I have been invited to offer my views on the necessity to work with local and visiting artists in order to create a thriving and open art community in Guernsey, and I very much welcome this opportunity.
Firstly, I would like to briefly introduce Art for Guernsey and its ethos and goals.
Art for Guernsey was created a bit more than 9 years ago, as a response to the incredible amount of decency and integrity that I found on the island. Art for Guernsey doesn’t exist because of my passion for Art, but because I feel passionate about Guernsey and somehow, I wanted to pull my weight and contribute to our community. It is very important to understand that because while, after more than 100 exhibitions and various projects, I would like to think that our team became pretty good at it, in fact, I don’t look at us as an art organisation, but instead as a local charity which applies Art as a strategy for the greater of the island.
Our curating line is that if there is nothing in it for Guernsey, we don’t do it. Simple.
Another very important point to understand is that we don’t get a penny from the public purse to fund our running costs, so we have to be entrepreneurial and generate revenues. Sometimes it is difficult, but on the positive side, it gives us a great deal of autonomy and total freedom in the way we select our projects. Over the years, we developed a thriving artist-in-residence program, arranged countless exhibitions and workshop opportunities for local artists, launched two innovative education initiatives with the local schools, and engaged endlessly with the community and the disability alliance in so many ways that I can’t describe in this forum.
We also launched a gallery that is a model of inclusivity, with a dedicated space for the children, a free art library, a strongroom where we freely display amazing pieces of art and a workshop space which is home to our 30 scholarship art students, who I view as the “Team Guernsey” of the visual arts. We purposely chose to open our gallery at the very heart of the Old Quarter, so that our neighbors can benefit from added footfall. The gallery attracts about 25,000 visitors per year and that helps with the rejuvenation of the area. We also stepped up so many times in association with reliable private and public partners to promote Guernsey’s country brand and support our tourism economy.
Over the last 9 years, the economic impact that Art for Guernsey has generated for the local art sector and our local economy, strictly in cash terms, can be conservatively estimated at circa GBP 6 million. I would be very happy to expand on that topic at another occasion, but paying bills to a variety of suppliers in the creative sector also allows artists to thrive and find additional opportunities. Art for Guernsey also played a significant role over the years to convince corporate sponsors to support the creative sector, that helps everyone, not only us. Having said all that, I don’t believe that all the above is the best part of what the team gives to the community, as real success for us means kindness, inspiration, standards and passion. That is much more important than numbers.
So comes the point of local versus visiting artists ?
Of course we need both in order to have a thriving creative art sector. We always try to create two way streets. A visiting artist comes? We make sure that she/he meets with the local artists, delivers workshops, visits the schools and inspires the younger generation. But the same is valid when we work with a local artist. Some of them such as Paul Chambers, Sally Ede-Golightly, James Colmer, Tim Gaudion, Charlie Buchanan, Bridget Spinney, and Aaron Yeandle, to name just a few, (and there are many others), are also real sources of inspiration for our visiting artists as their practice is of the highest standards. In fact, more often than not, when we have multiple year long projects such as “Renoir” or “Turner”, we create teams between local and visiting artists, so that we can boost everyone’s creativity, and it works like a dream.
We strongly believe in developing the artists that we work with. Take the example of Paul Chambers. We gave Paul his first show, and over the last few years, he ended up exhibiting his work at the Musee des Impressionnismes de Giverny and at the Royal Academy in London. Supporting our local artists is also accepting to be there for them and regularly create stepping stone opportunities. Art for Guernsey reinvests 100% of its cash flows for this purpose, we pay our artists and our staff fairly and as far as I am concerned, I have been working pro bono over the last 9 years.
The key message is, our door is always open.
Finally, I would like to use this platform to reiterate our call for local street artists for our summer show. All the details are on our socials. We very much hope to widen our horizons and meet and support new local talents.
David Ummels
Founder; Art for Guernsey