MAKING A LIVING: Artistic Survival in 2009
Saturday 26 September 2009, 2pm - 5pm
Turn up and pitch in! A chance to share different approaches and ideas to sustain critical art practices before, during and after the recession.
MAKING A LIVING aims to highlight and discuss diverse ideologies underlying how we support and sustain 'critical art practices'. How do our conceptual and pragmatic assertions impact on the way we choose to make a living and vice versa? We will investigate and invent a range of economic and conceptual models of artistic survival that move beyond the knee-jerk reaction to become 'culturpreneurs' in the creative industries.
As well as the issue of aiming to make a living through art we will ask ourselves what are the side-effects of such a career path, what are the alternatives and how do we negotiate the cultural production line we are inevitably a part of?
As a playful exercise in opening up the debate around these issues, attendees will be asked to decide how to spend the funding we received for this event - £500 from the Austrian Cultural Forum. There will also be an opportunity on the day for anyone present to tell us their ideas, experiences, ruminations, convictions and strategies of sustaining a critical art practice during five minute soapbox sessions followed by discussion on these proposals.
*RSVP to [email protected] If you would like to contribute but can't physically be there - email me with a suggestion, comment, anecdote and/or any relevant weblinks by 21 September and we will endeavour to include them on the day.
The meeting will be recorded and documentation available later in the year.
Date: Saturday 26 September 2009, 1400h-1700h
Location: Austrian Cultural Forum, 28 Rutland Gate, London SW7 1PQ This event is free! Tea, coffee and snacks will be served.