Creative Britain - encouraging talent and protecting content in the fine arts?

Yesterday, the UK Government announced a new strategy and comprehensive plan for the creative industries - Creative Britain - New Talents for the Economy PDF (1.2mb). All quotes in this piece are from this document.

The question it raises for me is whether or not it is going to build creativity and protect content in the fine art bit of visual arts that I'm particularly interested in.

Our aim is to improve the quality of life for all through cultural and sporting activities, support the pursuit of excellence, and champion the tourism, creative and leisure industries.

A number of things interested me:

• the recognition being given to the value of the creative sector within the UK economy
  
• the proposals - and how these seem to affect the visual arts (or not?)
  
• proposals about action on copyright infringement
  

What are the creative industries?

The Department of Culture Media and Sport defines creative industries
as being those that are based on individual creativity, skill and talent. They also have the potential to create wealth and jobs through developing and exploiting intellectual property.

The creative industries include advertising, architecture, the art and antiques market, crafts, design, designer fashion, film, interactive leisure software, music, the performing arts, publishing, software and computer services, television and radio.

Some facts:

• Two million people are employed in creative jobs in the UK
  
• creative industries contribute £60 billion a year – 7.3 per cent – to the British economy.
  
• in the last ten years, the creative sector has grown at twice the rate of the economy as a whole

Srategic proposals - some highlights

You can read more about the proposals in the document. Some of the government's strategic proposals include

• a 'find your talent' programme for school children - which could involve visits to art exhibitions and galleries; learning about and making films, digital or new media art or making a piece of visual arts or crafts.
  
• the creation of 5,ooo apprenticeships - although none of these appear to be linked in any way with the fine arts.
  
• Five new centres of excellence are to be created - most of which seems to be about using new techology. In fact, an awful lot of the document is about how to access and use new technologies better.
• action to foster and protect intellectual property. This includes a commitment to take action on illegal file sharing by 2009, if industry fails to reach a voluntary solution.

Content protect and action on copyright infringement

We will also explore tougher penalties for copyright infringement. These actions signal the Government’s strong support for the creative industries as we move towards a fully digital world.......The UK-Intellectual Property Office (UK-IPO) will put into action a plan on intellectual property (IP) enforcement.

Not surprisingly, yesterday the press really latched on to the part relating to the protection of copyright and the downloading of content from the internet - but this seems to be almost wholly focused on digital media which is either music or film - in other words pirate discs and illegal downloads.

I've not as yet spotted any references which suggest enhanced protection for visual art. However (through the wonders of word search in pdf documents), I did note that the document does comment on the issues relating to China and copyright recognition and highlights the work of the European Union Intellectual Property Rights II (IPRII) Project. The Government proposes to work in partnership with Chinese authorities to help them meet the challenges of internet infringement and to help build a network of collecting societies.

Comment

Overall, although I've not yet read it in depth from cover to cover, the new strategy appears on reading the summary plus an initial skim to embrace wholeheartedly the music, drama, fashion, digital and animation industries but is less well attuned to the fine arts. Maybe this means that the visual arts are now more about what you can do to produce good animation for the latest games software - and that this is endorsed by the government?

Meanwhile, a separate report by the government's watchdog on school exams was also being reported on yesterday with some national papers suggesting that media studies is a soft option (for example, see "Report on exams reveals the dumbed down subjects"). In fact the study's findings actually say that candidates sitting different subjects have been compared and that media studies students don't achieve the same standards as, for example, those studying English literature. It also notes that 40% of their marks are accounted for by coursework which did not form part of the scope of the review and which the Qualifications and Curriculum Authority recognises requires different sorts of skills. Shame on the Guardian for reporting media studies as 'dumbed down' and not exploring instead how media studies are assessed - especially given this significant new investment by the government announced on the same day!

One final note - I've lost count of the number of times government has used "From the margins to the mainstream" as the title for strategy documents to describe bold innovative change in recent decades. This time it's being used as the title for the associated press release. Speaking personally, my feeling is it doesn't augur well if the department can't even come up with a creative title for its press release!

Finally, I do wonder how all of this fits with the numbers of people, like myself, who begin to involve themselves in the creative sector rather late in the day. I'd like to know whether the support proposed would enable more to make that leap at an earlier stage in their lives and/or whether it is encouraging creative talent in the economy across the age range. I'll be reading the report with interest to find out.

Do you have any thoughts on this topic? If you do leave a comment below.

