The Director's Cut: Alex Farquharson, Nottingham Contemporary from Axisweb on Vimeo.
‘I love this building,’ says Alex Farquharson with a broad smile. The Nottingham Contemporary director is clearly besotted by his place of work, and it’s easy to see why.
The gallery’s architects Caruso St John have provided Farquharson with a wonderful space to work with.
They are also responsible for the similarly subtle yet robust New Art Gallery Walsall, and like that building, Nottingham Contemporary makes its mark in the landscape in a winningly warm and human way.
Rather than overpowering the history-rich buildings of the city’s Lace Market district, it rests easy with its surroundings. It is bold but never boorish.
We’re filming our interview in the gallery’s light-filled meeting room. Trams trundle by outside and autumn rain spatters the large, floor-to-ceiling window.
Farquharson is charming and focused, calm yet conscious of his time. It’s a busy day, he says, lots going on. He’s been bunkered down in his office prior to our chat, on the phone, talking to staff, doing the things a director does.
Art galleries don’t run themselves, however well designed.
Nottingham Contemporary opened on November 14 2009, Farquharson became director in April 2007.
A freelance curator based in London before taking on the role, he was already familiar with Nottingham’s art scene having curated British Art Show 6 in the city in 2005.
The gallery has enjoyed a hugely successful first year under his leadership, surpassing its target of 200,000 visitors by some 90,000.
From its opening exhibitions by David Hockney and LA-based artist Frances Stark, it has presented a programme of contemporary art that has attracted curiosity and acclaim, marking it out as a gallery with ambition, imagination and a genuinely international perspective.
Yet as well as generating attention nationally with its exhibitions, Farquharson believes the gallery has a key role as a galvanizing hub for the local art scene.
Conceived in rather better economic times as part of a wider regeneration plan for the city, by the time the gallery opened the country was in the middle of a recession.
It celebrates its first birthday in the most challenging economic climate for the arts since the 1980s.
So, there are undoubtedly difficult times ahead.
Farquharson, however, remains positive about the future. He is ready for the challenge, leading from the front on both the gallery’s artistic direction and its financial survival.
‘I think,’ he says, ‘that the key thing is to get through the next three years without significantly reducing what it is we offer and the impact we have.’
With funding cuts and public sector job losses looming large, such things are likely to be on every gallery director’s mind.
In Farquharson, you feel, Nottingham Contemporary has someone with the energy, guile and focus to steer his organisation through any troubled waters that may lie ahead.
©Chris Sharratt, November 2010
Watch the rest of The Director's Cut series on Axis
More Information
For information on Nottingham Contemporary’s programme of exhibitions and events, visit nottinghamcontemporary.org
The British Art Show 7, In the Days of the Comet, curated by Lisa Le Feuvre and Tom Morton, was showing at Nottingham Contemporary during filming; the show runs 23 October 2010 - 9 January 2011 and then tours to London, Glasgow and Plymouth. Axis Chief Executive Sheila McGregor writes about the exhibition on the Axis webzine, looking at how it compares to its previous incarnations www.axisweb.org/webzine/bas7review
Read Wayne Burrows' article Nottingham Art City, about the artist-led scene in Nottingham on Creative Times
Credits
The Director's Cut is a collaboration between Axis and Creative Times in association with Lumen.
Concept, Interview and Art Direction: Chris Sharratt (Creative Times)
Editor: Lucy Bannister (Axis)
Filming, production and editing: Phil Slocombe (Lumen)
Sound production: Stuart Bannister (Lumen)
The video and The Director's Cut series is also available to view on creativetimes.co.uk
Watch the rest of The Director's Cut series on Axis
