CuratorSpace is a website which delivers the tools you need to manage art opportunities efficiently and stay in control.

A new website is making it easier for people and organisations to create exciting and well­-managed art opportunities all over the country. It’s called CuratorSpace and is the result of a collaboration between an artist and a web developer in Leeds.

The Art House, The Old Library Project Commission, Limited Edition Works for Fundraising, Ltd Edition Wall Panels by Daniel Heath. Photo credit: The Art House

CuratorSpace is an online resource for anyone who wants to organise art opportunities for exhibitions, residencies, commissions, and more. It allows people to set up and manage their opportunities, share the details with artists and other participants, select contributions and keep track of all the many different communications that often arise. It also makes it easier for artists and contributors to offer their work for selection.

CuratorSpace has been designed and built by Leeds­ based team Louise Atkinson and Philip Bennison. Louise is an experienced artist/curator herself, and Philip is an innovative web developer. The site helps manage open calls by dealing with some of the time ­consuming administration, whilst adding useful tools that make storing and sharing important data and information a simple, secure and efficient process.

CuratorSpace fulfils a need Louise identified from her own work. She said, “I’ve been working as an artist and organising exhibitions for about 15 years. Initially Facebook groups made organising shows easier, but soon opportunities were being shared on different networks, with responses coming back through email, Twitter, Instagram and Facebook etc. making it very difficult to manage, especially if I was organising more than one event at once.

East Street Arts, Open Studios 2014. Photo credit: East Street Arts

The Art House, SOMETIMES Residency, ‘The Inmate World’, video installation by Amelia Crouch. Photo credit: The Art House

“After a conversation with web developer Philip Bennison about how we could create simple tools to help people organising exhibitions to manage submissions from artists, CuratorSpace was born.”
CuratorSpace was launched last year and has already picked up a number of key users – including the complex multi­-site events of Saltaire Inspired and the prestigious East Street Arts, a Leeds­ based artists organisation with a national reach and reputation.

Bradford’s National Media Museum is using CuratorSpace to commission an artist in residence for The Season of Light 2015 – a series of installations and events responding to the UNESCO International Year of Light and Light Based Technologies. More recently, B­side Festival in Dorset have begun using it for their commissions and have been able to create a separate application form in French for French artists – which only goes to show just how adaptable the system is.

The Tetley, The Imaginary Museum curated by Louise Atkinson. Photo credit: Philip Bennison

East Street Arts have been increasingly using CuratorSpace to help manage their events. Lydia Catterall says “because applications remain outside individual email inboxes there’s no
risk of losing anything or missing anyone’s application. Everything is ordered, tidy and in the same format, and our staff can get access anytime they need. What’s more, CuratorSpace is flexible enough to meet our changing needs as we add new spaces, events and projects locally and nationally.”

June Russell from Saltaire Inspired said “managing a call­out online has simply never been easier, and we recommend CuratorSpace highly.”

Louise and Philip are constantly developing the site and its facilities, “we are delighted that the project is getting use by bigger organisations as well as smaller curators and artists – it is what the site was designed for”.

More: Website | Twitter

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Paul Robertson (b. 1958, Birmingham, England) is an artist-curator at Summerhall, Edinburgh, a well-known avant garde art-dealer and art historian, a popular if provocative art-critic, writer and broadcaster and avid art collector.

His background in neurophysiology, psychology, politics and art history has allowed Paul to become curator at Summmerhall—the largest private art museum in Europe that programmes its own spaces. As curator, Robertson has overseen or directly curated 70 exhibitions since August 2012 at Summerhall, as well as other shows in Europe and the USA.

Working as a solo artist Robertson creates false taxonomic systems for individual subjects or genres. His Periodic Table of Bowie will be featured in the V&A’s ‘David Bowie is’ exhibition opening in March 2013. The artwork is now part of the V&A’s permanent collection.

