3. The present (who, what and why)

Participants were asked to apply to the workshop by responding to three questions:


- What are the materials, fascinations and/or contexts of your practice?
- Why do you want to take part in this workshop (be honest)?
- Who or what is missing in institutional arts spaces?


We found their writing extraordinary. Here are some excerpts.


***

I have little experience of these places unfortunately. But I think this is a good thing.

What’s missing?
openings for people like me.
responsiveness
flexibility

The value of complexity. Probing and playing with problems. The inefficiency and reductive nature of language. Being comfortable on the outside, and finding others to occupy this space with. Collaboration as survival. Not solving things, taking care of what doesn't fit, ducking labels. TROUBLE TENSION NUANCE FLUCTUATION. What's happening on the ground - the space where politics and theories play out for real. Making room for failings.

There are unspoken rules of the art space and you only get to know what they are when you trespass. Can I trespass without it being a big deal?

I want to penetrate the seemingly inviolable institutions that I haven't managed to in the nine years since moving to this country. If I'm going to be a ghost, at least I want to walk through walls.

I like not to speak. I like not to be seen. I like wandering through the space going to places I am not meant to go.

What’s missing?
I am. And other outsiders like myself.

What’s missing?
Older emerging artists particularly women. There is so much creative energy that is untapped and undernourished.

What’s missing?
a diversity of people who feel a sense of belonging or entitlement to be there.

I am curious to see what goes on at an arts organisation like AA, I wonder would the people that work there think about what they say before they say it because there is a 'ghost' in the room. I know that there are some things I say to my colleagues that would never say in front of artists or other arts professionals.

A non exhaustive collection of missing things:
- actual HR departments and policies
- policies and ethics that match the way the institution portrays itself and runs its art programme
- 'no blame policy' : this was mentioned to me last week by a friend who used to work at the Glasgow Women’s Library (where no blaming policy exists); it made me realise how much of my interactions with institutions (and sometimes with artists) have had an element of blaming and shaming.
- actual care
- artists: Nic Green suggested the idea of artists mentoring institutions rather than the other way around.
- risk and support for new ideas: making institutions spaces where artists can stretch their practice
- diversity in the office and higher positions: Feels like mainstream institutions are starting to open up to 'diverse' artists, but often the office staff stays very white, heteronormative and middle class.
- training (against unconscious bias, racism awareness training, disability awareness...)

I knew what I was meant to do - how to be calm and say the right things and try to persuade - how to fit in and talk in the right way - and to understand that you are not meant to get angry. But I did not want to do that - I could not do that. Maybe what institutional art spaces need is some more anger? Or to embrace so called negative emotional responses more willingly?

Transparency is the most major thing that is missing!
- a flow chart of how to get access to opportunities
- dictionary of what language to use
- beanbags (i know there's usually some but more would be good)
- POC (more of)
- working class people (more of)
- disabled people (more of)
- plants (more of)

I want to explore ways in which to voice my thoughts and moments from the past. I want to be able to gain courage to speak up about moments in my past, which may make others uncomfortable, but need to be voiced, as they are my truth. I want to keep developing ways to create theatre as a person "not from here", for people both "from here" and "not from here" like myself.

To be able to delve deeper into this element of forbidden rooms, hidden rooms, private rooms, that are not necessarily witnessed by an audience

What’s missing?
People of colour, support for people of colour, a supportive environment for people of colour to survive and thrive rightfully in the arts without always having to prove their place/being seen only within the context of their skin colour and perceived cultural background (cultural stereotypes)
Openness to listen to other cultures and stories from various people as told by the people of said cultures
A willingness to accept various arts practices and ways of perceiving/interacting without comparing them as "less civil/developed than"

There's not much discussion of where the money comes from. Or critique of how the funding system sets unreasonable goals. 

It’s 2019 and the world feels more terrifying by the day. The context is now, the attempt is trying to wrestle some power off the big guys. Sometimes in theatres, sometimes in galleries, sometimes in the street, sometimes on the internet, sometimes through the post.

Even when barriers don't exist, the perception of those barriers existing (I speak as someone with Autism Spectrum Disorder and a history of anxiety and mental health issues) is enough to keep people from even attempting to get involved, choosing instead to try and forge their own paths, just hoping that one day they will be noticed and be brought "inside". How much work is out there that simply isn't being noticed, because of the fear of rejection from a perceived artistic "elite"? Maybe I'm just bitter. Or maybe there's a wealth of artists creating incredible work that we just can't see. Invisible. Just like ghosts. Ah.

A couple of times over the last few years I thought I'd died. So overwhelmed by the vagaries of life, I imagined I was laying out on my bed in a sepulchre, conscious yet unable to move. Observing yet unable to speak or be seen. Dressed in fluttering glittery robes, a shimmering vision, only for those gifted with eyes to see.

Power needs redistribution from these art spaces. It needs to be cracked open and discarded.

Sometimes I wonder, am I part of the problem?

Even though I tried to get involved, I found they are not totally open to every person. Their network consists of people who already know each other.

How to negotiate embodying the almost constant feeling of not quite belonging or being welcome, while wanting to, but also not caring.

I believe strongly in fun. And equality. And freedom. Those are my 3 watch words.

I wonder how can we sit and have so many people support us so intimately and not care about those people (who are like our furniture). I also wonder how we can claim power and joy in the face of subjection without the use of journey narrative that is so common among the suppressed.

I can think of many times when I have been working as an artist hosted by an institution that is there to support art making but I've been made to feel like a ghost. Like I don't exist. One time I was sat around in a 'meet the artists' tea & cake and the producer introduced everyone around the table but missed me out. Another artist had to point this out. It was awkward for everyone else and took me off guard. For the rest of the day in my solo working I struggled to feel ok.

I have encountered a ghost, it was quite an oddly unnerving experience, like it was freaky but it wasn't scary and when I think back to it, it makes me think a lot about endings, about the presence of things dying in front of us all the time, perhaps without notice and with apathy.

What’s missing?
Silliness, failure, accountability, appropriate dialogue around getting things wrong. A particular class of person, a particular accent or mode of address. Hysterical tears, a visible panic-attack. Misconduct from those who are not permitted to misbehave. An effective way of listening, knowing how to listen, or listening in different ways. Beds. Someone from Tile Cross, Birmingham UK - bet there have been very few people from that area, in an institutional art space.

What’s missing?
basic respect
transparency
money for artists and art making
support for artists when they are ill/unable to work, going through life changing hell
an interest in getting out of the building
communication that does not involve comparison, judgement, pressure, gossip
an understanding of local communities and history of the local area

I think cultural institutions have a huge amount of responsibility and often neglect to connect with and provide a platform for many in our communities. 

I don’t perform much. I haven’t done live work for years. I have crippling anxiety about failure and I make it my business to fail. I’d like to start haunting again. I don’t know what’s true anymore, I found my ghost gloves in my underwear drawer and I felt a pull of wild nostalgia.

I love the idea that I can't be seen or spoken to but can still interact and engage with the space I'm in

I once had an encounter with a person in a gorilla suit during my lunch break from a terrible day job which was the highlight of working week. It stays with me decades later. I'd like to be that gorilla. In ghost form.

My practice is still shaping, still figuring it out. I am 37 but took a long time to accept that I wanted to be an artist and still sometimes feel weird saying that out loud.

I want to be a ghost. The restriction is a big draw; I want to work with not talking. I also like the freedom of movement and invisibility it offers.

What’s missing?
The shy and disenfranchised
Willingness to admit error, ignorance, fault in an open receptive manner

I am interested in ghosts and what they do all day!