Curatorview [Alfredo Cramerotti]

Exhibitions are not enough: Publicly-funded galleries and artists’ professional development

By: Reyahn King

     

Introduction

Regional galleries working more with visual artists will provide funders, local authorities, galleries and artists with ways to build a sense of place, open doors to technological and innovative ideas, and ensure art reaches wider audiences. Arts Council England should recognise the opportunity created by their own expanded role to rethink the administrative and policy distinctions between galleries with and without collections; and enable and encourage all galleries to engage with contemporary visual artists. To achieve stronger relationships will ultimately mean more investment in artists by publicly-funded institutions. At a time of constraint this expenditure of time and money requires leadership from gallery directors to make the relevance of artists to their organisational purposes clearer and to make their organisations more visibly part of a cultural and creative ecosystem.

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Reyahn King is Head of Heritage Lottery Fund West Midlands, and was formerly Director of Art Galleries, National Museums Liverpool. These are personal opinions and not the view of The Heritage Lottery Fund.