The Art of Influencing Change

The engage/enquire International Conference has become a major annual event that brings together over 200 arts and education professionals from the United Kingdom and other countries. Axis are media partners for the 2010 conference, 'The Art of Influencing Change'. Read our LIVE tweets and find out more here...

On the final day of the engage/enquire 2010 International Conference we quickly caught up with some of the delegates to find out what issues have meant the most to them, what they think about art's ability to affect change, and what ideas they will be taking away with them. Watch the videos and leave your comments.

The British Art Show 7, a snap-shot of art in Britain in 2010, is currently showing in Nottingham and tours the UK next year; Axis Chief Executive Sheila McGregor visited the show in its inaugural city and looks at how it sits alongside the other five British Art Shows she has seen in her career.

Sophie Hope is the Axis blogger and official Conference Observer throughout the engage/enquire conference, 3- 5 November 2010. Join her as she brings her views on the proceedings and you can join in the discussions by leaving comments below.

Helen Kaplinsky reviews the work of Sarah Lucas, Simon Fujiwara, Laure Provoust and AIDS-3D at this year’s Frieze Art Fair and finds a trend of mock modernism running throughout the fair.

Join webzine editor Lucy Bannister as she takes in the opening weekend of Manifesta 8; the latest incarnation of the roving European contemporary art biennial that takes place across the region of Murcia, Spain, from 9 October 2010 until 9 January 2011.

In May 2010 Cornwall hosted The Falmouth Convention – an international conference examining the importance of site and place in contemporary art. The key note speaker was Lucy R. Lippard and here she reflects on the convention six months on, considering the impact an event like Manifesta might have on local art practice and wider implications regarding change and potential models for art in rural communities.

Ryya Bread is the curator of Kestle Barton situated in Helston on The Lizard peninsula in Cornwall. This interview examines questions of working in the arts in a rural environment, place-based practice and getting beyond the ‘local’.

Steven Paige is an artist based in St.Just, near Lands End. He is part of the steering group for Cornwall's Manifesta bid and he attended The Falmouth Convention. Steven talks about what it is like to live in a geographically dispersed area, where artists have to work twice as hard to simply ‘make things happen’.

Alan Davey, Chief Executive of Arts Council England, faced a fierce interrogation during the Culture, Media and Sport Select Committee enquiry into the funding of the arts and heritage on 12 October. Watch the Select Committee proceedings here...

With the threat of cuts in government funding looming large for the arts (and many other sectors in the UK) Axis Chief Executive Sheila McGregor talks to Radio New Zealand about what this will mean. We also introduce the I Value The Arts campaign through which you can pledge your support of the arts.

Is it possible to develop artistic projects that not only change the way we see and use technology but also affect real social change at the same time? Ruth Catlow introduces the Zero Dollar Laptop project and proposes that this might just be possible.

This autumn much of the art world's attention will be on the funding cuts, and how the arts can survive through the lean years. Yet at the same time there is a ground swell of opposition to big oil companies's financial support of arts institutions. Artist Maya Ramsay examines the ethics and politics of philanthropy and private sponsorship.

What impact can the arts sector really have on the big issues that affect us? Can art actually change attitudes about climate change? Peter Gingold, founder and Co-Director of TippingPoint, an organisation dedicated to ‘energising the creative response to climate change’, looks at how the arts could make a difference.

Interpretation panels, they seem to polarise audiences in a similar way to Marmite! Tate Britain has recently removed a large majority of their labelling, potentially setting a trend towards reduced interpretation in galleries. In light of this Chris Sharratt discusses the success and failures of those less than innocent pieces of text.

Sexual harassment in the workplace is traumatic no matter what industry you work in, but Becky Hunter is concerned that in the art world, the blurring of boundaries between work and social life and the informal nature of artist-led organisations means it is hard for those that are suffering to seek help.

As students take to the capital's art galleries in protest against tuition fees and arts funding cuts, artist Jim Colquhoun questions the motives and the desired outcomes of this revolt. Are the protestors simply asking to be part of the elite?

For our 50th Rant Edinburgh-based writer and curator Jenny Richards investigates organisational collaboration. In times of austerity what will organisations have to gain or surrender from sharing resources and physical space?

What is 'participatory art' and does it really bring about social change? Has 'participation' become an over-used, under-critiqued word in art practice today? Ben Jones feels we need to put the question of what constitutes participation back on the agenda.

How do we expose young people in schools to art whilst retaining its alternative status? Does defining art as part of academia dull its potential to challenge the traditions of learning? Matthew Giraudeau questions the value of art within education.

Is it time for artists to start finding alternative funding strategies? Could making commercial work to fund non-commercial output release artists from the funding crisis? David Trigg thinks there are ways to fund individual artists that don't involve the Arts Council.

Are current trends of non-payment and free labour perpetuating a new ideal where artists are becoming distinctly bourgeois? Guyan Porter questions purportedly leftist and radical practice that promotes art as being apart from common economics and, consequently, from payment.

What is the prevalence of the knitted cake doing for the radical claims of craftivism? Does it undermine the political and feminist critique of the DIY craft revival? Ele Carpenter looks at activist tendencies in craft in relation to contemporary capitalism.