Paul’s First 5 Jobs:

- Chairperson of Scottish Labour Students (first ever person to do it full time)

- Research Assistant at ADLO (Association of Direct Labour Organisations). I did this for five months before watching the clock move in hours for minutes made it intolerable. This is the only time in my life where I worked for someone else.

- Freelance writer and broadcaster – usually under a pseudonym – dealing with matters as wide ranging as science, culture, the internet and Scottish football.

- Managing Director of Labour Communications

- Owner of Heart Fine Art (avant garde book and art dealership)

More: Website | Facebook | Twitter

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We’ve asked professionals in creative industries what jobs they have had in the past to get their foot through the door (or at least pay the rent). For more in the “My First 5 Jobs” series look here.

Who:
Craig Barrowman is a multimedia artist and curator based in Aberdeen. He is a founding member of collaborative art group Stray Dog and recently facilitated the ‘Art + Politics’ strand of Temporary Art School.

WLD/WLVS commissioned tee by Craig Barrowman

Why we like it:
Drawing, painting, photography, sculpture, performance and curating are all part of Barrowman’s creative practice. His website demonstrates his talents in a clear, visual way, enticing you to learn more about them.

Short Trip, 2006 by Craig Barrowman

Hidden treasure:
Short Trip was part of a group exhibition in 2006 where Barrowman took small groups of people out to an undisclosed location (Nigg Bay). He recorded their conversations in the car and played them through the car stereo to the following group of people. Notable praise goes to the brave participants, as well as the artist for this unique project.

Wishing Mountain, 2011

Where to find out more:
Website | Blog | Flickr

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Want to take a look at more suggested blogs by artists? Look here.

1. As a sixteen year-old avid Lincoln City football club fan, I had to find a way to fund this highly addictive and expensive hobby. Up popped a famous Yorkshire supermarket and my employment began. Not the most mind-expanding job but definitely one that taught me a great deal. As I progressed through the hierarchy of stacking orange juice to checking out of date chicken, after a while I was asked to manage the department I was working in for one evening a week. This was my first experience of managing people and I was in at the deep end, when half of them were double my age.

2. After this slightly inconspicuous start, my next foray into employment (after taking a good few years living the life as a student) was through the photography store, Jessops. Joining the dots, there was a relationship to what I wanted to do in the future. I started meeting photographers and creative people, talking to them and asking questions about what they did and telling them about what I was doing. I created some great contacts and of course friends, many of whom I am still in touch with.

3. What may have been seen as a step down in the employment ladder, but what was in fact one of the most important jobs I had was as a cleaner at Staffordshire University. At that time, I found a loophole in the system meaning that if you worked for the University they would pay your post-grad tuition fees. In the third year of my undergraduate course, I finally found my niche and area of practice. It felt a rush to bring everything together in time for the degree show so I wanted to expand this new development in my practice and widen my focus into a fine art field. Working as a cleaner not only paid my tuition fees but also paid me a wage to create new work.

4. After a year of working as a cleaner I was fortunate to be offered the role as a Photography Technician / Instructor at the University covering maternity leave. This gave me the opportunity and insight into the other side of University life and has later led me back to the University this year to teach on the course as a visiting tutor. As well as setting up the studios, darkrooms and maintaining the equipment, I also instructed group and one-one workshops with the students, teaching practical techniques.

5. When I moved to Manchester from Stoke-on-Trent, I started working for Manchester Art Gallery on short-term temporary contracts. This was and has been one of the most beneficial jobs to my progression as a curator and director of an arts organisation and gallery. I was able to both see the inner workings of a large gallery/museum, as well as meet and receive advice and ideas from some of the curators and staff. This was an invaluable support network and helped Blank Media Collective gain a stronger footing within the arts and local community.

You can find out more about Mark’s work on his website. His final exhibition as Blank Media Collective’s Director and Head of Exhibitions, Liz West: Chroma opens on 5 July at BLANKSPACE Gallery, Manchester. Follow Mark on Twitter here.

