This month sees the launch of a new extension of the Own Art column, branching out into the multimedia world in the form of a bespoke video series exploring the role collection plays in the lives of artists, galleries and the collectors themselves. Initiated by The Skinny and produced by Glasgow film company Forest of Black, the series roams the Scottish visual arts scene, interviewing participants from across the gallery spectrum to find out why owning art could prove crucial in continuing to foster a fertile and successful contemporary art scene north of the border.
At RSA New Contemporaries, some of the graduate artists share what it means to them to have their work purchased. Painter Charlotte Roseberry explains, “It kind of spurs you on, to think that someone actually likes it enough to put it in their house or their office. It makes you want to do more work.”
Director Colin Greenslade elaborates, “[Collecting emerging artists] at this early part of their career reinforces to them that they are able to be artists, that they have the ability to engage with people, that people want to part with money in order to keep a little bit of them with them.
“It’s so difficult when you come out of art school, to make that leap from being in an institution to finding your feet, finding a studio. Finding the impetus to keep going when you’re not surrounded by your peer group quite so readily any longer. So it’s really important that there are these opportunities for artists, to keep them involved and keep them working towards something.”
Kirstie Skinner, director of Outset Scotland, offers a detailed guide to the various projects the new philanthropic organisation has supported in Scotland of late. These include the Collective Gallery’s series of artist walks, launched to coincide with the gallery’s relocation up Calton Hill, and the Common Guild-curated Scotland + Venice presentation at last year’s Biennale, which Outset helped to facilitate. On the subject of collection, Skinner says “Although our main focus is philanthropy, we are keen to do what we can to encourage collecting in Scotland. It’s crucial for artist,s in order to make a living here, for their galleries to thrive here, that there is a wider collector base than exists at the moment. What I loved about the shared collecting idea was that it would make that kind of collecting accessible to more people, and that there were conversations about collecting that were inherent to that model.”
This shared collecting idea is demonstrated by The Collective, a group of friends and relatives who founded an art cooperative 12 years ago with the aim of buying and sharing higher value works of contemporary art. They now have 60 works, rotated regularly between them. Says founder Bob Lee, “Contemporary art shouldn’t be restricted to just wealthy people, it should be open to everyone. And I think the Own Art model where you can spread the cost of an artwork over 10 months is a fantastic opportunity and an entry into collecting contemporary visual art.”
Skinner elaborates on the responsibilities of collecting. “You’re holding things in trust, for that artist and for the culture as it evolves, because that work is never static. The longer you have it, the more complex its significance is.”
The various strands of the burgeoning Scottish collecting community are further explored in films on Spin, Street Level Photoworks and Art Pistol. You can view them at online at ownart.org.uk/how-to-start