York, Becoming The Place To Be
Many cities crave a thriving culture calendar boasting the contemporary visual arts, but very few cities achieve one. However, after a day in York not too long ago I seem rather convinced that those people that once locked out the Scots and more recently, succumbed to becoming a tourist trap, might be on their way to achieving it, or at least a very promising contemporary art scene, writes Darren Murphy …
Arriving bright and early on Saturday from London I walked along the pedestrianised historic wall right up to the river’s edge. York’s beautiful city centre is dominated by its grand 14th century Minster and it’s aged castle, I was certainly impressed by its beauty. Having said all of that, it was to attend an event arranged by the Contemporary Art Society that had me in town. CAS have spoken about their ambitions to become more involved with York, making efforts to engage with it’s flourishing gallery scene; ensuring they can serve one of their original institutional partners, York Art Gallery, as best they can.
York Art Gallery shall be closing at the end of this year until 2015 as it enters a stage of redevelopment, adding over 50% to it’s gallery capacity as well as opening a large garden space to it’s rear, all thanks to a largely philanthropic £8million investment. Laura Turner (Curator of Art) and Jenny Alexander (Assistant Curator of Fine Art) elaborated on the galleries hopes to fill a gap in their contemporary collection; securing £100,000 from Arts Council England to collect a number of contemporary pieces and working with CAS to collect new works. Laura and Jenny explained their ambitions to honour the risqué York-born painter William Etty with this expansion, focusing on the idea of the human skin and flesh.
After York Art Gallery, and lunch, we ventured on to Lotte Inch Gallery; York’s newest contemporary art space. The bijou gallery’s exhibition at the time was Taken for Granted which included works from Gavin Turk, Jeremy Deller, and a host of local artists, culminating in an exploration of the potential for making explicit the intrinsic beauty that lies hidden within everyday objects, experiences, and the forgotten childhood memories that we all take for granted. Lotte (owner/curator) was present to talk about her aims and goals, she elucidated how she hoped to breakdown the barrier that most people experience when confronted with contemporary art by curating shows that entice the public and by developing a programme that engages those that may not otherwise get involved.
From Lotte Inch, we moved on to St Mary’s, a deconsecrated church that York Art Gallery now uses to host annual contemporary installations. Laura Belém’s The Temple of a Thousand Bells is currently installed until the 4th of November; an incredible, touching, peaceful, and absolutely beautiful multi-media installation that I had witnessed and fell in love with at the 2010 Liverpool Biennial. York Art Gallery shall be showing a series of three or four international contemporary artists in the space across 2013 to compensate for the Gallery’s closure, however of course this gives potential to an ever evolving programme even when the Gallery reopens, adding to York’s scene.
The final space we headed to was one to really get you excited about the future of York, New School House Gallery is a young gallery that prides itself on it’s incredible mission to nurture young artists. Each year NSH tirelessly explores degrees shows at art schools up and down the United Kingdom, selecting 53 graduates who can go on to win a residency at the Gallery. This award show, 53 Degrees, really encourages York’s scene, coaxing young artists in to the city.
With all of the above in mind, it’s also worth considering the recent announcement of the North East’s new art prize that certainly surpasses the Turner Prize in terms of its prize fund. The new array of prizes reach a total of £40,000 and are open to artists based in the North East, therefore persuading artists to move to the region. Broken down this prize fund equates to the £9,000 Lim Ai Fang Art Prize, the £6,000 Cheong Kam Hee Art Prize, and for the £20,000 Woon Tai Jee Art Fellowship Prize there shall also be two further consolation prizes of £3,000 and £2,000. There was also last year’s first ever New Lights Art Prize, worth £10,000.
So yes, I think it may very well be safe to say that York (and by extension the North East of England) may very well be, or at least be becoming, the place to be as a member of the contemporary art scene over the coming years.
It would be great if York becomes the place to be for contemporary art in the north east. Having lived and worked in Newcastle as an artist and also lived and worked in York as an artist, I say it has nothing on Newcastle. It is quite a shame that York has seemed to lag behind other northern cities such as Newcastle, Sunderland, Middlesbrough for so long. Affordable studio space is hard to find in York, and there are very few spaces for artists to show large scale works in. Sorry to put a damper on things as there are definitely positive things happening in the city. Lets just hope things keep getting better.