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We’ve asked professionals in creative industries what jobs they have had in the past to get their foot through the door (or at least pay the rent). For more in the “My First 5 Jobs” series look here.

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I worked freelance for a while after graduating in Fine Art but my first ‘real’ job, as my Dad would call it, was with the University of Dundee’s Museum Services. I was Assistant Curator of Arts and my principle role was to correctly acquisition Duncan of Jordanstone’s art collection into the main University collection. One of the best jobs was the re-housing of a print collection bequest by the Scottish Arts Council, which can now be seen at the Visual Research Centre in Dundee. I also got to clean the zoology collection – I hoovered an emu and buffed a giant tortoise.

From there I went to the Exhibitions Dept at Duncan of Jordanstone as the Assistant Curator and I had the immense pleasure of working with Jenny Brownrigg. The Brownrigg taught me many things and I owe her a lot. We had a great time and produced some excellent projects such as Jerusalem Syndrome with Nathan Coley, discparc an audio label and Paul Butlers Collage Party. We had 7 great years of creative fun.

I then had the urge to sell all of my worldly goods and travel across Canada, get married and have a baby. In between this I was Dundee’s City Coordinator for the Six Cities Design Festival. This was a great experience as I really got to know and love Dundee and make many new contacts.

After the birth of my amazing daughter I became Cultural Projects Officer for the University of Abertay. I ran an annual programme of events and exhibitions in the Hannah Maclure Centre and in their performance space. This is where I become involved in the NEoN project. For the first manifestation of the NEoN Digital Arts Festival my assistant Clare Brennan and myself were asked to curate an interactive exhibition for the public.

By early 2010 we had become fully-fledged NEoN committee members and we help deliver an excellent programme of events in November 2010 having the pleasure of working with Akinori Oishi, Tado, Pictoplasma and Ken Perlin.

This brings me to me to my two current jobs! I am still on the management team for NEoN and my personal ambition is to make this festival Scotland’s leading platform for digital and technology driven arts, which I am sure is the ambition of the committee also. My main day-to-day job is Curatorial Director of Fleet Collective. Lyall Bruce and I set up this art collective out of frustration really – we wanted to bring together the arts and creative industries, mix the organic process of creativity with the structure of business and get the individuals together to make a powerful creative force.

Fleet is commitment to increasing provisions for the creative community and to tackling retention issues by keeping work, opportunities and talent in Scotland. Under one roof we empower a community of creative people by fostering collaborative working practices, we represent artists and manage multi disciplinary creative projects. Fleet Collective is new, fresh and unique, brought together out of a commitment to the arts and a passion to use it to make a better world.

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We’ve asked professionals in creative industries what jobs they have had in the past to get their foot through the door (or at least pay the rent). For more in the “My First 5 Jobs” series look here.

Noteworthiness of employment didn’t feature at all in my formative years. Sales assistant (although that did entail going to a party at one of Richard Branson’s recording studios / mansions with Johnny Rotten in attendance), hospital laundry worker (picking out the false teeth, wigs and surgical implements from the linen and playing hospital basketball with bundled surgical robes) and unforgettably McDonald’s toy tester for the 1996 Olympics (we got driven in a van to an empty warehouse where articulated lorries would back up and disgorge thousands of plastic toys for us to test). None of these count as my first five jobs. Nor does being a security guard at motor plants whilst having a beard of Elizabethan proportions, nor being a 6’4″ Peter Rabbit at an Easter book launch and scaring children or being a TV extra while my then girlfriend got strangled in an 80s club. (I married her later on).

