A major change in those shortlisted for the Turner Prize

Last week, Tate Britain announced the shortlist for the Turner Prize 2021 - and the shortlist comprises five art collectives.

One of the world’s best-known prizes for the visual arts, the Turner Prize aims to promote public debate around new developments in contemporary British art. Established in 1984, the prize is named after the radical British painter JMW Turner (1775-1851). The Turner Prize winner is awarded £25,000 with £10,000 going to each of the others shortlisted. 

This year they seem to be in two minds about whether it's about art or a very wide definition of the visual arts.

I've absolutely no problem with 

• the prize being about the Visual Arts 
• or with it focusing on arts grounded in the community 

I do have a problem with the use of the term "art" - and then shutting out of all those engaged in the fine arts of drawing and painting!!

As in historically, the Turner Prize jury has shortlisted four artists for an outstanding exhibition or other presentation.

I must confess I increasingly think that the organisers are interpreting its intent to be more and more about "The Arts" as opposed to art. Otherwise, why would they be substituting for the British Film Institute in providing recognition and prizes for films? Alternatively why isn't Tate Britain joining forces with the BFI if it intends to include the ubiquitous 'film' as media for future shortlists.

My personal view is that the current version of the Prize should become wholly independent of Tate Britain (and instead be run by a collegiate co-operative of different organisations relevant to the Visual Arts - including video / sound / film / digital arts / broadcast media) and Tate Britain should go back to providing a prize for contemporary fine art - including fine arts which increasingly get excluded and left on the fringe.

In other words "Contemporary Fine Art" is NOT "The Arts" - and this is not the Oscars or any of the other awards associated with popular arts-related culture!

Shortlist for the Turner Prize 2021

This year, the shortlist consists entirely of art collectives who have been listed for their recent projects and activities.

I'm guessing this has partly been prompted by the major absence of exhibition for most of 2020/21 - and hence the usual basis for selection evaporated. They could hardly make a selection based solely on those who were lucky enough to have an exhibition open in the very tight window of last summer.

So the Turner Prize organisers have made a positive out of a negative

“One of the great joys of the Turner Prize is the way it captures and reflects the mood of the moment in contemporary British art. After a year of lockdowns when very few artists have been able to exhibit publicly, the jury has selected five outstanding collectives whose work has not only continued through the pandemic but become even more relevant as a result.” Alex Farquharson, Director of Tate Britain and Chair of the Turner Prize jury

The nominees - who will each be receiving at least £10,000 each - are:

• Array Collective, 
• Black Obsidian Sound System, 
• Cooking Sections, 
• Gentle/Radical, and 
• Project Art Works.

Turner Prize Exhibition

The other change is that the exhibition will not visit Tate Britain.

An exhibition of the Collectives' work will be held at the Herbert Art Gallery and Museum in Coventry from 29 September 2021 to 12 January 2022 as part of the UK City of Culture 2021 celebrations. 

The winner of the Turner Prize will be announced on 1 December 2021 at an award ceremony at Coventry Cathedral covered on the BBC.

The members of the 2021 Turner Prize jury are:

• Aaron Cezar, Director, Delfina Foundation
• Kim McAleese, Programme Director, Grand Union
• Russell Tovey, Actor
• Zoé Whitley, Director, Chisenhale Gallery
• Alex Farquharson, Director, Tate Britain (Chair)
  

Shortlisted Art Collectives

All the nominees work closely and continuously with communities across the breadth of the UK to inspire social change through art. The collaborative practices selected for this year’s shortlist also reflect the solidarity and community demonstrated in response to the pandemic

Below is the information provided about each collective - PLUS

• The names of those identified in the extended press release
• the address and screenshot of their website (where this could be identified).

Review: Episode 1 of Landscape Artist of the Year

The Landscape Artist of the Year competition and television series hosted by Sky Arts television kicked off this week in a spectacular setting.

To round off what feels a bit like "Making A Mark does Plein Air Week" I've got below:

• an overview of how to view the series
• a note of how to enter next year's competition
• a review of Episode 1 - at glorious Fountains Abbey in Yorkshire - including mini profiles of the artists and links to their websites and LOTS of Learning Points!
• plus lots of references to past blog posts and tips about plein air painting at the end!

The landscape pods in front of the ruins of Fountains Abbey

Episodes - Heats, Semi-Final and Final

This is the fourth series of the show, which is produced for Sky Arts by London and Glasgow-based independent production company Storyvault Films. The audience for the programme has grown with every series to date.

You can view Season 4 and the episodes relating to the Heats, Semi-Final and Final each week

• on Tuesday evening at 8pm on Sky Arts
• anytime you like using the NOW TV app to watch on a mobile device (which is what I do - see the post at the end about how to do this)
• PLUS if you get Now TV you can watch ALL the episodes from Seasons 1, 2 and 3!

The locations for the various episodes which follow Episode 1 are as follows - together with the dates of the first broadcast on Sky Arts

The Heats

These involve eight artists - a mix of professional and amateur - and some 50 wildcard entries painting nearby

• Tuesday 23rd October - Viking Bay 
• Tuesday 30th October - Loch Fyne 
• Tuesday 6th November - Studley Royal 
• Tuesday 13th November - Broadstairs Beach 
• Tuesday 20th November - Inveraray Castle 

Semi Final

This comprises the winners of the Heats

• Tuesday 27th November - (Semi Final) - Felixstowe Port 

Final

If it sticks to the recipe, this should be the best three from the Semi-Final

• Tuesday 4th December Double-bill - (Final) Greenwich Park and The Winner's Film

The prize for the winner this year is a prestigious commission from the Imperial War Museum to create an artwork to tie in with the centenary of the 1918 armistice.

Sky Arts Landscape Artist of the Year 2019

Some 1,600 artists entered for the 2018 competition - and they were whittled down to just 48 artists competing across six heats.

