STATE OF TH E ARTS
HOW COLLECTIVES ARE BUILDING A NEW ART WORLD By Charlotte Russell and Hannah Green Art collectives are thriving at the moment. From Belfast to Bristol, communities are emerging from lockdown with a desire to find solidarity in art. They are gaining impressive exposure: the Turner Prize shortlist contains five collectives up for this year’s award. However, their presence also reflects a darker reality to the UK’s art scene. Talking to the collectives in this feature there appears to be a common understanding. Hostility towards the arts, spiralling cuts and political pressure means that more and more artists are seeking support from peers than they are from institutions and/or the government. Their work may have positive outcomes, but their existence comes from a lack of infrastructure and investment in the arts to begin with, tainting the otherwise romantic outlook of these shared, democratic artistic communities. In this issue, we investigate how they are supporting communities fighting issues from gentrification to homophobia. While their existence reveals a lot about our current cultural landscape, these groups are also changing the way we perceive and consume art.
Images courtesy of Gabriel Turner, Jon Beer, and ZEST 7