The first five jobs I really count are these:

1)    Artist – after a poor academic start (failed to get into UCL to study Psychology, failed the maths test to train as a nurse in Great Ormond Street, failed to get anywhere near a post-school education) eventually I started drawing things as something to pass the time. I drew terribly but enjoyed it. Improved from terrible to mediocre and went from Foundation to Degree where they reinforced the fact that I was at best mediocre but most likely terrible. Moved into photography and video in order not to fail the course and found what I had been looking for. Films and art together. Since then I completed my Masters in Cardiff, showed my work around and about and won a couple of financially supportive awards.

2)    Outcasting Founder – in tandem with my artistic practice I set up a not-for-profit organisation for the online dissemination of experimental film and video. The site offers regular screenings of work both online and offline, nationally and internationally. Since the launch in 2006 the site has been awarded funding by the Arts Council of Wales to re-develop and expand in 2012 and is also in the process of partnering the development of a National Film Festival in Wales (O4W).

3)    g39 – an artist-led gallery formerly in a three storey Victorian shop in the heart of Cardiff. I exhibited work in the opening show in 1998, then volunteered as an invigilator / technician, had a solo show in 2000, got employed part-time to help run the professional development scheme to support artists, then became a technician and finally co-curator for the past couple of years. We are about to relocate into new premises in an undisclosed location.

4)    Care worker – working for a couple of years with adults with learning disabilities in a residential setting and then as a support worker in a drugs and alcohol short stay unit. I wanted to do something direct and immediate in the real world. Left to our own devices the job was a common sense one but made overcomplicated by company procedure. The tenants I worked with made lasting impressions, sometimes round my neck, but mostly in my heart.

5)    Editor / Writer / Handyman / Researcher / Decorator – a thread running through the lean times and the financially precarious times. These are the ones that offer / have offered respite. Financially, emotionally and mentally. I always thought it would be prudent to develop skills additional to the often non-paying or underpaid skills of being an artist. Things that you can pick up here and there, that you can do in your down time or even in busy times. Things that are work without feeling like work, things that allow you to switch off or switch focus at the right moment in time.

Image by Claire Cousin Photography

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We’ve asked professionals in creative industries what jobs they have had in the past to get their foot through the door (or at least pay the rent). For more in the “My First 5 Jobs” series look here.

My first 5 jobs after graduation from Duncan of Jordanstone College of Art and Design in 1990:

Think I was running 5 at once, nothing changes!

1. I was technician and teaching assistant in the Department of Photography (Fine Art) Duncan of Jordanstone College of Art and Design, Dundee.

2. On Saturdays I was exhibition’s assistant at Seagate Gallery, Dundee.

3. On Saturday evenings I was a Tequila girl selling bucket loads of the crazy stuff – the company wondered why Dundee suddenly peeked as a hotspot! I can’t remember why I gave that one up the commission was great, think it was the smell of alcohol on my apron – to this day I can’t bear the smell of Tequila.

4. I was also a nanny for the wonderful Pat Fisher – this was my fav job by far probably because it never really felt like a job. It was a couple of hours each eve. I do remember feeling very proud walking my three glorious little girls, dog and bike home after school every evening – lovely times.

5. When the contract at Duncan of Jordanstone finished (it was a year’s maternity cover) I moved to Glasgow and set up Fuse : an artist – led support network with free studio space, travel and materials allowance, exhibition and training opportunities for visual artists based in Glasgow this ran till 1999 during this time i also established Fly (now Market) then i moved onto CCA.”

Photo courtesy of David Zérah at Patricia Fleming Projects.

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We’ve asked professionals in creative industries what jobs they have had in the past to get their foot through the door (or at least pay the rent). For more in the “My First 5 Jobs” series look here.

Talbot Rice Gallery, Until September 25th.

‘There is a sweetness about these paintings that can immediately make you think that they are just sentimental, historicised images of children from the 1950s- with their buckled shoes and their party dresses- but you need to look again.’ Pat Fisher, Exhibition curator.

