I was at the Insight: Open, Artists' Talks, the opening of an exhibition of a retrospective of work by artists & young people working in partnership with Kids' Own. I've worked for that company in some shape or form since 2000, and I'm so proud of the show.
This post isn't really about Kids' Own... If you want to find out more about the show, please read more here:
http://kidsown.ie/insight-open-artists-talks
The show was opened in this evening, and preceded by a couple of hours of presentations and talks. The conversation centred around themes of collaboration, technology, ownership, private/public- issues which are brought up by artists working with children in residencies and online collaboration and publication. It was very deep, and broad. After we finished talking in small groups, we reported back, and were given the chance to open the floor to any questions.
A chance to ask for... funding?
It's important to note that Martin Drury was opening the event. He holds a senior role an arts director at the Arts Council. Martin started The Ark, a cultural centre for children in Dublin. He has a great sensibility for the work Kids' Own do, and he gave a thoughtful, even poetic summary of the day and response to the work. He then opened for questions...
I didn't count how many general questions were asked on the floor- my impression was that of 10 questions, 6 were of the "we need more funding and support for X" nature. We need funding for professional development, we need funding for this, we need funding for that. I started to notice a pattern, and then the lightbulb went off: oh, they have the ear of the arts council.. why not... ask for some more funding!
What can you do with what you have?
I piped in finally, and pointed out that you can get alot done with no funding. Kids' Own didn't wait around before making Practice.ie - because there's no sense waiting for funding before you do something. Just figure out what you can do with what you have.
Don't have funding for artists' training? Maybe you know a bit about X, and someone else knows a bit about Y. Get together- and do an exchange of skills. Can't find a space? Find a venue where they would get something out of you offering a training workshop for free.
One artist had complained that one training session 5 years ago on Photoshop wasn't enough. In my reply I directed to the artist, that no, the training needs to be about learning-to-learn, keeping your skills up to date- it's a changing sea of tools, software, equipment. And it's up to you to direct your own learning. Yes it is a big time investment, but one that only you can put into it. No amount of funding is going to change that.
I mentioned creative exchanges, un-conferences, camps, etc etc- and encouraged people to exchange emails, and flickrIDs, and keep in contact.
More rural, more motivated...
In the northwest, there's more motivation for us to keep in touch online. It's not like Dublin, we don't have the critical mass. We also need to make more opportunities to get together face to face... and we need to build creative partnerships, and find alternative sources for funding.
Because waiting for a handout from the Arts Council... you'll be waiting a long time. Long before this bubble burst, the money was drying up in the public arts funding in Ireland. In each budget, there was blow after blow and cuts in public spending.
Anyway... my rant is over now.
