Artist-led Research Seminar at Foundling Museum

Notes courtesy of Vanda Campbell, artist and teacher. 

FOUNDLING MUSEUM 7.6.19 

@ artquest London @foundlingmuseum Research-led practice.   

Foundling request. Did not want proposals with fixed outcome.  Want artist to challenge the museum’s expectations and collections.  Want artist to explore – have a sense of curiosity.   

Horniman request – artist needs empathy with museum’s objectives/values.  Interested in others looking to re-think their practice. Preferred participatory practices (with visitors, staff).   

Battersea Arts Centre – scratch process – Scratch = encourage artist to share work at early stage, when questions have not been resolved.  
-      Want artist and museum to be collaborators.  
-      The artist is expert in  making; museum is expert in audience and collection.  
-      Gives more opportunity to take risks when focus is on work in progress.  
-      Look for makers\artists who are risk takers: working with communities and focus on social change are important.
-      BAC have Inspiration Day callouts £100 attendance fee paid to participants for development day.  

Key phrase = where art meets society, but switch the priority – where society meets art.   

Clare Twomey – describes herself as an artist who wants to grow.  Does not want to go and do what she already knows.  Welcomes the opportunity to pivot.   

Dr Jane Wildgoose believes that ‘emotional resonance of charge remains in objects’.  

Hannah – think of the legacy of your work.  What is it there for?  What impact (long-term) will it have?  You might not know at the outset but be open and positive that it will.  How can the work that comes next be informed by what has just happened?   

Museum object cataloguing – who is doing the cataloguing?  Is there only one story an object has to tell? 

Anecdotal evidence from attendees that submissions to art exhibitions are more likely to be selected if 3 entries are made, rather than one.  Don’t ever submit just one entry if you can’t afford the entry for three, because the single submission never gets picked.