I wrote an opinion piece in the Art of England (issue 77, January 2011) on the issue of artistic plagiarism called “On Learning to Steal”. I start by musing on the usefulness of students learning art by copying works in art galleries. You know the story, littered around the floor… Read More »Artistic Plagiarism: a commentary
A debate started on the Arts Journal on Leadership/Followership raises a number of challenges for arts groups. In my view, the simple lead/follow dichotomy is not helpful as arts organisations are both repositories of a society’s culture (on behalf of people) and a way to placing before the public new… Read More »The digital future of 21st century arts organisations
No doubt many in the arts community are concerned at rising levels of public sector austerity. For many their very existence depends on public funding of one sort or another. Few, though, will of necessity understand the underlying logic why there are public funding programmes for the arts in the… Read More »How to swing the arts funding axe
Art of England (issue 68, 2010) has published a short piece of mine. It is about the ‘grants welfare state’ and proposes that artists should be funded more as investments, over a few years, leading to artistic and financial success, rather than supported through project grants. I see this as… Read More »The Artist as Entrepreneur
Some do indeed worship at the alter of the state. Most artists don’t make a living at their art, and most people who study art formally fail to develop their studies into a viable career. Writing in Art of England magazine recently, I observed that we should start viewing artists… Read More »Art and Money (creativity and poverty?)