What support is there for artists/companies who are not new or emerging?

Mark Smith, 2 October 2012

Present: Mark Smith, Martin Harris, Porl Cooper, Nerissa cargill Thompson, Roger Hill, Adrian Turrell Wattts, Ali

The group agreed that there was no real support for those who are deemed mid-career.

We discussed the reasons behind the question.

Mark explained he simply wanted to know what existed, he was asked ‘then what do you need?’ mark explained a feeling of floating along and this was uncomfortable.

The group agreed that there was no issue with the support for new and emerging companies and it was not an issue of age.

Roger - expressed that we are in the void between being new and emerging and established, this was felt to be a vulnerable feeling. Roger proposed that there should be a discernible time line of the stages of a creative career, that means you could access support, he proposed this was a body of work that could or should be addressed by ACE. As previously ACE had addressed the access of young people in to the industry, it was expressed that very talented artists were leaving the profession because of lack of access to larger venues. It was felt that larger scale producing venues were risk averse to non established artists on there main stages. This was felt to be a frustrating experience for some of the group.

Mark expressed that ACE should advocate for Mid-Career artists as they were doing for new and emerging.

Porl expressed that he would never turn away an artist from a conversation.

Mark said that he felt The Lowry was very different in the fact that the perception of the them was that they open to that dialogue, whereas other venues were less likely to this.

Mark said it was difficult to approach venues without the knowledge that they were approachable, a suggested approach might be that venues sign post who is best to contact and that they do support mid career artists. This was felt to address this perception that venues were not approachable.

This was not a question about money this was a question about venues indicating that they value mid career artists.

The question was then proposed of ‘What support do we need as mid career artists?’

It was different for everyone, but the consensus was that venues could indicate that they care.

It was also mentioned that there was a breadth of experience being lost to those new and emerging companies in terms of mentoring possibilities - Porl explained that they have recently altered there experience for artists in development. Ali also mentioned Quarantines' ‘Knowledge exchange’ a mentoring programme that was both beneficial for the company and individual artists.

Roger proposed that it might be interesting to see how other nations support there mid career artists.

It was agreed that mid career artists require support such as those who are new and emerging, such as access to develop relationships with venues. It was proposed that this was not a pitching session but a simple meet and talk about what work you have been up to. 

Mark expressed that it had not fully answered his question but not having an answer was equally beneficial as it demanded further enquiry to what he and others might require.

Tags: mid career artists, support, Support