For a brief overview of the Project take a look at this short film (filmed as part of the final conference event – Anna gave a short summary of the project – in the interrogation headquarters hence the poor lighting)

The Approach:

The programme, organised by Longhouse, working with lead artist Anna Francis and photographer Glen Stoker, is designed to investigate the impact of short, sharp interventions within the public realm.

The concern this year was to investigate how artists are bridging gaps – gaps in infrastructure, regeneration and consultation processes, and bridging gaps between people and cultural activity. This was done through four interrogation days using four different methodologies:

INTERЯOGATION: ACTION RESEARCH (08 September 2010)

INTERЯOGATION: PARTICIPATION (15 September 2010)

INTERЯOGATION: SITE SPECIFIC (22 September 2010)

INTERЯOGATION: INTERVENTION (29 September 2010)

The artists that were selected to take part in the different ‘missions’ became Agents for the day, and therefore had to be dressed appropriately…in beret, t-shirt and the compulsory moustache.

Each week we invited a guest artist to come along and aid the Agents in their investigations with their specialist knowledge and previous experience.

The Interrogation headquarters were set up as part of the Sandwell Arts in Queens Square initiative, where we were kindly given an empty shop unit within the Shopping Centre by Sandwell Council for the month of September.This meant that we were located centrally and the Agents could carry out their missions on the High Street and see for themselves how the town centre is due to change in the near future.

Our target zone was the top of the High Street, looking out towards an area of redevelopment labelled as the Eastern Gateway. The plans for this area were shared with the agents and Anna gave a short presentation about the town: its history and its future, to ensure they were armed with some background information before they designed their interventions and took to the streets.

After a morning of learning and looking the agents then took a couple of hours to plan their interventions (based on the theme of their particular week) and then spent the afternoon carrying out their missions on the High Street.

The shop unit started off fairly empty with the intention of it being gradually filled over the month: with each week the Interrogation Agents filled the walls with their findings and a record of their interventions whilst reflecting on their experiences.

On Friday 1 October 2010 we held a conference event where Anna and each of the guest artists presented their findings in relation to the topic of ‘Artists Bridging Gaps’.

Each of the Interrogation missions was recorded in real time via the Longouse blog, starting with a recce by Anna in the town before the project began.

Over the next four weeks we will be featuring the results from each of the Interrogation days on this site and presenting some of the discussions and conclusions that emerged during the project, including those of our undercover agents from Rednile Projects.

Now Showing:

Interrogation: Action Research

Interrogation: Participation

There are 5 bursaries available for 2010/11. Each bursary will run from October 2010 – March 2011.

Artists are required to use the bursary to pro-actively discover new contexts for their work via the exploration of different approaches to socially engaged practice in the public realm.

In the spirit and rich tradition of past Action Research programmes all participating artists will be encouraged to test their current creative practice through intensive investigation, reflection and understanding of what is meant by, and the reality of, the ‘public realm’, especially in the current climate of ‘Big Society’, new forms of regeneration being needed and the slowing of capital investment.

We are inviting applications from artists for action research proposals under the umbrella theme of ‘connections’ – how artists and cultural activity can make connections between people, people and place (physical and metaphorical), and between people and knowledge all relating to the current climate and context of regeneration and the public realm.

We are doing things slightly differently this year and we have appointed a lead artist/mentor , Scott Farlow (www.scottfarlow.co.uk), to support the five bursary artists through one to one meetings and three group workshops which will enable the artists to apply their learning to a ‘real’ place and brief.

If you are interested in applying for this opportunity download the full brief and information here.

Closing date for applications is Friday 17 September 2010.

Check back in October to find out who this year’s Action Research Artists are or follow the link for more information on previous Action Research Bursaries

INTERЯOGATION: WEST BROMWICH explores the impact that one artist can make in one place, in one day.

The programme aims to look at what impact an artist can make by working quickly and responsively to a specific site in just one day, and provides opportunities for artists to work together within public realm spaces.

Building on the success of last year’s Interrogation: Walsall, (www.interrogation-walsall.blogspot.com) where the emphasis was on exploring how an art gallery can connect with public realm space, the concern this year will be to investigate how artists are ‘bridging the gap’ between people and cultural activity as well as gaps in infrastructure, regeneration and consultation processes. This will be done through four interrogation days using four different methodologies:

INTERЯOGATION: ACTION RESEARCH (taking place on 08/09/2010)

INTERЯOGATION: PARTICIPATION (taking place on 15/09/2010)

INTERЯOGATION: SITE SPECIFIC (taking place on 22/09/2010)

INTERЯOGATION: INTERVENTION (taking place on 29/09/2010)

Each interrogation day will have a specialist mentor who will have expertise and knowledge in that particular day’s methodology to help guide artists through their mission.

Each ‘interrogation’ will last a full day and will see artists learning about different approaches to each of the methods and then planning their own approach, supported by the guest artist and Anna, and going in to the town centre to put theory into practice, interacting with the public of West Bromwich.

