The Firstsite Collectors Group Annual Party

Friday night (7^th February 2020), I attended the Firstsite Collectors Group Annual Party, hosted at Firstsite to celebrate the 2019 bursary winners. The event was attended by members of the Firstsite Collectors Group, bursary winners and members of the Firstsite team, including director Sally Shaw.

The evening was a great networking opportunity and to meet others involved. There was chance for the bursary winner to display something of their art practices. For this I decided to show my three artist books and my current sketchbook. I presented the artist books as they fully document the last two years of my art practice, with images and short art essays. While my sketchbook documents my current ideas and the start point for what it is that I will be using my bursary for.

Each bursary winner had the opportunity to speak about their art practice and what it is they are planning on doing with their bursary. It was really insightful to listen to the other creatives talk about their artistic processes and ideas; from artists drawing and painting from across rivers, on trains and from Instagram to artists print making and attending research trips.

Within my speech I spoke of my general art practice being based around text and site and how historically I have utilised very DIY, hands on methods and materials, such as; wood, plaster, string and paper. I went onto to discuss how with the bursary I would explore digital outputs to develop The Road Sign Collection. The end goal being to create an artist book, or artist colouring book, wanting to have an outcome which could be interacted with by an audience.

Within this time, I also explored some of the aspects of The Road Sign Collection that compel me to continue with this project. Touching on their everyday nature and our individual experiences with them and how they exist both as mass produced objects, as well as originals, with each having their own history which is documented in their visage.

The opportunity to talk about my art practice in an environment such as Firstsite, is unique and a valuable learning experience. There are few other situations in which to flex and develop this skill set.

Attending the Firstsite Collectors Group Annual Party prompted me to reflect on my experience of the process of applying for and receiving the bursary.

I found the process of applying for the Firstsite Collectors Group bursary useful in that it made me articulate myself and my ideas in a more coherent way – having to write within word counts also helped. I was conscious that those reading the application may not have encountered my practice before and wanted to ensure that I did not overlook any aspect of my practice.

Receiving the bursary is a great vote of confidence and goes someway to externally validating what it is you are doing. From a practical point of view, it offers much needed funding to allow artists to continue to develop – from a personal viewpoint I would not be able to justify investing in software such as Photoshop without the bursary. However, it also comes with some pressure as there is a slight feeling of being accountable to others with reference to what it is you are creating. Something that I have mot felt since leaving university. This is an exciting position to be in and I look forward to seeing what it is i create and develop by December 2020.

You can read more about the Firstsite Collectors Group and the 2019 bursary winners here.