Want to compete next year? You might want to follow my reviews where I try to analyse:

• who got selected for the heats and why
• why people win a heat
• what created a barrier to winning a heat

You can find details of how to enter Sky Arts Landscape Artist of the Year 2019 - but you have until 11th May 2019 to submit your entry

I'd STRONGLY RECOMMEND you watch this series first - and read my blog posts!

Episode 1 - Sky Arts Landscape Artist of the Year 2018

I covered the judges, presenters and how to watch this programme in Sky Arts Landscape Artist of the Year 2018 starts tonight earlier this week - so I'm not going to repeat myself.

Instead we'll get straight into the episode

The Location

The location for Episode 1 is Fountains Abbey one of the largest and best preserved ruined Cistercian monasteries in England.  I well remember being completely overwhelmed by it when I visited it. It's absolutely HUGE and it's surrounded by water and trees and a large expanses of flat ground. Making it an absolute ideal location for a competition like this!

Fountains Abbey

You can read more about what happened in the four hundred years between it being founded and when it was ruined following the dissolution of the monasteries by Henry VIII on Wikipedia

What it must have felt like to the competitors is anybody's guess. It's quite nerve-wracking enough painting live for a television show without also being confronted with such an imposing structure!

Learning Points

The key for me - in the context of a location like this - was about what they chose to do - which demonstrated their talent and provided them with a view which they could also finish in the four hours they have to paint.

In a sense you could tell very early on who might get to the end and win the heat - by how they started. If you don't know who won, just review those early profiles of the artists and see what they tell you about their ability to deliver.

For me, it's hard to avoid the conclusion that judging a competition like this is not unlike interview people for a job - where you can find yourself making early decisions about candidates based on what they wear and how they walk through the door and greet you. Early impressions count for a LOT!

The Artists 

In the listing below:

• a link to the the artist's website is embedded in their name - for those wanting to know the standard of work by artists who get selected
• links to their social media follows - should you wish to follow them

Hockney adds another way of making art to his portfolio

Westminster Abbey has a new stained glass window designed by David Hockney RA - and the artist has added a new but traditional method of making art to his already eclectic portfolio of methods for creating art.

The window was commissioned to celebrate the reign of Her Majesty The Queen and was unveiled this week.

The new window is located in the Abbey’s north transept, which was previously just plain glass. It will in future be known formally as 'The Queen's Window'.

It's located in an Abbey that was founded in 960AD and has been the church in which the monarch is crowned since 1066. It is also the final resting place of 17 monarchs.  It's a very special place for new public art.

The Queens Window - a new stained glass window in a building which 

This post is about the process used to produce it and finishes with a video of David Hockney speaking about his very first stained glass window and possibly his very last artwork involving a tree.

About David Hockney

The reason for commissioning David Hockney was essentially that

• he has been one of the most influential artists of The Queen's reign 
• his contribution has been recognised to date with an Order of Merit and as a Companion of Honour
• he has a reputation as an artist who works with a =wide range of media and has always been prepared to try new media - or, as in this case, a very traditional method of portraying a visual image

This is his first work in stained glass 

It must feel like a tremendous honour not only to be given the opportunity of celebrating the life of the Queen but also to be able to do so in a building where the artwork will last for centuries.

About the Commission

The artists's brief to provide something symbolic or representational of the subject, rather than a heraldic or figurative design, and for it to be recognisable as his work.

Hockney's response was to develop an image which reflects the The Queen's well known deep affection and connection to the countryside and her identity as a countrywoman.

He designed a country scene, set within his beloved Yorkshire. It features one of his favourite trees at the point in the year that he finds it most attractive - when the hawthorn blossom bursts forth in frothy clouds. He regards that as the celebratory aspect - akin to champagne bubbles!

Unsurprisingly, especially as the design was intended to be representative of his work, it also uses his distinct and vivid colour palette of yellow, red, blue, pink, orange and greens which he has used in the past for paintings of spring in the Yorkshire Wolds.

About the making of the window

Although David Hockney designed the window, its making was not his responsibility.

Barley Studio - a leading stained glass studio of over forty years based in York (which has a rather large Minster with rather a lot of stained glass!) - were commissioned to create the window using traditional techniques

The stained glass artists and craftspeople worked with David Hockney to translate his vision for the window into a reality in stained glass. 

The first task was to get the precise measurements of the window so as to create stencils of the different parts of the window. This was done in May 2017 - and I'm guessing they were at the top of some scaffolding or in a cherry picker for quite a lot of the time.

Barley Studio staff - Keith Marley and Helen Whittaker - take precise measurements 

The next stage involved creating the different sections of the window using lead and stained glass matching the palette determined by Hockney.

Helen Whitaker works on the window at the Barley Studio

When all parts of the window had been made they then needed to be assembled within the window void so as to create the stained glass window. Needless to say this is a job requiring some experience and expertise!

The installation of the Queen's Window

The stained glass window is a piece of art - and as with every piece of art created by Hockney it contains the artist's signature.

David Hockney's signature

Below is a video of David Hockney speaking about the whole process.



The Dean of Westminster, the Very Reverend Dr John Hall, said:

I’m very pleased that David Hockney accepted my invitation to design this window which is a celebration of the reign of Her Majesty The Queen. What he has produced is directly accessible with wonderful colours. It is a country scene to honour a woman who loves her country.

Dedication of the Window

The window will be dedicated formally by the Dean in the presence of the artist, his family, friends and invited guests on Tuesday 2nd October at 11:30am.

More about David Hockney

I've written about David Hockney on a number of occasions on this blog. You can READ my posts BELOW - they're organised backwards by years.