Links:

• Department of Culture, Media and Sport:
  
• Report -Creative Britain - New Talents for the Economy PDF (1.2mb)
• Press Release: From the Margins to the Mainstream - Government unveils new action plan for the creative industries
  
• Press coverage:
• Guardian: Government pledges to make UK media and arts world leader
• Guardian: Clampdown on web piracy
• Guardian: Burnham targets illegal downloading
• Guardian: Report on exams reveals the 'dumbed down' subjects
• BBC: Pupils promised a quality culture
  

Drawing and singing

Patricia #1
pen and pigment ink
copyright Katherine Tyrrell

These are a couple of drawings from last night's class. The light isn't good enough to get a photo so I've scanned what I can.

I had a lovely model to draw last night called Patricia Hammond who turned out to be a professional mezzo-soprano who performs opera, operetta, oratorio, lieder, art songs and parlour songs. You can hear her sing an excerpt of Claire de Lune her on her website while you read this post if you click the link. So she took a look at my drawings during the break and I heard all about the sort of songs she sings (lots of Bach and Schubert and the sorts of songs you hear at parlour recitals).

Patricia #2
pen and pigment ink
copyright Katherine Tyrrell

She was an absolutely terrific model - and brought a choice of hat and scarves and earrings to wear! She was very well organised and super model to draw. I hope the Princes' Drawing School hires her again very soon.

She also has a fascinating website, an album on Amazon which has a rave review and a page on bebo! I'm very tempted to see if I can go to one of her concerts.

We chatted during the break. She was interested in my drawings and I found it absolutely fascinating to be able to talk with somebody who works in the same way as an artist with an online presence, as it were, but in a different field of the arts.

I was rather pleased with the first two drawings - (and the hoop earrings!).

The third one is awful and has finally convinced me that I need to do these on separate pages unless I can see that I'll be able to get good positions to draw each time. the class was very crowded last night and I was too far away for the last one. Which means I probably need to take two different sized pads to class I think.

RA: "From Russia" plus Fortnums and Waterstones

Tea in the Friends Meeting Room, Royal Academy of Arts, Piccadilly
8" x 11", pencil and coloured pencil in sketchbook
copyright Katherine Tyrrell

Yesterday we had another of our periodic trips into town and a visit to Piccadilly. The routine is we go to whichever exhibition is on at Royal Academy, then have a cup of tea in the Friends Room and I sketch and then we hit the book shops - with both Hatchards and the flagship Waterstones (now Europe's largest bookshop) having lots to keep us happy - potentially for very many hours...... Yesterday we also added in a late visit to Fortnum and Mason's Food Hall - always a treat! (I can now thoroughly recommend Fennel salami)

Royal Academy of Arts: From Russia - French and Russian Master Paintings 1870-1925 from Moscow and St Petersburg

The "From Russia" exhibition was heaving when we visited yesterday! If this is what's it like nearly a month after it opened I hate to think what it was like just after it opened on 26th January! The exhibitions closes on 18 April and I predict it get even busier towards the end.

I'm going to have to go back early one morning in March when it's quieter so I can use the audio guide and look at things properly. Yesterday I made notes in my Moleskine about the paintings I liked

Here's my list - plus links to sites which look useful:

Russian painters

• Isaac Levitan - Summer Evening - masterful simplicity and wonderful use of tonal values and colour. The web image understates the luminescence of the painting and has adjusted the tonal values as well I think.. Other sites indicate he is a master of landscape painting - I think I'll be studying him further.
  
• Isaac Levitan website - in Russian)
• This painting by Levitan is also on display
• wikimedia commons - Isaak Ilitsch Lewitan
• Valentin Serov - Portrait of Sophia Botkina
• Philipp Malyavin - Peasant Women Dancing 1913 (State Russian) [The Whirlwind is very similar]
  
• Nathan Altman (1889 - 1970) - Portrait of Anna Akhmatova 1915 (State Russian)
• Alexander Golovin (1863-1930) - Pavlorsk 1911 (State Tretyakov Gallery)
  

French painters - work in Russian museums

• Cezanne Mont St Victoire (Hermitage)
• Monet - The Pond at Montgeron 1876 (Hermitage)
• Monet - The haystack at Giverny 1888 (Pushkin)
• Monet - Poppy Field 1887 (Hermitage)
• Bonnard - Summer Dance 1912 (Pushkin)

I'm going to be a bit of time tracking down all the links I want to find - so I've published now and if you're interested check back later when I'll have found more links so you can see the paintings and/or a bit ore about them

There were also blown up photographs of the studios of artists and some of the rooms of their pioneer art collectors - including a number of those of Shchukin. I'm now greatly intrigued by Sergei Shchukin who obviously had a good eye and a great deal of nerve to accumulated a very large collection of Matisse, Picasso and Gauguin He also commissioned The Dance II to hang on his staircase. I'm amazed his wikipedia entry is so short.

