There has been a recent spate of stole bronze sculptures around the country.  It would seem that our public art is being vandalised for the purpose of making money from the bronze content.  We have been in contact with the Gardaí about the matter, and  hope to get our members to help in finding the criminals.  When the structures are in place we will ask our members to let us know of sculptures in their area that have gone missing, and approximately when.  This will be helpful to the police in finding if there is a pattern.  In addition, we will ask our members to check with local foundaries or smelting facilities and see if they have recently been offered “scrap” bronze, though in likelihood it has probably gone abroad as our foundaries have undertaken to check the source of bronze being offered to them.  More soon from us on this…

…French museums had more than 26 million visitors in 2010, a figure more or less stable for three years. Theatre ticket sales are up, cinemas are full, the books industry is growing and French audiences are responding to the financial crisis by spending less on holidays and more on the arts. Major new building projects are under way – despite rows and setbacks – including the Paris Philharmonic and Marseille’s MuCEM, the Museum of Civilisations from Europe and the Mediterranean…

Taken from The Guardian: France and the arts: a new revolution
Culture and the arts in France have traditionally been seen as sacrosanct, and thus considered immune to the state funding cuts sweeping the rest of Europe. But all that may be changing

On Tuesday 14 March the Work and Pensions Select Committee published the Government’s response to their First Report of Session 2010-11, entitled ‘Youth Unemployment and the Future Jobs Fund’. The report is available online here.

“For example, some employers were not routinely taking on young people so the experience of a more diverse workforce was a positive for many. One industry that benefited in particular was the cultural sector. Traditionally recruitment into this area is felt to be the preserve of a narrow socio-economic group who are able to work as unpaid interns. It was felt that the Future Jobs Fund enabled young people from a more diverse range of backgrounds to gain skills to help them pursue a career in the cultural sector.”

Full news blog on the New Deal of the Mind site

The Unhappy Hipsters site lifted our spirits today…

Due to a last minute cancellation, a place has become available on the ever popular and usually over subscribed workshop Proposals with Kerry MCall & Brian Connolly.  Taking place tomorrow, Weds 16 March @ Ards Art Centre, first person to get in touch with the office will get the place.  Details on our website – Price £15 for non-members and £10 for VAI, BX, DAS & Play Resource members.

A Beginners Guide to Art Bollocks with Jason Oakley editor of  the Visual Artists News Sheet on Tuesday 1 Mar @ Ormeau Baths Gallery has received coverage from Culture Northern Ireland

A Beginners Guide to Art Bollocks was part of the OBG and VAI Critical Writing Competition 2011.  Jason’s talk, “which he mischievously called ‘A guide to useless and ridiculous art appendages’, isn’t a critique or a dissection of the language of art critics. It is more to find a balance between justification and jollification of the *cultural hegemony of wilfully opaque critical discourse.  Oakley’s keen to assure us from the start that the ‘bollocks’ in question are non-gender specific. Everyone is relieved to learn obfuscatory art criticism is not principally a masculine pursuit.”

Check it on on Culture Northern Ireland website complete with audio.  Further details of our Professional Development programme are available here.

It was interesting to hear an update on progress with the DerryLondonDerry project as the UK Capital of Culture.  We are looking forward to hearing more about what will be happening.  This weekend’s paper was full of the first evidence of sponsorship, as BT has undertaken to provide the entire city with fibre optic broadband before 2013.

As a first time visitor to Leeds, it was interesting to see a city that at first sight appears to have no fears about the intermixing of different architectural styles and periods.   Our reason for being there was to visit with East Street Arts.

ESA is “a contemporary arts organisation in Leeds.”  Their “mission is to focus on the development of artists through their events programme, membership activities, professional development and studio/facility provision.”  What is very interesting is to see their deep involvement in many different projects across Leeds, with off sight programmes, studios etc being only one part.  In particular their approach to vacant properties was both innovative and very interesting to consider within an Irish context.

At the meeting we agreed that both VAI and ESA have an amount that we can learn from each other, and with this in mind ESA will bring a group to Ireland to meet and discuss common areas of interest with the visual artist community here.  More about that when we start the detailed planning.

We have been fairly conscious that our video editing software has been in need of updating for some time.  Recently we delivered a number of services on behalf of cultural organisations that has allowed us to invest in an upgrade.  So we now have Final Cut Pro 7 installed and waiting for members to take up using it.

Sometimes we have things happening or places that we have been that we think it would be good to let our membership know about.  For that reason we are starting this new section.  It may take some time to get an amount of content, but we hope that it will give even greater insight into the day to day working and thinking of VAI and its staff members.