Openness, Curiosity and Promiscuity

by Ruth Barker, 21 Aug 2009

Hello,

today I’m musing on an upcoming event in Lumsden, an Art Breakfast no less, which I’ve been asked to chair ¹.

The title is a good one “Make Friends with Strange People: The pressing need for greater openness, curiosity and promiscuity in the world of art.” and offers a great many starting points – but however will I narrow it down to something useful and interesting? And isn’t it strange that when invited to think about ‘openness’, my immediate response is to close that idea down into something more ‘manageable.’ Is that just me, I wonder, and my cowardly brain? Or could it be something more fundamental about the way we order our thoughts?

Hard to say at this point and, as I say I’m only at the beginning of my musings. It’ll prove a good way into a series of conversations I hope, and I hope likewise that some of you PAR+RS readers will be good enough to join us and offer your thoughts? 26th September in Lumsden – stick it in your diary if you haven’t already. Details below.

More later,
R

¹ Arts Breakfast with Peter Jenkinson and Merlyn Riggs
Village Hall, Lumsden, Aberdeenshire – 26 Sep 2009.

Make Friends with Strange People:
The pressing need for greater openness, curiosity and promiscuity in the world of art

Keynote Speaker: Peter Jenkinson of Channel 4’s Big Art Project

Guest Curator: Ruth Barker of PAR+RS

10am Saturday 26 September

Scottish Sculpture Workshop is delighted to welcome artist Merlyn Riggs to Lumsden, Aberdeenshire, to curate the latest of her series of Arts Breakfasts.

Devised by Merlyn and hosted by primary arts venues in the North East of Scotland, Arts Breakfasts are a series of social events intended to trigger networking and discussion across the region’s art community.

Merlyn has developed the concept of the Arts Breakfast to fill a gap in arts networking. The framework for these is based on the Platonic vision of a symposium as an active exchange of ideas facilitated through shared dining. In keeping with her practice, these events employ the art of hospitality to facilitate interactive, participatory and dialogical occasions, designed to engage participants in a social situation created around food.

With a simple template – listen, eat, talk – she develops and directs each breakfast individually, setting a topic for discussion and forming a theme suited to venue, place and audience.

Arts Breakfasts aim to raise the awareness of the cultural, economic and social importance of the visual arts and creative industries in the wider community, with the overall intention of creating a more sustainable constituency of influence.

Scottish Sculpture Workshop is pleased to invite members of the arts community to take part in an Arts Breakfast focusing around the issue of artists working in a public context.

We are delighted to confirm that our keynote speaker at the Arts Breakfast will be Peter Jenkinson of Channel 4’s “Big Art Project”.
Peter Jenkinson has worked for over 20 years in the cultural sector, passionately advocating and acting for deep and lasting change across the cultural and political landscape.
Leading alongside will be artist and writer Ruth Barker of PAR+RS, who will chair the event.

Date: 10am Saturday 26 September 2009

Venue: Lumsden Village Hall, Main Street, Lumsden
(250 yards south of Scottish Sculpture Workshop)

Tickets: £15 per person
*Please note – pre-booking essential is essential for this event. We recommend early booking as this event is expected to be busy

To reserve a place, please call SSW on 01464 861372 or email us at office@ssw.org.uk