As part of Jerwood Art Fund Makers Open’s presentation at Aberdeen Art Gallery, and with the support of Art Fund, Aberdeen Art Gallery hosted a curatorial development and networking event aimed at local curators and arts professionals from public collections and creative organisations in the North East of Scotland. The event was programmed by the Jerwood Art Fund Makers Open Curatorial Project Manager Svetlana Panova.
The half-day seminar explored the process of working with artists and funders to commission and collect new works into public museum and art collections. Aberdeen Art Gallery welcomed a group of exciting speakers with a wealth of experience from across the UK in person and digitally, who shared their insight of having been involved in the commissioning and collecting process in different capacities. They highlighted positive examples and practices, shared resources and discussed some of the challenges they have faced in their work so far. The seminar was followed by a networking lunch and an opportunity for informal discussions with the speakers and the other participants.
Speakers included Madeline Nehring, Team Leader of Collections at Aberdeen Archives, Gallery and Museums; James Rigler, Artist; Ying Tan, Senior Programme Manager of Collections at Art Fund; Harriet Cooper, Freelance Curator and Programme Director of Jerwood Curatorial Accelerator; and Rohini Malik Okon, Curatorial Project Manager for Future Collect, Iniva.
During the seminar, Aberdeen Art Gallery announced the news that, with the support of Art Fund, the National Fund for Acquisitions and the Aberdeen Art Gallery trust, three of Vicky Higginson‘s glass sculptures from the Coping Mechanisms series will be acquired into Aberdeen Archives, Gallery and Museums’ permanent collection. The works Coping Mechanism: to test emotional responses, Coping Mechanism: to numb grief and Coping Mechanism: for overwhelming thoughts were chosen from Vicky’s Jerwood Art Fund Makers Open commission for their connections to existing objects and themes in the collection .
Councillor Martin Greig from Aberdeen City Council said: “We are grateful to the funders, and we look forward to displaying these amazing and thought-provoking works in future displays.”
Vicky Higginson said: “I am absolutely thrilled that Aberdeen Art Gallery has acquired three of my sculptures. It’s such an honour to be a part of the Gallery’s amazing selection of contemporary art and I’m so excited that these very personal pieces will be kept in this public collection to be seen by visitors for years to come.”
More details of the seminar can be found on our website’s What’s On page.