Staying Together, 2010

Seventeen children gaze out from a large bank of pencil drawings- some stare absently into the distance, others squint oddly, whilst some confidently look the viewer straight in the eye. They resemble normal portraits of happy children, posing for their annual school mugshot- but something here is not quite right. Julie Roberts’ works have a disconcerting quality- an awkward dual impression of contemporaneity and out-of-time-ness that creates a sense of the uncanny that is not instantly possible to equate or resolve.

There are no adults here. One young girl prays alone at the edge of her bed, another carries a bouquet of flowers as an unexplained offering, three adolescent boys tuck-in to an anonymously prepared meal- all sharing a contented commitment to their respective mundane pursuits. There are none of the traditional vibrant primary colours of childhood here- instead the work is realised in a stern, muddy palette that Catriona Black describes as being ‘evocative of urine, vomit, and nicotine stained minor’s clubs.’  However, in spite of (or perhaps as a result of) the austerity of their surroundings, there is no sense of despair or longing- each child exhibits a level of mature self-sufficiency that is at once as admirable as it is disquieting.

Will Bradley notes that Roberts ‘builds up meaning in a network or relationships between paintings that extends across her whole body of work, apparently innocent images taking on new overtones as they echo more sinister set-ups’. A consideration of the artists’ early life and previous works is vital in fully appreciating the paintings in Child. Having spent periods of her own childhood in care- Roberts brings an autobiographical implication to the work and, tracing back her previous artistic exploration of institutional structures of power, renderings of medical equipment and apparatus, as well as her depictions of various corpses and cadavers- the works adopt a richer, foreboding aura that resonates around the yawning main gallery space.

There was an initial proposal to adopt Feral Child as title for the whole exhibition- an idea that was rejected for being too emotive and limiting, in favour of the more arresting and ambiguous nature of the shortened Child. Whilst ‘feral’ evokes immediate wild and animalistic connotation, it also defines an organism that leaves or escapes from domesticity to return to a more natural, intrinsic condition. For Roberts’ children, who have been displaced from their familial environment, be it through evacuation, being orphaned and/or taken into care- the description rings with a poignant aptness. (It is interesting also to note that the word feral has a second, unrelated meaning from the Latin ‘feralis’ meaning ‘belonging to the dead’).

Advocation of childhood independence was among the main principles taught by Italian doctor Maria Montessori in her pioneering child education work in the early 19^th century. She promoted a hands-off approach to teaching, allowing for the child’s inherent natural directives to guide their development. Roberts overtly introduces the method in Refugees at the Montessori School, depicting children within an environment designed for this development to flourish; tables and chairs are of a proportionate size and pictures and tools are hung at an appropriate level, allowing the children to function and learn without adult interference. In this instance however, they have been disturbed- all activity is paused, replaced with a collective outward gaze towards the intruding spectator. Their stares filled with puzzlement and annoyance at the unwelcome interruption.

Roberts works from photographs, both found and from her personal family archive, a fact that accounts for the uneasy composition of some of the work here. In Human Material a young boy sits in a stark bathtub- he has no toys, no bubbles, no potential for fun. Curator Pat Fisher invites the viewer to ‘consider the position of things like the soap. Now that is obviously not within the child’s reach’. Reasoning that ‘it could only be me who could reach that soap and wash him.’ Since the original photographs where presumably taken by an adult, this is the perspective offered to the viewer- they are unwittingly implicated as the absent grown-up in the scenario, cast frustratingly in an unfulfillable position of responsibility.

Anne and Margot Frank, 2010

A strong notion of kinship is fostered in Child. The work Staying Together depicts a brother and sister hand-in-hand, strong in the face of their shared isolation and many of the ‘feral children’ exist in bonded pairs- siblings in matching jumpers. Exemplification comes in the painted portrayal of Anne and Margot Frank. Anne (who herself attended a Montessori school) is generally recalled as a lone-figure, but here she is found alongside her elder sister Margot- bound together by a striking facial likeness, matching tunics and grins. The girls, iconic figures of childhood resilience in the face of extreme adversity, remained together through their years of hiding and incarceration before they both finally succumbed to illness within days of one another. Knowledge of the tragic future awaiting Anne and Margot haunts not only their own carefree faces, but extends to the other children in the room, prompting bleak contemplation of what similar fate may lie ahead of them. 