Those in 2006 and 2016 contain references to his artwork about the Yorkshire landscape - including the major exhibition he had at the Royal Academy of Art - which I will never ever forget

• 2017: About David Hockney and Watercolour
• 2016: A biography of Hockney on iPlayer first shown by the BBC in 2015 (and repeated in 2016)
• 2014
• Hockney, Printmaker (Review #2) - The Etchings - about Hockney Printmaker at Dulwich Picture Gallery
• The Arrival of Spring - David Hockney's latest exhibition - 85% of the digital drawings in The Arrival of Spring had been sold before this exhibition opened at Annely Juda Fine Art.
• Hockney is bigger than Van Gogh!- about my final and fourth visit to A Bigger Picture on the final night
• 2012
• David Hockney on sitting for Lucian Freud
• Review: David Hockney RA - A Bigger Picture
• 22nd January 2012 - Who's made a mark this week? "This post this week has rather a slant towards Hockney, digital art on an iPad and pastels - which pretty much reflects my week."
• 15th January 2012 - Who's made a mark this week? This has a lot of references to the publicity overdrive for the A Bigger Picture exhibition at the RA and includes references to interesting articles
• 2009 
• David Hockney - recent exhibitions - about various recent exhibitions in various countries
• Review: David Hockney - A Bigger Picture - about Bruno Wollheim's film David Hockney - A Bigger Picture
• David Hockney "15 sketchbooks" DVD - a further update
• 2007
• Turner Watercolours with Hockney and Shirley - about Hockney's curation of BP Summer Exhibition: Hockney on Turner Watercolours (11 June 2007 – 3 February 2008).
• Drawing, tea and DVDs at the National Portrait Gallery - another long slow look at the at the David Hockney Portraits exhibition before it closed
• 2006
• David Hockney: Fifteen Sketchbooks 2002-2003 - Update on DVD availability
• David Hockney and Shirley - sharing art and sketchbooks - about the David Hockney Portraits exhibition at the National Portrait Gallery and his Fifteen Sketchbooks completed in 2002-3003
• Two London exhibitions for David Hockney about "David Hockney Portraits - Life Love Art" at the NPG and "A Year in Yorkshire" in at the Annely Juda Gallery

The Arts Council and Future Funding

On Tuesday, The Arts Council went to Leicester to:

• announce its funding decisions for the National Portfolio organisations in relation to Arts and Culture in England for 2018-22
• changed its strategy for what it funds in future

This post covers videos explaining how it all works and references links to further and more detailed explanations on the Arts Council website

The Arts Council Funding Ecology 2018-22

The National Portfolio

This video was livestreamed about the announcement for how the National Portfolio works going forward in the next four years. It lasts 46 minutes.

There are 183 newcomers within the National Portfolio and the Arts Council intends to invest £170 million (4.6%) MORE outside London.

This fulfils the promises to

• spend more outside London
• reach places which hitherto have received very little funding from the Arts Council
• bring museums and libraries into the portfolio
• fund more diverse arts organisations

Get Funding

The Arts Council website explains:

• how to Get Funding.
• National Portfolio funding decisions - namely
• key facts and figures
• The full National Portfolio dataset
• Grants for the Arts 
• awards from £1,000 to £100,000 to support a wide variety of arts-related activities
• for individuals, art organisations and other people who use the arts in their work
• Grantium - the new portal for applying for grants

Plus there's a video which explains how the Grants for Arts application portal and process works

Artists’ Livelihoods Survey in England

Arts Council England has commissioned a new national study into how visual artists in England live and work.

This is a link to the Artists’ Livelihoods survey which forms part of the study.
What makes this study - and survey - serious and different is that it is being conducted within the context of a a broad coalition of partners from across the visual arts which have shaped and support it. These partners include:

• Association for Cultural Advancement through Visual Art,
• AIR, 
• Artists’ Union England, 
• Artquest, 
• Axisweb, 
• Crafts Council, 
• Contemporary Visual Arts Network, 
• The Design and Artists Copyright Society, 
• engage, 
• East Street Arts, 
• Live Art Development Agency,
• National Federation of Artists’ Studios Providers, 
• The National Society for Education in Art & Design, 
• Space and 
• Voluntary Arts Network.

The survey will be complemented by investigation of existing research, focus groups and case studies and is due to be completed in Spring 2016.  The full report will be available in late 2016.

The deadline for completing the survey is Friday 25 March 2016.

More information:

Take part and share your views on the day-to-day realities of being a professional artist and the challenges and barriers you face.
A-N - Comprehensive new study: Artists’ Livelihoods survey needs your views

The survey forms part of a wider study, which is the first of its kind in England in a decade. It aims to identify the challenges and barriers faced by visual artists that prevent them from realising their full potential, whilst highlighting how these issues vary across different groups within the sector.
The study will look at social, cultural and economic factors and how each of them impacts visual artists. Location and other factors which affect the movement and retention of artists between the regions, London and internationally will also be explored.  
Arts Council - Arts Council launches survey into visual artists' livelihoods

This is the first comprehensive study in over a decade of how visual artists in England live and work. The project aims to listen to and document the realities of practicing as a visual artist, as well as providing an opportunity to inform future initiatives. The findings will help to focus support where it is most needed to ensure a resilient and diverse visual arts sector.  
Axisweb - Artists' Livelihoods Survey

How do artists earn money, how much do they earn, and by doing what? Help a-n, Arts Council England, Artquest and our partners find out so we can advocate for better working conditions for artists.  
Art Quest - Artists Livelihoods

How art changes your brain - the well-being value of drawing and painting to older people

This is about a recent study about the impact of drawing and painting and art appreciation on the mental health and well-being of older people.

Left Brain Right Brain

A recent post to my Facebook Page has been very well received - and I didn't want to deprive those of you who are not on Facebook!

Would you like to generate "a significant improvement in psychological resilience"? Start drawing and painting in your old age! Art appreciation doesn't work as well as actually making and creating!
Study Finds Making Art May Keep Our Brains Healthy | Hyperallergic 

The article referenced above summarises the research.

