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The Visual Artists’ News Sheet
November – December 2013
Project profile
Colin Darke, Apples at the Foot of a Tree, billboard work for Newtownards Road, Belfast
Lesley Cherry, Saddle Back Mare with Soliders, billboard work for Newtownards Road, Belfast
Gerry Gleason, Titanic Boatmen, billboard work for Upper Newtownards Road, Belfast
Art for the People DEIRDRE ROBB OF CREATIVE EXCHANGE PROFILES ‘ART IN THE EASTSIDE’ – AN ANNUAL A TWO-WEEK EXHIBITION of contemporary art presented on BILLBOARD SITES ACROSS EAST BELFAST ‘Art in the Eastside’ is a billboard based public art project, founded four years ago by Creative Exchange Artist Studios, the first of its kind to be delivered in Ireland. Through the use of contemporary visual art, ‘Art in the Eastside’ celebrates the creativity of the East Belfast community, where the Creative Exchange members have lived and worked for the past 18 years. This socially engaged project is delivered from mid August through to the end of September each year, via billboards, posters and installations. This, year the project programme was augmented by a showcase exhibition in the Engine Room Gallery, Belfast. Creative Exchange was formed in 1996 when a group of artists based in East Belfast identified a need for additional provision of visual arts facilities and a desire for the exchange of creative ideas. At the time, East Belfast was widely recognised as an area with a particularly weak arts and culture infrastructure, with high levels of social and economic deprivation. In recent years, it has become important to the collective that the project should fit with the wider regeneration of the area and in a small way help the community to move forward into a new shared society. People residing in the local neighbourhood knew little or nothing about us as a collective and considered political mural painters the only local artists; we wanted to help change that notion. We now manage an annual programme of activity, with one main showcase event per year. Up until 2009, the collective were largely focused on exchange programmes and collaborative projects, engaging artists in long, drawn out projects that were challenging and interesting but also time consuming. Some artists felt that this distracted them from their own practice, so we reviewed the programme of activity to create something that didn’t take up as much of our studio time. Instead of exhibiting in a gallery, we thought, why not bring art to the people on the street? That way, members of the public could experience contemporary visual art right on their own doorstep. Artwork placed on billboards is not a new concept, but was new to this area and, if well crafted, we felt it could bring us the kind of attention we wanted as a visual art collective. The project started out relatively small in 2010, representing the Creative Exchange studio artists on nine billboards. We asked each of the
artists to create a new artwork that celebrated an aspect of the area. The theme was broad and could include people, places or things. Funding was tight, but we had annual support for programming from Belfast City Council and the Arts Council of Northern Ireland (ACNI), with a small discount from the billboard company. This first year was a learning process for us, and there were a number of issues and constraints that needed to be addressed. To advise artists on how to develop their work, we looked at the principles of billboard advertising, as there are certain rules and considerations when producing work on that scale. As this was public art, we also had to be careful not to show work that could have been deemed offensive. It was a steep learning curve, with deadlines and artistic personalities to deal with, and it took us a long time to decide on the name of the project. In the end, a consensus was reached on every aspect of the project and ‘Art in the Eastside’ was born. The artists loved seeing their work exhibited on billboards. It’s really something else to see your artwork on such a large scale in a public setting – ample reward for all the hard work. At this stage, it was still intended as a one-off project. However, when we started to plan for the 2011 showcase event, it became clear that the collective wanted to run the project again. Despite it’s success, we were conscious that funders often don’t like to fund exactly the same thing twice, so we reviewed our plans and decided to increase the number of participating artists and billboards. We also included a smallscale run of posters, which Creative Exchange would sell on behalf of the participating artists, taking a small commission. Several artists that we had worked with before were approached to participate, and the project began to develop in that way. We also linked in with the Ulster Bank Festival at Queen’s University, Belfast, in the hope of raising the profile of the project and the collective. At this stage, the project was growing both in scale and cost. Manageability became an issue, with demands on volunteers exceeding what we originally anticipated. So we nominated lead coordinators to manage the project and act as the first point of contact. At the same
Derick Hegarty, Afterglow, billboard work for Albertbridge Road, Belfast
time, we expanded and diversified our funding pool, looking to local businesses for sponsorship. This came first from our landlord and the local undertakers, James Brown Funeral Parlour. Belfast City Council and ACNI, along with the billboard company and printers, offered continued support. In 2011, we doubled the project in size to 26 billboards and worked with even more local business, each of which helped to create an image for the billboard. This proved to be a lot of extra work for us and, while it was good for them to be creatively engaged, it took a lot of effort and time keeping everyone happy. For 2012, we decided not to do this again. Instead, we undertook an open submission for artists who were working at a local level to see if we could manage a competition process. This took the project to a whole new level, as we needed to fundraise, manage our sponsor development, look after a wide range of artists’ needs and manage a dedicated marketing campaign that went beyond the initial concept. All work the work had been done on a voluntary basis, which began to put a real strain on the organisation as the initiative grew. The decision was made that if the project continued to develop professionally, we would need to pay staff to look after the technical, marketing and fundraising aspects. We also needed support from a range of volunteers. This year, we dropped the thematic requirements and again doubled the size of the project – producing 50 billboards and posters. We developed new elements including a walking tour, a community outreach project titled ‘Art Flag Bunting’, a literary project in association with the Seamus Heaney Centre and a showcase exhibition in the Engine Room Gallery, Belfast. The cost of the project was over £40,000, with 12 funders and sponsors, a team of volunteers and paid staff. The highlight of the project was once again the billboards, which featured artwork from selected local, national and International artists. Through an open submission process, we selected 20 artists who came from as near as West Belfast and as far away as Australia. Renowned local artists were invited to contribute: Susan MacWilliam, Victor Sloan, Alice Maher, Colin Darke, Rita Duffy, Aisling O’Beirn, Brendan Jamison, Breandán Clarke and Colin McGookin. They not only bought into the concept, but also supported what we were trying to achieve. In addition, we developed the ‘Art Flag Bunting’ project, which focused on the creation of temporary, participatory public artworks by school children and local community groups. The aim of the project was to create a celebratory reflection of the many iconic features, nationalities and personalities that make up the community of East Belfast. Each artwork said something about the participant’s thoughts and wishes. We made a collage of the artwork and pieced it together to create large-scale outdoor temporary installations, which hung on the railings and buildings of the participating groups and schools. The installations brought a burst of colour to daily life in the area and provided a platform for community expression. Original artwork was exhibited in the Engine Room Gallery in a month-long exhibition, which proved to be a great success. One of our volunteers who had just finished her degree in English suggested asking writers to make comments on some of the billboard images. In Northern Ireland, there is an absence of critical reviews – which has been detrimental to the visual arts over the years – so we supported this idea. We managed to blend paint and ink, creating a small publication of works from students of the Seamus Heaney Centre at Queen’s, published authors and poetry slam winners. It is estimated that 402,000 people will have seen each billboard 15 times over the 2-week run of the project. Each billboard will have been viewed 60,500 times.1 It is fair to say that the artworks, through quality and sheer number, definitely made an impact in the area. The project has just been completed and we are already making preparations for next year. We will take into consideration the feedback received so far and see what can we learn. We are confident that we have all the right ingredients, but there’s always potential for baking a better cake. Deirdre Robb, www.creativeexchange.org.uk Notes 1. Market research was provided JNOR CAFAS database v15