Other Academies

This is really just a test post to see if thing still works. The Supported Studios Network had a meeting at Accessible Arts HQ last night and some exciting stuff is afoot. I’m also an iPhone user now and am testing the wordpress app. Here goes…

Hi Folks!

It’s been a little while, but I thought I’d jump back into blogland with the news that Unseen Ways is going up in the UTS Foyer Gallery. Opening tomorrow at 10:30! Come along if you’re around the traps.

DUE TO THE FACT THAT I CANNOT CONTROL MY EXCITEMENT ABOUT THIS NEWS, THIS ENTIRE POST WILL BE IN CAPS. APOLOGIES IF YOU FEEL I AM SHOUTING AT YOU, BUT IF YOU WERE HERE WITH ME I PROBABLY WOULD BE.

GABRIELLE MORDY AND EMMA JOHNSON FROM STUDIO ARTS HAVE BEEN ACCEPTED INTO THE CURATOR MENTORSHIP INITIATIVE RUN BY THE NATIONAL ASSOCIATION FOR THE VISUAL ARTS (NAVA).

FROM THE MEDIA RELEASE:

$60,000 for WINNERS of CURATOR MENTORSHIP INITIATIVE (CMI)

The National Association for the Visual Arts (NAVA) is pleased to announce the winners of the Curator Mentorship Initiative (CMI) supported by the Sidney Myer Fund and administered by NAVA.

The CMI is an opportunity for curators to secure support to undertake a 3 – 12 month mentorship at a gallery, art institution or university.

This initiative fosters the talent that exists amongst the next generation of curators within Australia and assists in the realisation of innovative projects across the country that can push the boundaries of curatorial practice.

The five successful recipients have negotiated a committed partnership with the mentor and partner organisation, and demonstrated the capacity to initiate and produce projects that are critical, stimulating and will excite new audiences.

The projects are scheduled to take place in regional NSW, Melbourne and Sydney. NAVA warmly congratulates the winners:

Emma Johnson, Gabrielle Mordy (curators – joint application) and Professor Colin Rhodes (mentor), Callan Park Gallery, Sydney

Sydney based emerging curators Emma Johnson and Gabrielle Mordy will be mentored by Professor Colin Rhodes to curate an exhibition and present a symposium program at the Callan Park Gallery, Sydney. The program will focus on self taught and ‘outsider’ art by artists from within Studio ARTES Northside, an independent not-for-profit community organisation, providing training and artistic programs for people with disabilities.

CONGRATS TO EMMA, GABRIELLE AND STUDIO ARTES (AS WELL AS THE OTHER WINNERS OF COURSE)!

Thought I’d do a quick post with links to two articles by Colin Rhodes and Adam Geczy. Both were published in Vol 39 No. 1 of Broadsheet, the contemporary visual art & culture journal produced out of the Contemporary Art Centre of SA.

It’s interesting to read the two articles, as they effectively represent the two ends of the spectrum in the outsider art debate. It’s especially interesting because they both work at Sydney College of the Arts. Being the perennial fence-sitter that I am, I actually agree with aspects of both of the articles, and find a number Geczy’s arguments pretty compelling. It is always more interesting to take extreme views, however my own is much more mundane - as well as far less theoretical at its current stage of development – and sits somewhere directly in the middle of the two. My own feeling is that it’s worth attempting to see if a middle path between these two positions can be reached, and whether that middle path actually represents the most beneficial practical outcome for artists such as those discussed in these articles.

So, without any further ado…..

Red Corner: Adam Geczy – The Solid Fraud of Outsider Art
Blue Corner: Colin Rhodes – A Much Maligned Monster: why Outsider Art doesn’t lock horns with the artworld