For those who would like to know more you can read the actual research findings in this study report How Art Changes Your Brain: Differential Effects of Visual Art Production and Cognitive Art Evaluation on Functional Brain Connectivity

It starts by making a statement which was new to me.

Recent research on visual art has focused on its psychological and physiological effects, mostly in clinical populations. It has shown that visual art interventions have stabilizing effects on the individual by reducing distress, increasing self-reflection and self-awareness, altering behaviour and thinking patterns, and also by normalizing heart rate, blood pressure, or even cortisol levels[1], [2], [3], [4], [5].

It then explains the hypothesis of the study and what they did to test it. I'm missing out all the deeply scientific bits below!

Hypothesis

The hypothesis was that participation in 10-week-long visual art groups may result in psychological changes and may alter the functional interplay of the DMN.

The brain's default mode network (DMN) is the network of regions of the brain which remain active even when an individual is at rest. It's important because it is the DMN network which is engaged when an individual is engaged in internal tasks involving making pictures e.g. daydreaming, imagining the future and retrieving memories.

It tends not to work when we are focused on the achievement of tasks and executing actions.

Distinct brain areas of a certain resting state network, the default mode network (DMN), are thought to be associated with cognitive processes such as introspection, self-monitoring, prospection, episodic and autobiographic memory, and comprehension of the emotional states and intentions of others [7], [8], [9].

My reading of this is that, in essence, they were testing whether stimulation of the DMN through active and practical development of visual art (eg drawing and painting) might 'fire up' the DMN network in the brain which in turn might help older people to:

• be more self-aware of their personal condition
• help them retain memories better
• better understand the motives and actions of others

In other words, these are all the aspects which can deteriorate when mental well-being deteriorates as people become all older.

Celebrate a visual artist on the next £20 note

The Bank of England is asking the public to make suggestions as to who should be on the next £20 note. 

It must be somebody British and noteworthy in the field of visual arts.

At the end of this post

• I'm making my own suggestions
• I'm asking you who YOU think might be an appropriate person to represent visual arts in Britain.

The new Banknote Character Advisory Committee decided back in 2013 that the next £20 note should celebrate the field of visual arts. That might possibly be something to do with the fact that Sandy Nairne, former Director of the National Portrait Gallery is one of the external members on that Committee! :)

Members of the public will have two months to nominate people of historic significance from the visual arts including artists, sculptors, printmakers, designers, craftspeople, ceramicists, architects, fashion designers, photographers and filmmakers – whose work shaped British thought, innovation, leadership, values and society. The public can nominate characters from within the field of visual arts on the Bank’s website.

It's important to note that the Bank will

• NOT represent living characters on its notes, with the exception of the Monarch. 
• NOT identify individuals who would be unduly divisive
• ONLY include a recognisable and usable representation of an individual within a banknote design. This is because banknotes are designed to be easy to authenticate and difficult to counterfeit. 

Nominations can be made until 19 July 2015. To nominate please visit the Bank of England website and complete the nomination form

Note about the process

Back at the end of 2013, the Bank of England decided that the public should have much more involvement in the choice of people to include on banknotes.

Commentary

For some reason, Jonathan Jones of the Guardian has once again been told or has chosen to be controversial (others would call it downright rude!) in Should the public vote for the artist on the new £20 note? No way – they've got terrible taste. He's decided that "the people" cannot be trusted to vote because too few do and it is then too easy to sway the vote.

I think he's got it badly wrong. This is not an art competition, nor is it a taste competition!

It's not even a competition! It's about making suggestions so a Committee can get a sense of which individual has the most resonance with the British public. It's not about who painted the best pictures - it's about which visual artists have captured people's imaginations and who are the British public most attached to - and why would they like to see them on their £20 notes.

Here's a couple of examples of what I mean:

• Major fire at Rennie Mackintosh's Glasgow School of Art - the reaction to this was phenomenal - by people all over the world.  Charles Rennie Mackintosh has an international reputation and"pulling power"
• Henry Moore Sculpture - a very poor precedent for public art - there was a huge outcry over the proposal by my local Mayor (since removed from office) to dispose of a Henry Moore Sculpture to help meet the need to cut budgets. Thankfully, it was proved that he had no legal basis for taking the decision!

I'm certainly not one of the 'nay sayers' like Jones.

Instead I'm one of those who encourage people to vote on the basis that very often people do genuinely come up with suggestions which surprise the art establishment! So......

Who do you think ought to be on the next £20 note?

First - Will you be voting?  I'm going to make a suggestion but my long list is a bit too long at the moment!

Second - Which dead visual artist will you be nominating?

I'm going to start a long list below and will add to it as names get suggested.

The Long List

I've come up with some suggestions.

Architect

• Charles Rennie Mackintosh - see below under designer - he has the neat trick of covering three of the categories

Charle Rennie Mackintosh

• John Nash (interestingly there is no list of British architects (or UK or English) listed on Wikipedia in architects by nationality)

Artists

Uncontroversial artists who I would imagine might have a lot of support would include

• Thomas Gainsborough (1727–1788) – one of the few who is both an effective portrait and landscape painter - but I can't quite see him getting a groundswell of support
• Nicholas Hilliard - an interesting choice since the portrait on the note is in effect a miniature and he one of the most famous miniature painters. He's also one of the very few early English artists whose name is well known. I also rather like the idea of this self-portrait being used for the £20 note!

Earliest selfportrait of Nicholas Hilliard 1577

• JMW Turner - I should think would be a very popular choice - and no worse for that! His youthful self-portrait is also well-known and would make for a good portrait on a bank note.

Self portrait by Turner c.1799

• John Constable - another popular choice?
• Stanley Spencer - I should think that aspects of his marital life and unconventional perspective on religion might be a bit of a problem - and put him out of the running.