"He who must not be bored while I sketch" was of the opinion that not all the artwork was by people who could justifiably called Masters. I'd heard the same comment from another person who visited the exhibition. My feeling is that the exhibition tells a story about how modern art emerged in Russia and that probably means that not all the art will necessarily be top rated. However I note that Andrew Lambirth suggests people be selective with their time. Note also that he wasn't doing his review on a press review day and consequently has to see the exhibition along with all us plebs! Of which there are too many. Someday, the Royal Academy is going to see the sense of timed entrance for exhibitions like this...........

In the meantime, maybe they could use some of the sponduliks they're accumulating from the exhibition to make sure they expand their Friends facilities to cope with the number coming into town to see the Exhibition. The Friends Room has become a complete joke in terms of the queues to get tea and the fact that there is never anywhere to sit down. It's not as if there isn't extra space - there is - they just don't open it until 3.30. All they need to do is have it open all day and employ some extra staff for the duration of the exhibition.

Or maybe the people who took on and revolutionised the refreshment experience at the National Gallery and the National Portrait Gallery could transfer their expertise to he Royal Academy? ;)

I bought FAR TOO MANY art books in Waterstones yet again. The haul includes some real goodies though! I'm now not allowed to visit another art bookshop for months!

Links:

• "Be Selective" Andrew Lambirth, The Spectator
• Guardian Unlimited
  
• a video tour of the From Russia exhibition. It takes a bit of time to load but is well worth the wait to see some of the highlights (and more) of the exhibition.
• Forget saving it for the nation - great art must be freed from the vaults is Simon Jenkin's review of the From Russia exhibition and comment on the ridiculous state of affairs which leaves a lot of a museums' collections sitting in vaults rather than being hung on the walls of another museum somewhere in the world.
  

About 90% of the Hermitage's collection is not on view, including works that any other museum, city or nation would give a fortune to exhibit.
Simon Jenkins

The Threadneedle Figurative Prize

The Mall Galleries are championing innovation and excellence in figurative art by launching a brand new art prize designed to showcase the best in new contemporary figurative art. Two major prizes offer the chance to win a total of £35,000: the £25,000 Threadneedle Figurative Prize and the £10,000 Federation of British Artists Selectors' Choice.
Threadneedle Figurative Prize

A major new prize in the UK Art World is always a welcome innovation, especially when it has the backing of the organisations that are involved with this one (see end).

However this is a prize with a difference. The Threadneedle Figurative Prize will be decided by a public vote with voting available on-line and throughout the exhibition. The shortlist of seven works from which the public will choose the winner will be determined by a panel of distinguished selectors.

The competition welcomes direct and authentic statements on themes of topical social, political or environmental interest, as well as re-workings of other traditional figurative themes......The selectors will also welcome submissions that innovate and stretch the boundaries of traditional figurative media, without compromising technique or artistic excellence.
Threadneedle Figurative Prixe - Artist Info and Registration

Below you can fine my summary of what seem to the key points of interest to artists, however obviously it's essential that all those interested in submitting work need to take the time to read the complete 'need to know' page on the Threadneedle Figurative prize website. plus And then read them again!

What are the Prizes? The competition offers the chance to win two major prizes and a total of £35,000: the £25,000 Threadneedle Figurative Prize and the £10,000 Federation of British Artists Selectors' Choice.

Who can submit? The competition is open - but entrants are limited to all artists aged 18 or over on 1 January 2008, living or working in the UK.

What sort of work is eligible?

There are no specific themes or subjects to follow, however, this competition is restricted to ‘figurative' and representational work i.e. work which retains a strong reference to the real world and, in particular, to the human figure.
Threadneedle Figurative Prize - what to submit

It's important to note that all work must have been completed since January 2007 and must not have been submitted or exhhibited in any other prize or competition in the UK or elsewhere. It's not clear to me whether that makes work which has been submitted to any exhibition which has prizes (as opposed to exhibitions like the Singer Friedlander or Jerwood or the Lynn Painter-Stainer - which are all about entrants to a competition with major prizes) are ruled ineligible or not. There's an Open Day at the Mall Galleries on 19th April.

What sort of media is eligible?

The media used may include oil, tempera, acrylic, ink, vinyl, watercolour and other dry media and can be on any form of support (canvas, paper, wood, plastic etc.). Acceptable entries also include original prints and drawings, sculpture, mixed media constructions, small-scale moving image installations, relief and other figurative installations, but not photography or video.
Threadneedle Figurative Prize - what to submit

This is a very wide range of media and it means, for those of us who delight in drawing and dry media, that pastels and/or coloured pencils and/or graphite are all eligible! It's interesting that both subject - figurative - and media lean towards the more traditional. However, judging by entrants to shows by societies which are members of the Federation, I'm sure that there will be a number of very contemporary treatments of both subject matter and media.

