Diary, Exhibition, News / Posted by Rich
PSI3 officially ended on Wednesday with an excellent event at the Gladstone Pottery Museum in Stoke-on-Trent.
There was an overview of all the projects, people had the chance to meet with the artists and there were some thought-provoking speeches by Ros Robins, director of Arts Council West Midlands, and journalist and lecturer Oliver Bennett. Bennett’s talk in particular I found very interesting - he spoke about the role of art and artists in regeneration and the palpable ‘end’ of big, iconic arts regeneration projects. He charted the rise of such projects (Guggenheim in Bilbao, Angel of the North) and the problems of trying to replicate these successes, which is very difficult. It’s not as simple as just building a big arts centre by a renowned architect or installing a massive sculpture. There is a quality involved that you can’t really manufacture or predict - you can do your damnedest to try and engineer such a thing but you cannot guarantee that what results will work itself into the hearts of those that live with it, or that an art gallery will spark the sustained revival of a town or city’s flagging economy.
There is also another debate (in my mind) about whether economic revival should be the goal art in regeneration - please refer to my earlier post with video of Mr Stewart Lee.