Stanley Spencer - self portrait 1914
This is the face of the man who painted all those memorable 1st World War paintings
see 'Stanley Spencer: Heaven in a Hell of War' at Somerset House

Ceramicist
I immediately thought of Grayson Perry - but he'd have to meet an unfortunate end very quickly to make him eligible!  Anyway here goes with the rest....

• Josiah Wedgewood - this is a man who not only founded a very famous British pottery company which exported all over the world. He is also responsible for the industrialisation of the manufacture of pottery. I would have thought he's got to be in the running.  His image could also be characterised as if it was a ceramic Wedgewood bust or miniature.

Bust of Josiah Wedgwood
completed in 1864 by Giovanni Fontana (1821-1893),
Walker Art Gallery, Liverpool, England

• Bernard Leach - a possibility but he doesn't quite have the weight of credentials or popularity behind him - and his face is unknown

Craftsperson

• William Morris - his socialist credentials might put him out of the running re. the uncontroversial front

Portrait of William Morris, aged 53

Designer

• Charles Rennie Mackintosh (again) - a very familiar image and, I would imagine, a very popular choice. He is, of course also an architect and a crafts person.

Fashion designer

• Alexander McQueen - one of the very few to have the weight to compete - but maybe a bit too recent?

Filmmaker

• David Lean springs to mind - and he has a very chiselled face which would be both recognisable and look good on a bank note.

Photographer

• Eadweard Muybridge - a face that is totally unknown of a photographer who is very well known. He pioneered studies of motion. However is he uncontroversial given the fact that he shot and killed his wife's lover, but was acquitted in a jury trial on the grounds of justifiable homicide.

Sequences by Eadweard Muybridge (1830-1904)
of himself throwing a disk, using a step, and walking

Printmaker

• William Hogarth - English painter, printmaker, pictorial satirist, social critic and editorial cartoonist. He has the advantage of covering a number of bases like Mackintosh - however I always think of him as a printmaker. Of course if this protrait were to be used, it would also win over the dog lobby!

William Hogarth

Sculptor

• Sir Henry Moore - my reservation with this one is I'm not sure he's well known as a 'face' even if his sculptures are extremely well known and very recognisable
• Dame Barbara Hepworth - would be in the running but for the fact she's already had a museum named after her!

I think my favourite so far is Charles Rennie Mackintosh - with Nicholas Hilliard as a close second. I wouldn't mind in the least if it were Sir Henry Moore and they could work out how to make him recognisable.

What's the payoff for a degree in art? (Plus a new POLL)

It's coming up the beginning of a new academic term in higher education. So what's the payoff for a degree in art?

Plus a new POLL! - See the side bar for the new poll - Education and art: which route did you take? - for some really silly reason which Polldaddy really needs to sort out, you can only vote if you view the results first!

The poll will run to the end of September.  I'll do a report back on the results at the beginning of October.

Below you can see an infographic about Pathways after a Bachelor's Degree in Visual Arts. These are the nature of the choices people make who achieve some sort of Bachelor's Degree in Visual Arts in terms of what they do next and its financial outcomes over a lifetime. The infographic has been created by the United States Census Bureau. It was based on a census done in 2010 and it was first published in 2012 - so a little out of date.

In a nutshell it asks how much can you expect to earn over a lifetime if you follow different career pathways.

One of the aims of the exercise is to demonstrate that what look like small differences early in your career become magnified over time as the differences in earnings begin to stack up. That, in due course, has a major impact on our economic wellbeing in later years in terms of pensions etc.

Some art graduates go on to higher degrees and some go on to occupations in the visual arts field. The infographic is based on the numbers who have achieved the highest level of degree they finished with. (In other words - those who got an MA or a PhD are not counted in with the BAs)

It suggests that:

• there is a clear financial payoff for all those who go on to an advanced degree - particularly if it has a professional orientation - or pursue a professional path related to art.
• art teachers have a mixed picture. Artists do better than elementary art teachers! However if you teach in a secondary school or higher education, on average you do better than full time artists.
• those who work in design and marketing do best of all those who have careers in areas related to art.

What do you think of the picture it paints?

Personally, I'd like to see more up to date data and I'd also find it very interesting to see the same sort of data for people doing degrees in different countries.

Pathways After a Bachelor's Degree  - Visual Arts image
[Source: U.S. Census Bureau]
Click to see a larger version

Read Creation of the Synthetic Work-Life Earnings Estimates for Field of Degree Brief and Infographics to find out how they calculated the work life earnings for different pathways

Synthetic Work-life Earnings are a way of looking at how small differences in earnings can add up to big differences over an extended period of time. For example making $12 per hour more adds up to $480 per week or $25,000 per year or $1,000,000 in a 40-year work-life. While this way of looking at earnings is very useful one should note that these estimates are based on many assumptions, discussed below, and they should be used for illustration purposes rather than an exact projection of a persons earnings.

I've been asked to write a book....

It's nice to start a post with the fact "I've been asked" - rather than "I've decided" - to write a book!

That's because, following a meeting with representatives of a publisher last week, I'm currently going through a formal process which will lead to me being formally commissioned to write a book by an international publisher of practical books for visual artists.

The invite to consider writing a book for this publisher came out of the blue and is on a topic I absolutely adore - drawing and sketching!

Title and the name of the publisher are under wraps for the time being until we've 'done the deal' and tied up loose ends.  I'll let you know more as an when I can.

Below there's an invite to get involved and maybe have your images in the book!

What goes around comes around

This year I started contributing to books and magazines for the first time.  In the next three months I've got:

• an article in "Discover Art" - a brand new bookzine for visual artists in the UK which is due to publish this month. I gather my article is listed on the cover
• 5 sketches about drawing in art galleries and museums published in Playing with Sketches: 50 Creative Exercises for Designers and Artists (Rockport Publishers - 1 December 2013) 
• 5 sketches about drawing gardens and parks published in Sketch Your World: Drawing techniques for great results on the go (Apple Press - 2 Jan 2014)

The process of making these contributions prompted me to think again about writing a book - which is something I've been saying I want to do for a long time.

