artSOUTH : collaborations
Date uploaded: August 14, 2013
artSOUTH : collaborations
Revealing the region through contemporary art
artSOUTH : collaborations is an ambitious contemporary visual art project, presenting newly commissioned artworks in diverse locations across central Southern England from 7th September to 1st December 2013.
Discover, celebrate and explore the rich heritage and distinctive character of the region in new and unexpected ways. artSOUTH : collaborations has the potential to make you stop, engage, think, and respond. The commissions invite you to explore your surroundings, both urban and rural, and reveal a sense of place and history.
Fifteen organisations have come together, with the support of Arts Council England, to deliver this new exhibition of temporary artworks by leading and emerging artists, including the National Trust, three Universities and nationally-renowned museums and galleries in the region. Through an open-submission process, artists have been invited to respond sensitively and experimentally to the local context of the region; and to identify collaborators or specialists in another field to co-create new work. artSOUTH : collaborations provides a stimulating opportunity for artists and their collaborators to push the boundaries of their practice, and bring their respective skills and experience to realise high quality collaborative works.
Artworks will be presented in variety of settings from galleries to more unusual sites including an ex-rocket testing site, a 1950s cargo steamship, a medieval hall, a beech tree circle and a defensive sea wall. These can be found across the region from Portsmouth and the Isle of Wight in the South East, to the New Forest and Bournemouth in the South West and Romsey and Winchester to the North.
Leading up to and during the exhibition period, artSOUTH : collaborations will present a varied programme of activities and events offering people the opportunity to get involved. Through a series of workshops, trails, talks and interventions, visitors will be invited to consider, discuss and explore how contemporary art is made; what it looks like and what it might mean.
Artists have been selected through an open submission process. Proposals were invited from artists to create new work in collaboration with specialists from another field or discipline in response to a site or context, within the central southen region. The selection panel included guest selector, the Norwegian artist A K Dolven, who brings a wealth of experience to the project, including her own work in the public realm.
Working with the artSOUTH partners, Curator Judy Adam is leading on the overall vision for artSOUTH : collaborations, Gill Nicol of Lightsgoingon (www.lightsgoingon.com) is leading the programme of engagement activities and events and The Audience Agency are leading on the monitoring and evaluation for the project.