Each ‘interrogation’ will produce a set of evidence and information which will be displayed in Interrogation HQ, (otherwise known as Unit 26, Community Artspace (next to Boots, Queens Square Shopping Centre, West Bromwich), to build up a picture of West Bromwich and the role the artist can play in ‘bridging the gap’.

There will also be a conference event to disseminate the findings of the programme and to share our approach with other artists and regeneration professionals alike on Friday 1 October 2010 at the Community Artspace from 1pm. If you would like to come along email chloebrown@multistory.org.uk

For information on how are plans for Interrogation:West bromwich are progressing visit Anna’s blog.

Or to see our live blog during each of the missions go to the Longhouse blog.

With a stall in the indoor market from April to October 2010 as our research centre, we are asking such questions about regeneration in the town centre of West Bromwich.

Following a launch and seminar in 2009, a range of artists and researchers are now contributing to the investigation, amongst them Cody Lee Barbour, David Berridge, Céline Siani Djiakoua, John Dummett, Susan Fitzpatrick, Anna Francis, Neil Gray, Michelle Letowska, Leo Singer, Manu Luksch, Heather Ring, and Urban Research Collective.

Black Country creative advantage is a  partnership of the Centre for Art, Design, Research and Experimentation at the University of Wolverhampton and Multistory in West Bromwich. We are supported by the National Lottery through Arts Council England.

For news and more detailed information see our blog: www.blackcountrycreativeadvantage.org

or join our e-group: http://groups.google.com/group/investigation_creativeadvantage

Contact: Monika Vykoukal, Curatorial Research Associate, University of Wolverhampton

Post or Visit: Stall 42, New Market Hall, Kings Square, West Bromwich B70 7NW, Monday – Friday  9am – 4pm (most weeks)

Email: M.Vykoukal [at ] wlv.ac.uk

‘Phone: 07967230880

9-piece puzzle explores the complexities that surround developing work for the public realm. It aims to become a useful resource for artists and a space for conversations to take place.

There are several ways for people to engage with the project, for example;

• An artist toolkit
• Reviews of events, exhibitions, public art projects etc
• A ‘comment’ section for taking a more in depth look at certain public realm issues and debates
• A ‘no comment’ section for pictures rather than words
• ‘Blue Sky Proposals’ – a competition inviting artists to send in hypothetical proposals for interventions into public spaces

CONTENTS:

• Comment: Landmarks
• No Comment
• Review: The Mac’s Back
• Blue Sky Proposals
• Review: This is a Stick Up
  

Talking City Ezine

Anna Francis was guest editor on the Longhouse Website throughout March 2010, and instigated online Ezine Talking City.

Talking City provides a space for artists to enter into dialogues with the places they live and work, creating space for discussion around practice and life in the city.

The Ezine explores the artist’s role in the changing city through a variety of traditional magazine style features.

There were numerous ways for people to get involved, and a number of exciting opportunities, for example;

• An online exhibition and Poster Trail
• Com:missions to carry out an interventionist project in a chosen city
• An invitation to put forward public realm nightmares to be solved in the Ask Anna section
• Thought for the Day
• AND LOTS MORE!!!!

Start Talking to the City…

*****

CONTENTS:

In Conversation – Anna Talks to artists and other public realm professionals about their practice.

Investigation – A look at the various approaches to Artist Led Activity

Com:missions – a series of 4 public realm commissions for artists.

Talking City Poster Trail

Ask Anna – for all your public realm questions and qualms.

Thought For The Day

Talking Windows

Interrogation: Worcester

We offer support and direct commissions for artists around professional development, collaboration and self-reflection. We also work with other regional projects and organisations to ensure we can give artists a view of what is going on in the region and signpost them to new opportunities.

Longhouse offers action research commissions every year with applications normally being received in April. To find out about this year’s action research commissions click here.

Our Professional Artist Development (PAD) programme takes place on a real site of regeneration and is normally open for applications in June.

However, we welcome news, events and requests from artists all year round and will do what we can to help, we also run forums and seminars and welcome input for themes and issues to explore in these events.

Please contact karlgreenwood@multistory.org.uk if you have an ideas or requests to put to the Longhouse team.

All our opportunities and commissions will be advertised through the Longhouse website on our homepage.

Longhouse advocates for the involvement of artists in all aspects of the public realm. It offers artists a chance to collaborate, spaces to work from and contexts to explore working in. Longhouse is interested in the creative outcomes that arise by fusing artists, communities and environments together.

Longhouse is funded by Arts Council England, West Midlands and is located in West Bromwich.

The Action Research programme takes place each year through Longhouse’s Annual programme. Longhouse commissions selected artists to undertake a period of action research in order to develop their practice. This dynamic research process provides artists with an opportunity to enhance and refine their own practice by exploring new ideas and contexts of work and increasing their awareness of different ways of working in the public realm, through a process of self-inquiry, social engagement, reflection and action.