Consequently when I was suddenly asked to write one, it didn't take too long to think about it - and I was ready to say "Yes"!

It wasn't the payback I'd expected - but I guess it was the one I hoped for - but didn't expect!

It goes without saying I'm very excited about it!

So - what's the book about?

New structure for Arts Council & an Interactive Map

The result of the spending review at the Arts Council has been announced. The Government required the Arts Council England (ACE) to reduce its administrative costs by some 50% as part of the 2010 Spending Review.

The report and explanation of what is happening
available as a pdf file

It was a foregone conclusion that this could not be a death by a thousand cuts exercises.  Radical changes had to be made to the way the Arts Council worked.

Structural change

Art Council England - New areas and the offices that survived

The main points are:

• changes come into effect from 1 July 2013
• 21% reduction in numbers of staff
• top jobs halved
• property costs to be halved by 50%
• offices to close and regions to be cut from 9 to 5 and merge.  
• The new areas are London, the South East, the South West, the Midlands and the North

The explanation of their Final operating model and organisation structure is available as a pdf file

we will have to do things differently, through more streamlined investment processes and a more focused set of priorities - we will do less and do it differently

National Portfolio - interactive map

I took a look at the interactive map which seeks to explain where the funding is now going and what sort of level of funding goes on what type of activity

Two things you need to do to get the map to work properly

• Tick the filters on the left in order to sort and highlight organisations by artform, region or funding amount and then click the search tab.  (Thus you can identify all visual arts organisations in London (or any other region) receiving funding of any amount (or a specific funding level)
• Click the pink map pins to find out more about the visual arts organisations who are receiving funding.

I was wholly underwhelmed by the visual arts organisations in London getting in excess of £1million pa. You can also View these results as a list

At the end of the day this is an organisation which is going to be judged by the quality of organisation which it supports on the ground.

How is it for you in your area?

What makes you leave an artist's website? POLL RESULTS

Does your art website make me people want to leave fast?  The Making A Mark Opinion Poll for January 2012 aimed to find out what were the aspects which generated an adverse first impression of an artist's website.

The results are in and you can now self-assess your own website and decide whether or not you are driving people away!

This poll allowed people to tick all that drove them dotty.  What's interesting is that virtually all the factors which are an issue were identified as options and only 9% highlighted yet more irritants.

Making A Mark Poll - January 2012
number of responses = 239

Your Top Three Pet Hates

Cultural Olympiad 2012 - Artists taking the lead

You may have heard London is hosting the Olympics next year.  What you may not be aware of is that there is also a Cultural Olympiad 2012 - the culmination of which is the London 2012 Festival.

Below you'll find details of the 12 projects which relate to the Artists Taking the Lead strand of these cultural events.

The Boat Project collect wood from the Olympic Park Velodrome

I'll be writing about other art projects of the Olympiad between now and 2012.

Review: Taylor Wessing Photographic Portrait Prize 2011

Jooney Woodward has won the £12,000 Taylor Wessing Photographic Portrait Prize 2011 with her portrait Harriet and Gentleman Jack.

Harriet and Gentleman Jack, 2010 by Jooney Woodward
© Jooney Woodward

The portrait winning first prize is of 13-year-old Harriet Power.  It was taken in the guinea pig judging area at the Royal Welsh Show where she was stewarding.  It's part of a series of photographs developed since this photo relating to Cary (Guinea Pig) Shows around the UK!

‘I found her image immediately striking with her long, red hair and white stewarding coat. She is holding her own guinea pig called Gentleman Jack, named after the Jack Daniel’s whisky box in which he was given to her. Using natural light from a skylight above, I took just three frames and this image was the first.’
Jooney Woodward

I recommend you visit this exhibition if you are interested in any way in portraiture - whether you are a photographer or a portrait artist.  I saw the exhibition yesterday and thought it excellent.  It also provoked some thoughts about why it is better in my view than this year's BP Portrait Exhibition - which I explain in my detailed review below.

The exhibition associated with the Prize opened to the public today at the National Portrait Gallery and continues until 12 February.  Admission is £2.

You can NOT see all he images in the exhibition online but you can see selected images on the NPG microsite for the Taylor Wessing Photographic Prize 2011.

The Prizewinning Photographers

I had a chance to speak with Jooney Woodward who won the first prize of £12,000 yesterday about how she came to shoot the winning portrait and her approach to photography.

I'm sure the techies will be interested to know that the first prize portrait was shot on film with a Mamiya RZ medium format camera and using a tripod.  There was no pre-planning - it was an opportunistic shot which worked and this was the first of the photos she took.

I prefer the quality and depth you get from using film; unfortunately it’s a dying art. I don’t mess around with Photoshop so what you see is what you get. Enhanced images can portray a false sense of reality, whereas my work celebrates the people and places as they appear every day.

In terms of background, she was born in London in 1979, grew up in Dorset and studied Graphic Design at Camberwell College of Arts, specialising in photography in her final year.

Her degree show portraits of her parents were highly commended in The Observer Hodge Photographic Award in 2001 which gave me an immediate connection with Jooney given that David was a very near neighbour of mine prior to his death and he used to teach me about taking a good photo!  We both lamented the end of the The Observer Hodge Photographic Award as it was such a valuable way of highlighting emerging photographers

Woodward's first job after graduation was with the Vogue Photographic Archive of Condé Nast Publications. Just under two years ago she set up as a freelance photographer and her series Unhidden: Documentary Photographs of Contemporary Wales was exhibited at MOMA Wales, Machynlleth, in 2010.

