Public Assets: Small-scale Arts Organisations and the Production of Value

06 feb 2015

Public talk

Central Saint Martins, University of the Arts London, London.

Public talk Last update: 18 may 2023

Common Practice invites you to a conference to discuss the ways in which small-scale arts organisations produce artistic value beyond measurability and quantification, provide spaces for public experience extra to the market, and in so doing contribute importantly to cultural wealth.

Common Practice, London is an advocacy group working for the recognition and fostering of the small-scale contemporary visual arts sector. The group’s founding members are Afterall, Chisenhale Gallery, Electra, Gasworks, LUX, Matt’s Gallery, Mute Publishing, The Showroom and Studio Voltaire – together representing a diverse range of activities including commissioning, production, publishing, research, exhibitions, residencies and artists’ studios.

‘Cultural wealth’ is a complex term. It is used by governments and cultural industries to describe the economic and ameliorative benefits of the arts but has a longer history in which wealth is understood not as a financial term but rather as one that names what is produced communally as a shared public asset. Changes in public arts funding leave small-scale arts organisations with the task of negotiating and consolidating these two meanings.

Speakers including Jesús Carrillo, Kodwo Eshun, Charlotte Higgins, Maria Lind, Andrea Phillips and Lise Soskolne will address the ways in which it is possible to assert a non-financialised ethos within the current funding landscape of the arts. They will examine practices that are successfully working within the new funding conditions, delivering exhibitions and events that exemplify the arts institution as an essential public asset.

Public Assets: small-scale arts organisations and the production of value
Friday 6 February 2015, 10:00–17:30 (registration 9:30)

Platform Theatre
Central Saint Martins
University of the Arts London
Handyside Street
King’s Cross
London N1C 4AA

Tickets: £10 (includes coffee and lunch)

To purchase tickets follow this link.

For more information visit the Common Practice website.

This event has been organised by Common Practice in collaboration with Andrea Phillips.

Bursaries for travel and accommodation for peer organisations are available (up to £200).

Funds are limited. To apply please send a short statement to info[at]commonpractice.org.uk with the subject line ‘Common Practice Conference Bursary’. Preference will be given according to distance and the budget limitations of the organisation.

Deadline: Monday 12 January 2015