Upstairs in a cabinet of curiosities are old photographs, swatches of aged patterned fabrics and artists’ sketchbooks- as a ‘good housewife’ from the 1950s beams beside her sink in vivid retrocolour, Roberts’ pencil rendering of her stands alongside like an eerie, pallid twin. This offered glimpse into Roberts creative process goes some way to aide the understanding of the uncanny tension found in the final works. This collated material, themselves already depictions of the real, are then subjected to further transition by Roberts through her re-drawing and interpreting them into her stylized paintings. Each stage of the process, from research and collection to the development and realization of the finished works, are directly mediated by the artist, thus being subtly yet indelibly impregnated with traces of her hand and private experience. The results are images that whilst holding a familiar sense of the real, remain inexplicably off-kilter. 

Other works on the upper floor reflect Roberts’ exploration of traditional gender roles- namely within the family institution; daughters act as domestic apprentices to their watchful mothers, folding sheets on wash day and peeling vegetables- at the far end an infant girl tenderly cradles her doll, preparing to train the next generation and perpetuate the established domestic cycle.

The final child to meet is Edna (British Evacuee). Orphaned in the galleries round-room, she is surrounded by an unwieldy floral wall-painting that feels somewhat incongruous to the archaic and autonomous worlds captured elsewhere. Regardless, Edna boasts a now familiar, stoically confident complexion- hat donned and duffle coat fastened to the neck- fully prepared for whatever she is set to face.

Edna (British Evacuee), 2010

The issue of categorising sound raised itself again, along with categorising visuals, while I was compiling notes on all the audiovisual works I received for a concert this weekend as part of the Soundings electroacoustic music weekend. Out of the 50+ works received, only about 7-8 can be performed within the hour available, so it was important to have a good criticism of each one, but keep the notes as brief as possible.

So how do you go about selecting the pieces? Well, to start with, the brief for the call was deliberately vague (…syncraesthesia: n. the fusion of acousmatic sound and abstract vision to create an immersive audiovisual experience; see also synchresis and synaesthesia…), but there were a few entries that didn’t quite fit, so they were out, no matter how good.

Next, Soundings itself is mainly about electroacoustic music – but that really covers any manipulation of sound, from the very musical through to the sound of a CD drawer glitching for 25 minutes (yes, that is a real recorded piece of music). In practice, though, very recognizably classic or ‘pop/rock’ is out. But wouldn’t you know – that eliminated almost no-one.

So, it came down to a set discipline for each one – listen to it without the video. Then watch it without the audio. Then watch and listen to the full thing. And make notes at each stage. Did the sound hold up as an interesting composition in itself? Was the video interesting enough to watch as a silent movie? And, crucially, did the two aspects synthesize to form something that was definitely more than the sum of its parts? This led to a shortlist of particularly outstanding pieces, and then it became apparent that there were audio and visual themes that could be explored between certain of them to give shape to about an hour’s worth of work. And a final list was created – I think it’s well worth a look and listen, and hope you will too. And maybe a listen in on one of the other concerts over the weekend – there’s a lot of interesting work being performed, and a chance to talk with many of the composers.

So that’s how the list was selected – though. I still have two other potential lists, with completely different works, that I’m itching to show another time…

But the good thing is that there will be another time, and plenty more of them. There’s more and more happening in this sound/visual art, the combination of soundscapes, electronic and digitally manipulated sounds with experimental and abstract video. Soundings is just one opportunity for this work to be shown – I hope to see and be involved with many more.

Find out more about Soundings here.

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Mix-Blog: A bit like a mix-tape but with blogs instead. Read more from the series here.