| Sheffield’s ARTS and Heritage Using our Past to build our FUTURE What’s happening to the arts in Sheffield? Who needs art in hard times? Many voices, many views, come and share yours. Thursday 15 March, 2012 at 6pm The Quaker Meeting House, 10 St. James Street, Sheffield S1 2EW Near to the Cathedral and the Blue Moon café, behind Church Street; 6pm for 6.30 start; refreshments available. Public Meeting – All Welcome Organised by the Sheffield Visual Arts Group, Contacts: Janet Murray (Chair – janet.murray12@btinternet.com, Keith Hayman (kjhayman@talktalk.net) Sheffield Visual Arts Group: Statement and Objectives 1. Who we are 1.1. The Visual Arts Group (VAG) was formed in response to the threat by Sheffield City Council to close the Graves Art Gallery and the subsequent decision to restrict its opening hours. We believe that access to the City’s art collection should not be curtailed in this way. Behind the already well-known paintings on display there is already far more in store including not only a large part of the city’s internationally recognised collection of 20th century paintings and works on paper, but also delicate ivory carvings, Renaissance paintings and a great array of objects and images that, collectively, belong to the people of Sheffield. We therefore presented the following question to a full meeting of the City Council on 7 September 2011: What new measures might be adopted by Sheffield City Council and by the Museums Sheffield Trust to make better use of the city’s visual arts heritage and potential? 1.2. We acknowledge the difficulties facing the City Council at a time of financial austerity but believe that the UK’s fourth largest city should nevertheless: • demonstrate its recognition that the arts are central to our cultural and economic well-being, not a dispensable recreational activity; • show a clear commitment to finding new resources; • set out ambitious, credible plans for developing Sheffield’s art provision in the future; • make available much more of the city’s visual art collection (e.g. using innovative methods such as the Museum of Modern Arts’ idea of Galleries without Walls); and • invest in the staff of Museums Sheffield, whose expertise will be crucial in meeting these objectives. 2. Our standpoint 2.1. We appreciate that there have been many recent, positive developments including the creation of the Millennium Galleries and opening of the Weston Park Museum, and that significant efforts have been made to create stronger links to sections of the population not regarded as having an interest in art. Nonetheless, even at a time of severe public spending cuts, the city cannot stand still. There is substantial evidence from the examples of the new Hepworth Gallery at Wakefield and Turner Gallery in Margate (with visitor numbers in 2011 of 200,000 and 300,000 respectively) to justify prioritising Sheffield’s investment in its art collection. Initiatives such as these clearly show the economic and cultural benefits that flow from the promotion of our visual and creative heritage. 2.2. However, the role of the arts in the life of the city goes far beyond this. Since its growth during and after the Industrial Revolution our city has always been about inventing, creating, making and doing. Design has always been an important part of this production, exemplified in the work of David Mellor among others. Likewise, Sheffield has been at the forefront of many important developments – clean air, affordable housing, cheap public transport, inventive urban design and planning. But in the past our civic leaders have recognised the contribution of the arts to social advance. Enid Hattersley, a long-standing Labour Councillor, in addition to being Lord Mayor, was Chair of the City’s Libraries and Arts Committee from 1968-1980, and embodied the view that Sheffield people would embrace excellence in culture if given access to the best art, music and drama. Together with Frank Constantine, the Director of Arts, she encouraged the modernisation of the city’s collections. Their vision ensured that Sheffield nurtured the talents of its children, including John Hoyland and Jack Smith who went on to become internationally recognised painters. Similarly, during the 1980s when the city was under political and financial assault, the Council still managed to support the growing cultural industries, using its portfolio of buildings to provide homes for musicians, film makers and others, promoting new career paths for the city’s residents including many who were unemployed. It is this same awareness and commitment, we believe, that should inform Sheffield’s approach during the present economic crisis to investing in the creative talents of its citizens and in its visual art collections. 3. Planning for the future 3.1. Today, according to some research reports, there are more artists at work in Sheffield than anywhere else in the Yorkshire and Humberside region, whether they are enjoying art as a spare time activity, working full-time to develop their professional art practice, or have become established practitioners with national/international reputations. The diversity of art practices within the city, together with the infrastructure of exhibition and studio spaces such as the Site Gallery, Persistence Works and S1, has attracted the attention of the national press (see The Independent 30 November 2011 and The Guardian 30 December 2011). It was this same cultural vitality that brought the prestigious Bloomberg New Contemporaries exhibition to Sheffield in 2011, together with the third International Artists’ Book competition hosted by Bank Street Arts, which drew over 170 entries from 22 countries. 3.2 Creative endeavour is not self-sustaining. It involves active engagement with the past; a dialogue that moves backwards and forwards in time across the generations. This is why it is vital that access to Sheffield’s historical collections should not be restricted. We came together as a Steering Group in response to the immediate problems around the Graves Gallery. But we see finding long-term solutions for the display of Sheffield’s major art collections as being inseparable from support for a wide range of contemporary art practices; both are fundamental to the future life of the city. 3.3. Like members of the City Council, we know these are difficult times and the city is faced with some hard decisions. But as in past moments of crisis and change, we believe these can be the best of times to think clearly and set out ambitious and realisable plans for the future. Visual Art Group objectives • To promote the city’s outstanding collection of paintings, drawings and sculpture; • To improve access to the City’s collections and to expand these collections; • To develop, with others, a long-term strategy for the arts relevant to all the citizens of Sheffield. VAG: Daryl Bennett; Judy Hague; Sylvia Harvey; Keith Hayman (kjhayman@talktalk.net); Janet Murray (Chair – janet.murray12@btinternet.com); Vicky Seddon; Dan Sequerra; Amanda Wade. |