Longhouse commissions a small number of artists each year to take part on the Action Research programme. The artists selected for the 2009/2010 Action Research programme are:

• Andrew Jackson
  
• Jonnet Middleton
  
• John Dummett
  
• Katie Shipley
  
• Celine Siani Djiakoua

2008/2009 Action Research programme

A total of seven artists were commisioned to carry out an Action Research bursary in 2008/2009. The projects began in August 2008 and finished in March 2009. The artists commissioned in 2008/2009 were:

• Alicja Rogalska
• Anna Francis
• Anthony Boswell
• Chris & Keir
• David Viney
• Rob Colbourne
• Redhawk Logistica

Jeni Burnell – Developing Public Art [?]

What is the role of public art in a community development? Is it a process of engaging with people to uncover their aspirations about place? Or is it a creative product based on a person’s individual interpretation and interventions in space? Both are very powerful techniques for inspiring people and motivating change, but is there a way in which the process of making public art can be harnessed further and ‘scaled up’ in order to influence future urban development practice and policy? Developing Public Art [?] investigates these questions and more…..

Shaheen Ahmed and Sue Challis – Collaboration

Longhouse has commissioned artists Sue Challis and Shaheen Ahmed to document their development as an artistic collaboration on the Longhouse website. Sue and Shaheen will be documenting how their collaboration works and why it works. Sue and Shaheen will be carrying out the project in the New Year so please check their project page for updates.

This project sets to look at collaborative practice and how two artists from different cultural backgrounds with different practices reach an equal relationship in their collaboration. Sue and Shaheen will record their conversations and ways of working as a collaboration, trying to answer some of the following questions:

• How does this process work?
• What is the process/ method of communication?
• What are the benefits of working collaboratively?
• How does the collaboration benefit your individual practice?
• How do you reach a consensus?
• How is the relationship equal?
• Why did you choose to collaborate?
• What do you want to achieve through the collaboration?
• What are the issues/problems of collaboration?

Documenting this information will provide a useful and interesting case study into collaboration and cross-cultural practice. How do two artists with very different practices and ways of working collaborate effectively together?

INTERЯOGATION: WALSALL is a series of four day-long missions which took place at The New Art Gallery Walsall throughout September 2009. Longhouse and lead artist ,Anna Francis, devised the programme to look at how artists can act quickly and responsively in the public realm to investigate how the public use the gallery and the space outside it. The project aimed to investigate different techniques used by artists to interrogate the public space surrounding the New Art Gallery looking at the impact of short, sharp interventions within the public realm.

Over four weeks over 20 artists from across the UK worked as secret agents in an Interrogation room based at the gallery (aka as Artist studio) in order to undertake their secret missions. The four missions looked at four different ways in which artists can engage with the public realm and the public, animating the space outside the gallery. One mission took place on one day over a period of four weeks. The four missions were:

• Interrogation: Action Research – Investigating the area and observing the public realm through ‘doing’
• Interrogation: Consultation – Different techniques to engage and consult with the community about their city and the artists’ role (and communities’ role) with changes that are taking place
• Interrogation: Collaboration – How artists can work together and with different professionals to create activities and change
• Interrogation: Intervention – What does public art look like? Different types of interventions in the public realm explored and put into practice

Interrogation: Walsall came to an end on Friday 2 October with the final event of the series, Interrogation: Symposium. This event brought together the artists from the previous missions as well as other guests to take part in an event which looked at the work and findings from each of the missions. The symposium also featured a number of guest speakers to talk about their practice under one of the four missions. The guest speakers at the event were:

Gary Anderson from The Institute for the Art and Practice of Dissent at Home who talked about Action Research with regards to his activist practice as a family.

The Institute for the Art and Practice of Dissent at Home is run out of a council property bedroom in Everton, Liverpool and is a space for dissenting the Capitalism of Culture.

Jeni Burnell from Architecture Sans Frontieres-UK (ASF-UK) provided case studies of effective and innovative consultation methods used by ASF.

Architecture Sans Frontières-UK (ASF-UK) is a UK registered charity, concerned with education and training in the development sector.

Sophie Hope talked about her collaborative practice within the public realm.

Sophie Hope’s work inspects uncertain relationships between art and society. Sophie also writes, teaches and facilitates workshops, dealing with issues of public art, the politics of socially engaged art and curating as critical practice.

Rich White will be talking about his Intervention works in buildings and places in cities.

Rich White’s work involves physically altering (or appearing to alter) existing architecture in public and exhibition spaces. These architectural interventions are developed specifically for their location through research and site visits; responding to the architecture, history and current happenings in the area.

The symposium ended with a panel discussion exploring questions such as: What is the artist’s role in the post-industrial world? How can artists and public realm practitioners intervene in the regeneration of post-industrial cities and towns? And what are the issues for practitioners and the public?

To find out more information about Interrogation: Walsall and the artists’ missions please visit the project blog.