Does Autonomy Matter?

PANEL DISCUSSION AND PRINTED PROJECT LAUNCH EVENT
(In association with The Manifesto Club)

6-8pm, Wednesday 5 December (with wine reception)
Gasworks 155 Vauxhall Street, London, SE11 5RH.

To mark the launch of Printed Project’s eighth edition, edited by cultural commentator Munira Mirza, Gasworks, in association with Manifesto Club is hosting a discussion event expanding upon the issue’s focus on ‘artistic freedom – anxiety and aspiration’.


Key Questions
Have issues of artistic autonomy and independence become less relevant as artists’ networks and organisations become more ‘professionalized’ and forge stronger and stronger links with funding and policy bodies?

What have been the consequences for artists’ networks and organisations – along with individual artists – of the increasingly ‘instrumentalised’ view of art being promoted by the planners and funders of cultural policy and activity? As Munira Mirza notes “artists are accused of not being socially useful. Arts organisations are told they must cater to more disadvantaged groups”. And as well as this “the commercial market is also overwhelming, fixing the channels through which artists practice and speak to the public. Should we be concerned about the state of autonomy today or was it ever thus?”

For many contemporary artists the notion of artistic autonomy might be seen as an anachronistic concept that mystifies art practice and distances it from the wider culture. However, has this seemingly laudable stance by artists allowed them to be duped into a subservient relationship to public policy goals and funding criteria?

Panellists
Munira Mirza (Cultural Commentator and Curator / Editor Printed Project)
Andrew Brighton (Writer, Artist and contributing editor for Critical Quarterly)
Sonia Dyer (Artist and Arts Consultant)
Chair: Allessio Antoniolli (Director Gasworks and Triangle Arts Trust)

Artistic Freedom – Anxiety and Aspiration
Curated / edited by Munira Mirza this is the third edition of Printed Project published this year by Visual Artists Ireland. Contributors: JJ Charlesworth, Pauline Hadaway, Paul O’Neill, Andrew Calcutt, Sonya Dyer, Padraic Moore, Cecilia Wee, Dolan Cummings, Emma Ridgway, Becky Shaw, Andrew Brighton, Josie Appleton.

Printed Project
Printed Project is an ongoing collaboration between artists, critics and curators, writers and readers devoted to making sense of contemporary art and culture. Printed Project is supported by the Arts Council / An Chomhairle Ealaíon and the Arts Council of Northern Ireland.

Printed Project is available from selected bookstores world wide and online at www.printedproject.ie