My landscapes are generally devoid of people, but are full of signs of life. I try to capture the little things and it’s the same with my portraiture. The more you look at the portrait of Harriet, the more you notice the small details: her nail polish and mascara, the scratch on her hand.

The following artists have also been commended and received prizes from the Taylor Wessing Photographic Portrait Prize 2011

• £2,500 Second Prize: Jill Wooster for Of Lili
• £1,500 Third Prize: Dona Schwartz for Christina and Mark, 14 months from the series On the Nest
• £1,000 Fourth Prize / The Elle Commission: Jasper Clarke for Wen
• £500 Fifth Prize: David Knight for Andie

Read on to:

• see the images by the other prizewinners 
• read more of my comments on the exhibition
• get tips for photographers entering the exhibition

The Big Artists Survey 2011

AIR (Artists Interaction and Representation) is the UK's leading professional body for visual artists and applied artists.  It's conducted a major survey of artists called the Big Artists Survey 2011.  The aim was to examine artists working conditions.

You'll recall that recently I've had blog posts - with an interesting discussion in the comments on each post - about:

• How do you earn the title of "artist"?
• How do you define a "professional artist"?

Well this survey tried to find out what it's actually like being an artist in the UK in 2011.

See how what you do compares to what artists in the UK are doing.

Big Artists Survey 2011 - Results

Here's a summary of the results.  I've recast some of the headings to make them a bit more precise in terms of relevance for the artist and slightly revised what's been highlighted in bold to make this an easy read - and prompt you to go and read the survey report for more detail!  I've also included my own comments on the results (in italics) and critique of what this means for artists.

I do however recommend you read the full report.  Click this link to download the pdf file and read the Survey report summarising the results in more detail.

Background to the survey

This was an e-survey.  It received 1,457 responses (9% response rate relative to the AIR and a-n membership surveyed) from artists located across the UK who ranged from recent graduates to very experienced artists.

The artists responding defined themselves as follows:

• 41% as emerging
• 25% as mid-career
• 12% as established
• 23% did not define their career status

This is where I get techie!  My only comment is that the responses are self-selecting.  This is not a sample in the true sense of the word and therefore will not be representative of the pool of artists across the UK as a whole.  Before responses could be weighted to give a more accurate picture, the survey body would need to know rather more about the demographic profile of the membership as a whole.< Bottom line this means the results are very interesting but are not necessarily representative of artists across the UK.  However it's much better than knowing nothing at all!  My guess is that it leans towards the sort of artist more likely to use the services of AIR and a-n - the newly graduated and the "return to art after a break".   The survey probably under-represents the full-time professional artist of many years experience.

Read on to find out what the survey had to say

How to do a reverse image search

There are two easy options for doing a reverse image search:

• Tineye
• Google Reverse Image Search

I guess most will be familiar with the former - but maybe not the latter?  The post summarises:

• what is a reverse image search
• why do a reverse image search
• how Tin Eye works
• how Google Reverse Image Search works
• a comparison of the results
• image privacy issues

It also highlights the results I got when doing a test search - using the "popular choice" image from an exhibition which had been highlighted on this blog.

Making A Mark is now #3 in top 25 art blogs in UK

The July 2010 update of the The Top 25 UK Arts & Culture Blogs has just been published and I'm very pleased to say that Making A Mark now ranks #3 in the top 25 art blogs in the UK.

Once again quite a few of the independent culture bloggers are beating the Guardian’s Charlotte Higgins at her own game, this month they’ve pushed her into the number 10 position, it’s great to see arts blogging alive and kicking.

Many thanks to the lovely people at CreativeTourist who devised a survey which combines a number of metrics to produce the list of the top 25 UK art blogs. 

To be eligible, the blog has to be

• written by someone currently living in the UK, 
• updated within the last two months and 
• the majority of its content focused on art and culture (this doesn’t have to be just popular culture but can include visual art, photography and museums collections, too).  

For the avoidance of argument,  their definition of a blog is one where the content (or at least the main part of it) appears in the order in which it was written.

I have to confess I let out a whoop when I saw the new ranking! :)

The Visual Telling of Stories

This is a link to The Visual Telling of Stories - a site created by Dr Chris Mullen who originally created it as course support for the MA Narrative Illustration/Editorial Design course at the University of Brighton.

It's described as:

A LYRICAL ENCYCLOPEDIA OF VISUAL PROPOSITIONS
a visually orientated taxonomy of the ways
in which pictures are used to tell stories

RUGGED DESIGN IN OPPOSITION TO ELEGANCE
This site is purely educational
and records a range of material
dedicated to the study of the Visual Narrative.

This website is one of those gems of the visual arts which I find on the internet from time to time. It's both an archive and a lexicon of the visual narrative and has been put been put together with intelligence, expertise and dedication

If you want a clue as to what it's like - I'd liken it to Handprint in terms of both construction and content. It deserves to be getting the same sort of visitors as Handprint.

I'm not going to tell you what's in there or how to navigate - that would spoil the experience! All I will tell you is that it is simply massive.............and that you MUST keep scrolling if you're not to miss anything.

One of the more interesting pages is the rationale and its connection to the teaching of multimedia within universities in the mid noughties.

I wonder if their views would be the same today. It seems to me that this is a marvellous resource which deserves a much bigger audience.

The website of The Visual Telling of Stories aspires to being a Visual Lexicon, dedicated to the primacy of the Visual Proposition. Above all it tries to create an overall consistency of structure and environment, as if it was all taking place in one characteristic landscape through which you are allowed to wander. The main delight and challenge is the invention of non-linear means of navigation through spaces of knowledge with a created balance of reference and discovery.
Dr Chris Mullen

"Making their Mark" - an audit of visual artists

Having a blog called "Making a Mark" means that you tend to find out about all the other things with a similar name - one of which is an audit of visual artists in Scotland which was commissioned by the Scottish Arts Council and published in 2003.