How many works can I submit? You can submit up to three works.

How do I submit work? Those used to submitting work to FBA Society exhibitions need to note that the process is a bit different from usual but is similar to that adopted for the Summer Exhibition at the Royal Academy.

First, all people wanting to submit work need to register first - by completing an online form before 20 June 2008. The registration process requires payment by credit card of registration fee of £15 per work (or £10 if you are an FBA society member or NUS student). You also need to have the details of the works you intend to submit - so no speculative registrations! Alternatively you can obtain a paper entry form on provision of details and submission of a registration fee.

All works submitted must be labelled with the correct labels. Exhibition labels are now available as a pdf file. These are exactly the same as the labels used for all works submitted via the FBA offices for FBA Society exhibitions - which means it's worth downloading the file just to have a spare set!

All sculpture and all two dimensional work exceeding 2.4 metres (7 feet 10 and half inches) on the longest dimension are subject to a pre-selection process based on 3 images of the work submitted on CD by 20 June.

What does it cost? Works for sale will have a commission of 35% plus VAT charged on the price paid for works sold during or as a result of the exhibition. Plus the fee for work payable as identified above.

What's the deadline? The website contains details of key dates.

• Registration: All artists wishing to submit need to register by 20th June 2008.
  
• Receiving Days: Works should be delivered, unpacked, to the administration offices of the Mall Galleries at 17 Carlton House Terrace, London SW1Y 5BD between 10:00am and 5:00pm on Sunday 6 July 2008; Monday 7 July 2008 and Tuesday 8 July 2008
• Alternative collection points around the UK: between 28 June - 3 July. Details available on the website
• Collection days: Work not selected for exhibition must be collected between 17th and 19th July from the FBA Offices in Carlton House Terrace or else a fee will be incurred for retrieval from their agents.
  

Who are the selectors? The Selectors are:

• Richard Cork - an award-winning art critic, historian, broadcaster and exhibition curator;
• Angela Flowers - the owner of a leading London Gallery; and
  
• William Packer - an artist, educator and curator.

When's the exhibition? The exhibition will be held in the Mall Galleries between 20th August and 6th September.

How will the public vote? The public will be invited to cast one vote at the exhibition or one vote by email, on a ‘one email, one vote' basis. I'll be asking the FBA how they propose to deal with the fact that many people now have more than one e-mail!

Anything else important? You should note that it is a condition of entry that works exhibited may be photographed and filmed for Press purposes in connection with the exhibition and that all work which is accepted into the exhibition will be available to view online.

Organisations The prize is being organised by the Federation of British Artists which is a registered charity and the umbrella organisation for nine leading art societies, listed on the left. Its aim is to inspire, educate and involve the public in the appreciation and practice of fine art by contemporary artists. The exhibition will be held in the Mall Galleries in The Mall which is the home of exhibitions by societies and members of the FBA. The prize takes the name of the company - Threadneedle Asset Management - which has sponsored last year's very impressive renovation of the Mall Galleries. It's also sponsored by Arts and Business which helps business people support the arts & the arts inspire business people.

Note: Thanks to Bob and the UKCPS Blog to alerting me to this new competition!

Links:

• Threadneedle Figurative Prize, Mall Galleries,17 Carlton House Terrace,London SW1Y 5BD Tel. 0207 930 6844 e-mail threadneedleprize@mallgalleries.com
• the prizes
• what to submit
  
• Need to Know
• registration
• key dates
• exhibition labels
  

Travels with a Sketchbook in Australia - has started

Two views from Circular Quay
- Sydney Harbour Bridge and the Sydney Ferries (pencil, 8" x 11")
- Sydney Opera House from Wolfie's (coloured pencils, 8" x 11")
copyright Katherine Tyrrell

My new series on Travels with a Sketchbook in Australia has started over on my other blog, Travels with a Sketchbook in......

My sister Helen lives in Australia and in 1997 I visited her and her husband Phil and my 'soon to be three' niece Kate in Sydney, the largest city in Australia and the capital of New South Wales.

Making a record of my Australia Sketchbook will remind me about all the wonderful and different aspects of Australia. It'll also probably provide an incentive to visit them again soon - before my nieces grow up and are old enough to start travelling independently to 'do Europe' and visit their aged auntie in the UK!

If you'd like to find out what I got up to on my travels around Sydney and New South Wales with my sketchbook and camera then click this link to visit the first post in the new series - Travels with a Sketchbook in Australia.

Links:

• Travels with a Sketchbook in......
• Travels with a Sketchbook in Australia