Blog
How come I got Arts Council funding? (YIPPEE!)
Installation following Manick's first studio visit. He suggested trying the paintings on the wall.
11/08/2019
When I heard about this funding 'Develop your Creative Practise' I thought it sounded excellent. Funding to shove you up to the next level of your ideas, work, plans, dreams, and a short application form to boot. Being asked to write about your dearest wish is pretty darn easy, and there were enough prompts to focus the dreams into a single shaft of light, shedding the extra bits and thinking more acutely about what was needed to effect them.
I applied for funding for two mentors, Manick Govinda and Sacha Craddock, with a budget for follow-up visits to galleries and venues suggested by the mentors; and for materials, as my pathetic collection of shrivelled paint tubes and manky cheapo brushes is a disgrace. I wanted Sacha because of her enthusiastic involvement in so many aspects of supporting artists, curating, her critical acumen, her general connectedness. She has a long and wide overview of the comings and goings of contemporary art and artists.
I had been aware of Manick for years as a figure in Arts Admin whose name seemed to crop up in connection in lots of practical, effective, useful contexts, and wanted his input to help me order my ideas, suggest ways to gain my targets, marshall the scattered parts of my various projects, and give me some critiique about my Indian connections. I also admired his contrarian viewpoint, sticking to his own ideas instead of conforming to the art world's zeitgeist and dogmas.
I've had funding before for particular commissions and single projects, but this funding will go towards shaping the bigger picture of ordering and realising both the planning I've been doing with regards to securing exhibitions, and with developing my work at a crucial point when I feel I have truly hit my stride, making painted work that feels authentic to me. I have cultivated connections in India that I hope will bear fruit, artists whose work I admire, a couple of curators, some galleries. Working from the Norfolk countryside has made me quite dogged in pursuing opportunities independently.
I applied for funding for two mentors, Manick Govinda and Sacha Craddock, with a budget for follow-up visits to galleries and venues suggested by the mentors; and for materials, as my pathetic collection of shrivelled paint tubes and manky cheapo brushes is a disgrace. I wanted Sacha because of her enthusiastic involvement in so many aspects of supporting artists, curating, her critical acumen, her general connectedness. She has a long and wide overview of the comings and goings of contemporary art and artists.
I had been aware of Manick for years as a figure in Arts Admin whose name seemed to crop up in connection in lots of practical, effective, useful contexts, and wanted his input to help me order my ideas, suggest ways to gain my targets, marshall the scattered parts of my various projects, and give me some critiique about my Indian connections. I also admired his contrarian viewpoint, sticking to his own ideas instead of conforming to the art world's zeitgeist and dogmas.
I've had funding before for particular commissions and single projects, but this funding will go towards shaping the bigger picture of ordering and realising both the planning I've been doing with regards to securing exhibitions, and with developing my work at a crucial point when I feel I have truly hit my stride, making painted work that feels authentic to me. I have cultivated connections in India that I hope will bear fruit, artists whose work I admire, a couple of curators, some galleries. Working from the Norfolk countryside has made me quite dogged in pursuing opportunities independently.
