Artachat

I began Artachat after graduating from art school and feeling a lack of a place to meet peers and critique work in the city.

The project began as a simple crit session: I’d invite an artist to bring their work to a cafe (where I was a waitress at the time) and we’d invite an audience who would critique, offer ideas and discuss the artists’ practice.

Artachat became really well attended, and I benefited from the approach of group learning so continued to push the project. I opened up the sessions beyond artists, and invited speakers from a cultural, political and activist space to spark debate on contemporary topics affecting the arts. We experimented with how to present and share knowledge: we used performance; music; dance; and food.

The project began to travel, and we set up informal but formative Artachats in diverse and unusual locations in order to open up debates to a fabulous mixture of people and minds. We went to: community centres, a lighthouse, pubs, a yurt, art galleries, churches. We invited people to come and speak in person, on skype and through pre-recorded interviews.

Artachat has now been absorbed as 32° East’s public discussion programme – it’s a pleasure to see the project grow through the arts trust.

I also take the name with me as I Tweet and Instagram away.

Artachat has had the joy of sharing the thoughts of such speakers as:

Lucy Lippard Nuno Sacrameto Fiona Bradley Peter McCaughey Kamila Shamsie

A podcast, by journalist Clare Carswell, of an Artachat to highlight the problem of the Tier 5 Visa system can be heard here: