be a useful model of representation and lobbying for artist’ rights of pay and conditions of labour? Would a campaign similar to W.A.G.E. be useful in the U.K. at a time of cuts to the arts? With the Arts Council England being effectively ‘gagged’ by ‘anti-competition laws’ and therefore not allowed to advise artist on their fees, is there not a time to start re-defining what use art institutions are to art?

Writer and lecturer Stephen Wright, from the European School of Visual Arts, proposed ‘usership’ as an opposition to spectatorship, as a potential new frame for transformative art to emerge. While museums have incorporated normative framing devices, namely performative and participatiory frames, allowing activities to appear as art, these frames are also, said Wright, limiting transformative potential of the arts – once we are aware of the frame then it just becomes art, it is powerful and debilitating at the same time. Writer and lecturer John Roberts from the University of Wolverhampton, spoke of the neo-avant-garde, which he claimed, without distance or negation can become used as either a form of ‘social decoration’ or a form of ‘social work’.

Artist and curator Artur Zmijewski ‘did not have good news for us’, he said, as ‘examples of useful artistic practice are not easy to find’. He referred to an educational project by Cuban artist Tanya Bruguera, who founded the first school of performing art in Latin America, called Arte de Conducta (behavior art), as one such example of art that is really useful. Zmijewski painted a rather pessimistic picture of an artist as someone who does not want to be responsible for the possible results of their art. Art, he said, usually produces difficult objects, languages difficult to understand, and foggy situations which are often undefined. In his view the art field attracts people who need undefined situations, undefined languages, who don’t want to be confronted by clear proposals, which prevents them from inventing a social movement and taking responsibility for the results.

Is art only seen as useful when it is educational? Could this be seen as potentially patronising or potentially emancipatory? Should we be more explicit in what we set out to achieve with our art? Do we know what we want to achieve, or do we prefer the foggy lands that Zmijewski talked about?

Instead of a conclusion – a call to new ethics?

During the morning plenary, a member of audience called on us to acknowledge the weakness of ‘relational aesthetics’, which when co-opted ends up being a space in which artists pretend to have relations with others.  Is ‘relational aesthetics’ just a sexy term for capitalising on social relationships, or is it making something else possible that would otherwise be absolved into life? Could Wright’s use of ‘usership’ really provide the kind of porous and fluid frame that allows the art and artists to take positions of insider and outsider at the same time? How to strike the balance of what I would call ‘autonomous inter-dependence’?

As I write this last section, I am sitting next to a twenty-something couple, in a trendy bit of east-end of London where, I hasten to add, I do live and work. Snippets of their conversation start to invade my space – we could write that we are working on the social history of the area… how many gates are around the Olympic village… we could pitch it to this gallery and roll it out even to Radio 4. I was sitting in the hub of the business of creative industry, which has become very articulate at selling poverty and the marginalised to the funders. It was in this context that Adorno’s ‘radically useless art’, mentioned throughout the day, began to make sense as a form of resistance to the process in which our relationships and empathy become the capital.

What will be the role of art in the months and years to come nobody knows. Can it indeed afford to take critical positions safe from any real intervention? With the student occupations and protests, there is a renewed sense of re-working spaces of resistance, and forming processes of participatory democracy. When we speak about co-option, and instrumentalisation, we tend to give art a sense of passivity, and there is something in the energy of the campaign ‘Arts Against Cuts’ which refuses that role that I find truly refreshing. Having taken part in the Turner Prize protest, the National Gallery teach-in, and Direct Weekend, I was inspired to find non-hierarchical structure of decision making, the willingness to have a go and muck in, make mistakes as well as headlines. It is these new forms of self-organisation that give me hope in what indeed could be a bleak future.

While I write this under the auspices of MAL, and a pseudonym name, the words and their implications are mine and I take full responsibility for them.  Malgorzata

One long grey day at the office, having been shafted by a Public Art Agency; I swung about in my chair feeling powerless and fed up, thinking what to do next… when an email popped up inviting me to a meeting of artists through a group called ‘Making A Living’ which sounded timely and appropriate! So I went along, ‘named and shamed’ and discussed issues surrounding art, labour and remuneration.

one year passes

The discussions have continued… Making A Living is contributing to the Longhouse website; for and through which I will briefly discuss the evolution of another artist resource: a long-term artist led project I have been working on as part of a team, which is now possibly moving into the hands of art institution(s) employees.

Back-story

Following graduation from a Fine Art BA over a decade ago, I worked with art in public space and behind the scenes for a variety of establishments – earning a wage and learning how the ‘art world’ operates. Having gravitated to artist-led initiatives and working outside of formal institutions; the opportunity to work as an adviser outside of the education system was one that attracted me and held my interest long term.

This motivation was enhanced by the experience I had as a recent graduate, of little support or guidance from University regarding what to do next, let alone professional advice or opportunity within or outside of my Fine Art course.

The aim of this project was to support artists and artist groups in rural spaces with limited networks and work structures, through feedback sessions, links to resources and most importantly a space to develop ideas and communicate with another artist, likely to understand many of the dilemmas and issues they were going through. This included a range of subjects such as legalities in relation to ‘spontaneous’ pieces in public space, preparing for a show, applying for working tax credit, trying to get a gallery to pay up as well as project management.

Artist Resource Project

For a number of years a small team of artist advisers (all practicing artists) worked regularly in partnership with galleries to deliver artists resource services.

Recently the emphasis on practical skills seems less relevant or necessary, for such things as CV and statement writing are often now covered by University courses, as are writing a proposal, building a website, budgeting and risk assessments. In fact, from my experience of working with artists on this scheme over the last five years, there seems to have been a shift from graduating with very little business sense, a wide range of making abilities and passion for developing artwork towards artists graduating with a wealth of professional practice skills but a lack of creative drive and critical, independent thinking.

There seems to be an attuned understanding of working collaboratively and Masters courses are more heavily subscribed and often less substantial. As well as this, there is now the fee (University was free before 1997) to contend with. So whereas I faced income lower than expenditure within my art practice and poorly recognised job credentials, as well as a saturated and over subscribed market; the reality now is – on top of this – substantial debt, internships in place of starter jobs and a phenomenal amount of competition.

The recipe I used and later advocated of simply getting on with it can no longer be broadly applied. This method had included making art in public space, traveling on a shoestring, wangling jobs in creative enterprises, working within artist groups to put on independent exhibitions, getting funding and lots of odd jobs…

Those jobs I did to get by are now courted as unpaid internships and obtaining funding or sponsorship is increasingly an art in itself.

What next?

Along with cuts to most public services, funding for the advisory work I have been doing has been reduced. What was set up to be an ‘artists for artists’ scheme is now likely be utilised to help supplement galleries’ diminishing budgets in exchange for their delivery of artists’ professional development.

This might tap into valuable resources and appeal to the careerist graduate, who hopes that this presentation opportunity could lead to a show… provide a ‘way in’ or open a secret door of some sort.

The loss of the artist-to-artist exchange and incorporation of this support into the galleries will likely make it more top-down and lose the honesty in how sessions have been used. For example, questions of giving up from artists at difficult cross roads, along with career ideas and real soul searching in terms of how to go forward would not take place in an interview or presentation… which is what I can see the sessions becoming in the future (desperate attempts by artists to sell themselves). Also at risk could be the questioning and critical thinking about the art world and gallery system, for this is less likely to take place if the artist is speaking with staff of a gallery or art organisation.

Currently the main themes necessary to address through services for independent artists and graduates seem to be how to maintain creative autonomy whilst working collectively and in partnership. Absorbing the changing climate into practice and finding spaces to work within has also been a subject fundamental to maintaining a practice; though perhaps now and in the future it will be more of a visible theme than over the last decade.

A new partner in the Artists Resource scheme is an Arts Officer for the Council. There is a commitment here from Government to the Arts to facilitate regeneration of the geographical area. Though the interest is valued this is also something of a concern due to many development schemes instrumentalising artists to add value to an area – and pacify local residents – as part of gentrification processes. What options are there within this I wonder? Can artistic autonomy be maintained if working in this environment? Could such involvement in top down schemes create opportunities for lobbying, or will there be more a case of dis-empowerment and hijacking? At present it looks like the scheme is being absorbed into top down agendas with little acknowledgment of the work put in by independents.

Partnership working is often a survival strategy – from protesters on the ground – arguing for their civil rights, to galleries competing for funding and public sector workers seeking limited resources to keep their own jobs AND attempt to deliver services. This support for artists sinking into the bureaucracy of galleries and being taken ownership of by Governmental organisations risks undermining those whom they purport to serve.

Some questions I am dwelling on include:

Can artists’ professional development, be taken forward by artists?

Should this term ‘professional development’ be used for art practice?

What will, or should, an Artists Resource consist of in 2015?

Posted by: Jess Malvina Black (MAL)

Last night I dreamed that David Cameron and his friends were old and young at the same time and smashing up the public sector with axes. They were vandalising schools, hospitals and libraries (everything!) from a head office/hub, which had a sci-fi feel to it.

This was parallel to activities of the Bullingdon Club, of which Cameron was a member when at Oxford University. The members would drink excessively, wearing their bespoke club member suits; spend loads on booze and smash up the premises. At the end of the rampage they would hand over wads of cash for repairs.

In adulthood these chums were smashing through the public sector and selling it all off for next to nothing to their friends (companies) and people they wanted to become involved with, whom would be of personal use to them.

Upon awakening I lay in bed for a while remembering this malarky and was surprised at how much of it was a reality. Even a comic written about this time – the bankers etc. would struggle to capture what society allowed these club members to get away with.

Posted by: Jess Malvina Black (MAL)

Artists supposedly harbour an inherent selfish gene. It glows and pulsates in the gut, excreting a jelly-like substance that protects a deep desire to do one’s own thing. How does the practice of being with ones own thoughts, evolving ideas and making ‘work’ that may or may not be of interest to others, relate to a sense of solidarity, collectivity and the ‘commons’? There is already a problem here of creating a false dichotomy between collective and individual modes of thought and action. I frequently mingle in the corridors of a collective mind whilst my own individual brain wobbles on my shoulders.

The notion of individual self-interest is not the preserve of the artist but when the word artist is muttered, thought bubbles often fill with terms such as ‘genius’, ‘flaneur’ and ‘outsider’. These bubbles are not so easily burst. Indeed, it is often in an artist’s best interest to maintain these associations to build on their symbolic value and hence ‘employability’. Many of us engage with our minds in solitary moments more than other people perhaps have the time for. It is these critical engagements with the self and society that are difficult to justify as ‘work’, let alone work that should be publicly subsidised. So there are those of us who campaign for that right – that critical contemplation, the input we can have and/or the outcomes of these processes should be considered valid professions, on a par with other professions servicing a general, common good, like teaching, nursing and policing.

As artists, some of us are interested in pursuing that contradictory desire to disrupt expectations of the function of art whilst fighting for the right to be paid to do that dismantling. To what extent are we prepared to fight for the human right of practicing that which is not asked for, that which is not ‘productive’ or that which is not motivated by financial gain? It is this right to ‘non-productive’ critical thought and action that is being eroded across institutions of education as well as arts funding in the move towards a safer, economically justifiable model of supply and demand. The ideological shifts that are happening at the moment in the UK are having an impact on the already weak arguments for justifying critical art practice as a common good. Such practices consistently fall to the bottom of the pile (if that’s not its home already) when potholes need mending and students need kettling.

There is an inherent contradiction in protecting ‘me-time’ as essential to the professionalisation of an artistic career whilst calling for a broader, collective model of what I’ll call ‘cultural democracy’ – the idea that everyone, not just artists, have the right and responsibility to that ‘me-time’ that might lead to a critical engagement with the world. Cultural democracy disrupts the fact that from an early age our futures are shaped by paths signposted ‘art’, ‘science’, ‘success’ or ‘failure’ that open up and close down before us. The drive for inclusive (albeit conflictual), democratic self-expression is threatened, however, by the protectionist approach of artists who fight for a state of exclusion and ring fence funding for the continuation of their profession. Likewise, the call for everyone to reclaim their right to their own ‘critical art space’ threatens an art industry of trained experts who define themselves through their uniqueness from others.

This is an especially urgent question now, when we are told there is less money to go round. Artists are pitting against the police, primary school teachers and doctors for increasingly small pots of money. Calls for protectionism from big art organisations and celebrity artists are precariously propping up a teetering ‘industry’ on the verge of collapse. Furthermore, it keeps the ideology of the artist-profession loosely intact whilst still failing to address fair pay.

So what to do with this schizophrenic mind? The right for us all to be selfish artists is perhaps one of collective, common concern. How can we develop an argument for recognising ‘autonomous’ cultural work as work (clarifying when it is work and what is being paid for) whilst encouraging others to think like artists through cultural democracy by demanding and reclaiming unrestricted, unprogrammed, non-profit, self-directed moments which can’t be reclaimed by bigger agendas unless we want them to be?

Posted by: Alice Mallings (MAL)

Carry out this simple MAL survey of 31 questions:

Islington Mill Art Academy
A free self-organised art school based in Manchester, UK set up in 2007 by a group of art foundation students, dissatisfied with the quality and standards in University fine art courses open to them at that time.

Free School
An occasional post-education group of artists and academics based in London. They have produced an anti-cuts fact sheet. CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD

The Independent Art School (IAS)
IAS has been setting up meetings for artists since 1999. It functions as an alternative University with no home.

See also Carrot Workers Collective

Internocracy
A youth-led social enterprise passionate about changing the culture of internships for the better in the UK. We work with organisations to support and accredit internship programmes, and with young people to break down the barriers they face in getting an internship.

Position Unpaid
An investigation of internships in the arts by two artists: Natasha Vicars and Emma Leach.

Rights for Interns
The TUC has produced a website with advice and guidance for interns.

Don’t forget to add you suggestions via the comments!

Dark Matter. Art and Politics in the Age of Enterprise Culture by Gregory Sholette (2010)

Education Actualized
E-flux’s Journal (#14) on education edited by Irit Rogoff

Con-Demmed to the Bleakest of Futures: Report from the UK by Claire Bishop
E-flux’s Journal (#22) guest edited by Paul Chan and Sven Lütticken.

The Good of Work by Liam Gillick
E-flux’s Journal (#16) on value in the arts.

ART WORK by Temporary Services
Download the PDF produced by the Half Letter Press.

Culture Cuts Blog
The Guardian’s new Culture Cuts blog

Art Workers – cultural labour markets: a literature review by Kate Oakley for the national organization Creativity, Culture and Education
‘…the major debates …include the degree to which cultural work serves as a template for other forms of work; the pains and pleasures of cultural work; the geography of work and the importance of the network and of social contacts, and the growing importance of ‘free work’ of all sorts.’

A new strategy is needed for a brutal new era – Peter Hallward
Times Education Supplement 13.12.10

WAGELESS LIFE by Michael Denning
New Left Review 66

Making a living as an artist by Debra Savage and a-n The Artists Information Company
Download a-n’s research papers, include Debra Savage’s 2006 paper, ‘Making a living as an artist’.

Artists and bankers: how their pay compares
An article from AIR

Variant
The free arts and culture magazine.In-depth coverage in the context of broader social, political & cultural issues.

Code of Practice for Graduate Internships in the Creative Industries
Skillset, who describe themselves as ‘the industry body which supports skills and training for people and businesses to ensure the UK creative industries maintain their world class position’, have published a code of practice for Graduate Internships in the Creative Industries. The code recommends that: As the individual will be performing as a ‘worker,’ they should be paid at least the National Minimum Wage throughout the duration of their placement.

Should I work for Free?
Flow Chart breaking down the all-important decision.

The Visual Arts Blueprint
A workforce development plan for the visual arts sector in the UK, was launched in November 2009. It lays out a series of recommendations and proposed actions to tackle the skills needs of the visual arts sector.

Why Interns Need a Fair Wage, IPPR report
This briefing paper, by ippr and Internocracy, examines the role and nature of unpaid internships in the UK. We argue that the informal system of unpaid internships operating in many of our most exciting and influential industries actively excludes young people who come from less well-off families. We propose a gradual phasing out of unpaid internships and discuss some options for ensuring that more young people have access to paid internship opportunities.

Emerging Workers Report by The Arts Group
The Arts Group is calling for legislation governing the practice of work experience, internships and placements. In its “Emerging Workers” document the Arts Group puts forward the case that Government action is needed in order to protect students and graduates in the arts and creative industries.

Littoral
LITTORAL is a non-profit arts trust which promotes new creative partnerships, critical art practices and cultural strategies in response to issues about social, environmental and economic change.

Art Work. A National Conversation about Art, Labour, and Economics (Temporary Services)
Art Work is a newspaper and accompanying website that consists of writings and images from artists, activists, writers, critics, and others on the topic of working within depressed economies and how that impacts artistic process, compensation and artistic property.

The Paid not Played Choir
The Choir’s performance of ‘It’s a Sad Reality’

CULTURE, NOT PROFIT: READINGS FOR ARTWORKERS
The Free/Slow University of Warsaw’s online journal on ‘culture not for profit’ and free education.

DOXA
An international collective of artists, theorists, designers, architects and engineers.

Carrot Workers Collective
The Carrot Workers’ Collective is a London-based group of students, pre, current and ex-interns, cultural workers, teachers and researchers who regularly meet to think and organise around  free labour.  The Carrot Workers use popular research methods to understand how free labour influences the material conditions, subjectivities,aspirations and desires of those who work for free and how these relate to shifting social, educational and economic policies.

Precarious Workers Brigade
A group of precarious workers in culture & education calling out in solidarity with all those struggling to make a living in a climate of instability and enforced austerity.

Working Artists and the Greater Economy (WAGE)
Based in the States, WAGE is; ‘An activist group of artists, art workers, performers and independent curators fighting to get paid for making the world more interesting.’

New Deal of the Mind
New Deal of the Mind is a coalition of artists, entrepreneurs and opinion formers who recognise the economic, social and cultural value of Britain’s creative talent.

The Amateurist Network
The AMATEURIST NETWORK is somewhere between a support system and a learning network. Through a series of collective discussions it aims to strengthen the impulse to self-organise across disciplines.