Art and Regeneration

Artist Laura Oldfield Ford will send regular 'tweets' from Future Perfect; she will be bringing her perspective on the seminars, discussions and general chit-chat of the conference for you to follow here on Axis and on Twitter. Laura's artistic practice seeks to find the point of transition between aesthetic practice and radical critique of the city; she frequently engages with polemics and subjectivity through her zine Savage Messiah.

The National Federation of Artists’ Studio Providers (NFASP) works for groups and organisations that provide affordable studios for artists and as a campaigning body ‘to secure, sustain, improve and increase affordable studio provision in England’. Val Millington Director of the NFASP gives an insightful overview of current studio provision in England and the impact that the London 2012 Olympic regeneration programme is having on artists’ studios.

Dialogue visited Contemporary Art Manchester's (CAM) inaugural show, 'Trade City' in July. After discussions with the members of CAM, Dialogue commissioned artist Jonathan Swain to create an evaluative case study of the consortium's activities to reflect on and present their work. Jonathan visited Manchester to unpick the process that CAM are going through in order to effect a bottom-up cultural regeneration for their city.

It is a question that gets asked every time a new winner is announced - what is the value (beyond monetary) of art prizes? Specifically this question, and the resulting debate, becomes more heated when prizes are de-centralised, and come from a specific region. In this forum we invite you to take part in an open debate on the issues arising from art prizes with a focus on the Northern Art Prize and Artes Mundi.

What is the value of cultural buildings? Do we really need them? Could we actually get along just fine using valleys, meadows or disused airfields for our cultural life instead, at a fraction of the cost to the taxpayer? Axis Chief Executive Sheila McGregor doesn't think so. She argues that art DOES need buildings and we shouldn't turn our backs on building new ones.

In this debate we ask you to join in with the discussion about the positive and negative aspects of the regeneration of the Lea Valley and surrounding areas of east London for the 2012 Olympics, and examine the impact that it is having on artistic and cultural activity in the area. We also ask those of you who are familiar with regeneration in other parts of the country to contribute your own experiences of regeneration and its impact on artistic and cultural life.

When we think of regeneration, its impact and the role of artists within developments, does sound come to mind? Most often sound is considered as nuisance - noise to be eliminated - rather than having a positive, enhancing role within our environment. Max Dixon looks at the importance of sound in cities undergoing regeneration and how artists can have a lasting impact within regeneration schemes by creating a positive role for sound within our urban lives.

Sophie Hope, Conference Observer, brings you her view point on the goings on at the engage conference each day. A perfect way to key into what is happening if you can't be there, or to see another point of view if you are. You can comment on Sophie's blogs and discuss the issues raised.

In her final Rant Jennifer Allen welcomes in the new decade with a crticial eye on the artists that have dominated the art press over the last ten years. Browsing the lists of what was hot and the musings and reflections on what has passed, do they actually reveal how narrow the mainstream critical focus on contemporary art really is? Do Damien Hirst and Tracy Emin really warrant all the attention that is bestowed upon them?

With the art world placing great value on the internationalism of artworks, artists, curators, exhibitions and pretty much everything else it's no wonder that the carbon footprint of a succesful art work and its artist reaches 'King Kong dimensions'. With a distrust for provincialism and the ever present suspicion of the 'local', Jennifer Allen asks how will the artworld ever address it's responsibility to the planet?

How was your hangover the morning after the last exhibition opening you attended? Do you remember the art? Jennifer Allen does the maths on how much you might end up drinking on a preview night and asks: what role does alcohol really play in the art world? Is art and alcohol the ultimate crossover movement in art?

Jennifer Allen's first Rant explores the contention that surrounds the writings of academic and art critic Dr. Claire Bishop. Bishop is currently Associate Professor of Art History at The City University of New York; her main concerns are with socially-engaged art and spectatorship and she co-curated the exhibition 'Double Agent' earlier this year. So how does she seem to rile people so much when she puts pen to paper? We've given Jennifer a special 'uncut' slot to explore this complex topic.