News Archive

The Go Between

9 – 11 September 2009
ATRium and National Museum of Wales Cardiff
See below for information on fees
 

An international cross-disciplinary conference focusing on the role of the artist
in mediating between collections and audiences.

The Conference explores the symbiotic relationship between artists and collections.
As mediator, provocateur, informant or fantasist, it has become the burden of the artist to
act as communicator on and in public spaces. The museum has become a nucleus of creative thinking and a life source for today’s artist. The trend towards collaborations between practicing artists and museum curators has changed the way we view and respond to the modern museum.

Meanwhile, the museum has engaged with creative practices in ways that move beyond the established concept of the ‘artist-in-residence’. From film and animation to music and
performance, in physical and virtual space, and in settings beyond the museum’s walls, museum curators and learning specialists deploy and respond to creative practices in virtually every dimension of their work.

The interrogative mind of the artist has in recent years questioned the system, order and sense of performance associated with our museums. This has been a constructive and occasionally a destructive dialogue. The artist has roamed over past, present and future, and provided insights and innovations on behalf of the museum to assist institutions to reach audiences in fresh ways. The curator uses the freedom of artistic practice to blur curatorial boundaries, challenge stereotypes and open up routes to new audiences. But the artist has also been required to adapt, compromise, and stay within institutional boundaries.

So are the relationships healthy? Does the artist know best how to communicate with the
public or should the curator take back (or remain in) control? When deploying as a ‘go-between’, does the artist lose out, with their practice being secondary to the needs of the institution? Does the artist become recognised for social and communication skills, not for the core business of their practice? Or are such skills at the core business of their practice anyway – and the museum merely finding ways to catch up with this?

The conference brings artists, critics, curators and academics together and poses the questions: What is the responsibility of the today’s museum towards the diversity of creative practices? Why are artists constantly drawn to the museum? How can the creative practice be facilitated or impeded by the museum – and vice versa? And, at what cost?
 

Standard Fee: £200

Offers:
- Artists who register before Tuesday 18 August will be eligible for a special rate of £100.
- All artists that are in some way associated with SCUD are eligible for a 50% discount off the conference fee.

For more information and booking information visit: www.glam.ac.uk/cci
Or email: thegobetween@glam.ac.uk