When I set up this blog I decided that due to the reality that few artists make a living from selling their art, one of its purposes should be to share information and comment on influences on the development of art careers. So I thought it might be a good idea to highlight some of the main findings. So having duly got my written permission to quote from the survey from the Scottish Art Council - here goes!

Bit of background - the Audit was commissioned to provide evidence of the characteristics of the visual arts sector in Scotland and the contribution made by visual artists to the economy. I suspect there was probably some rationale behind it which related to the Council's own funding agreement with the government.

Making their markAn audit of visual artists in Scotland 
- Summary Report
Published by the Scottish Arts Council

"Making their Mark" - the summary report is an interesting read. It tells us about what sort of aspirations artists had in Scotland in 2003, what sort of challenges and difficulties they faced, and what opportunities artists identified and what their views were on their needs for continuing development. Although the findings are specific to Scotland, it's unlikely that the themes are very different from those experienced elsewhere in the world judging by comments I've seen being made in various art forums on the internet.

I personally found the extent of the level of professionalism in terms of initial art education/training and gallery/agent representation both in Scotland and elsewhere to be most encouraging. However, the levels of income being achieved and the level of attention to and spend on marketing and further professional development are rather more negative.

I've summarised the summary(!) of the main findings below. They cover a variety of topics:

Practice

• Media: 60% of all respondents working in the visual arts are engaged with the disciplines of drawing and painting - but there is fair degree of cross-over between different media and new technology is having an impact
• Exhibiting: 94% of respondents had had work exhibited in the previous 2 years. One third had exhibited internationally and a similar percentage has undertaken an overseas residency
• Professionalism: 27% had agent or gallery representation; 19% were represented by an overseas gallery or agent; Respondents were highly trained - 45% are graduates and 37% hold postgraduate art degrees

Working conditions and artists' resources

• nearly 40% of artists have access to a dedicated studio at home;
• older artists are more likely to have a studio at home; younger artists are more likely to rent a studio
• 18% are tenants of a publicly subsidised studio (28% of urban-based and 3% of rural based)
• 63% of those who don't have a studio said cost was the main bar to having one
• of those who have a studio, their main concerns are heat and lighting costs, security of tenure and working conditions
• the report suggests home based studios might have a negative impact on effective communication and networking with peers and wider networks - which can affect professional practice

Information

• the survey identified a clear need to signpost funding schemes and creative opportunities more effectively
• a variety of sources are used to obtain information - the majority use the Scottish Arts Councils; 66% use a-n The Artists Information Company; 41% use the Internet and 15% get their information from other artists

Income and tax

• 38% of visual artists are self-employed with most of them earning their main income from art - although only 7% are registered for VAT (on their gross turnover)
• The report concludes that the levels of income being earned challenges the viability of artists' practice. Levels of income are low compared to the national average and levels of professional qualification;
• Although over 80% of visual artists regard art as their profession,
• 82% are earning less than £10k gross from their art
• 10% earn between £10-20k and
• only 7% earn in excess of £20k from their art.
• 40% of under-35s are making art with no income attached and 44% of younger artists rely on grants and awards for income; by way of contrast some 49% had received no support at all from public or private funds
• earnings other than derived from their artwork come from a variety of sources:
• 66% derive income from other arts related practice (teaching art 37% and arts related occupations 27%)
• 24% earn income outside art
• 25% derive income from benefits and other financial support (while 53% receive no form of state support)

Expenditure

• average spend on practice (by those who responded) was £5k
• average spend: materials 30%; then around 10% spent on each of premises, equipment, assistants/assistance; travel and framing
• only 2% was spent on each of research and professional development/training

Opportunities

• around two thirds of artists identified a significant untapped opportunity to develop sales of contemporary art in Scotland. This opportunity might be better exploited by raising awareness of opportunities to buy contemporary work, more effective use of art fairs and developing buyers confidence
• artists were very clear about their continuing professional development needs - identifying prime needs as being
• improved marketing and promotion skills (60%)
• fundraising skills (40%)
• IT skills (40%)

Barriers

• Artists believe their contribution to culture, society and the economy is not fully recognised (57%) - this offers the opportunity to highlight the role artists can play in communities. Interestingly those located in rural communities felt very much more valued than those living and working in urban settings
• Individual practice suffers from the need to generate income from other work (60%) with under 35s feeling this particularly strongly
• Artists want to invest more of their time in:
• research and development of their work (60%)
• production of their work (60%)
• Artists suffer from poor or localised structures only for promoting their work. Main promotion vehicles are:
• informal, rather than formal, networks. Almost 50% of the respondents indicate this as being the primary way they promote their work
• private galleries (44%)
• their own (modest) publications (42%) [I wonder if this included their own websites?]
• broadcast media (9%)
• Marketing and promotion were identified as a key professional development need by artists. Nearly 40% of artists feel the need to invest more time in promoting their own activity
• only 20% of artists believe galleries are the most important for promotion
• only 10% consider informal networks and public galleries to be the most important for promotion (despite the fact that almost half use informal networks and 36% use public galleries for this purpose)
• Three-quarters of women felt they were unable to develop their practice to its full potential compared to 55% of men - with the inability to afford childcare being a barrier to 40% of artists who are the primary carers of their children.
• The collective voice of artists is difficult to hear. Membership of artists organisations is very unevenly spread. While 55% are members of one of five organisations, 43% of respondents not a member of any sort of organisation.
• Only 13% of respondents felt that "bias" or a "closed shop" mentality was an issue or barrier to them.

This is the link to the full report for those who'd like to know more.

Can I just highlight [read "very small boast" hence very small letters] how, during the course of writing this post, I learned to do nested lists in html as part of my continuing drive to improve my IT skills! [big grin!]