Last week, while discussing Artspace in the Comments pop up, a reader who signed their name Bored Now had a go at us for not doing our homework:
“Perhaps the Art Life should visit Artspace, have a look at the exhibition/s, speak to Nick Tsoutas… how long has Edmund Capon been at the AGNSW? How long has Sarah Miller been at PICA? Why don’t you actually do some research, instead of simply contributing to the already ridiculous amount of Sydney art gossip. It does nothing for the promotion or critique of Australian art.”
We always find it amusing when someone says we should do something, but we were troubled by the fact maybe we’d let the whole debate run on for too long without going back to the source. We’ve been to Artspace quite a few times this year and reviewed shows, but we hadn’t gone back to Nick since the first email and again asked him directly what was happening. So we sat down and wrote a friendly email:
“Hi Nick,
“There have been recent rumours and speculation on our blog and in our reader comments that you are leaving your post as director of Artspace in 2005. In the interests of accuracy and fairness, we were wondering if you’d like to respond to those rumours. Are you leaving and, if not, for how long is your current appointment? What does Artspace have planned for 2005 and do these plans signal a change in direction for Artspace?
“We would like to point out that we are not in any way hostile to you or the gallery, we simply have reported what we have heard. If you read back through the blog you will see that we are regular visitors to the space and have been supporters of the organisation since its days in Randall Street Surry Hills and the directorships of Judy Annear and Gary Sangster. Some readers have recently started signing their name “Nick Tsoutas” so we’d thought it was high time we sent you another email and went straight to the source.
Looking forward to your response,
The Art Life.”
The very next day we received a response from the general manager of Artspace, Helen Hyatt-Johnston:
“Thank you for your enquiry. The Executive Director Nicholas Tsoutas is currently on leave.”
We emailed right back and asked when we might expect a response but we haven’t as yet received a reply. We will keep you posted. Meanwhile, Ruark Lewis posted a response to the Artspace discussion which we thought was definitely worth being reposted here:
“It’s a damn pity the NSW Ministry of Art hasn’t forced Artspace to employ new curatorial/directorial staff. This could be done in say a 5 year management rollover program. Westspace Director Brett Jones would make a great CEO at Artspace. Someone like Jonathan Jones is another excellent and most competent management prospective – currently doing Public Programs at AGNSW. Very few of the younger director/curatorial people are getting the mid-level experience they desperately need.
“I very rarely go down to Woolloomooloo. I thought that the restrictions placed on the local community using the Artspace facility, and there being no educational program developed with the local schools, wasn’t really very fair. But I guess Australian contemporary Australian art isn’t really very fair.
“Whoever pointed out Sarah at PICA and Michael at Institute of Modern Art for that matter, ought to ask the question – why we owe these guys the best jobs forever? These small museums have become over formalised art management solutions. They are now mid-sized corporate style government funded institutions. For the last 2 years I have been finding more exhibition and performance possibilities and audiences outside the ‘big’ mid-spaces. Although I have shown in Artspace, IMA and PICA in various capacities over the years, I do not find any follow through – no email notices of forthcoming exhibitions or events. So I have to assume I am not relevant to them and they are not relevant except in the most minor bibliographic kind of way.
“Often, these sorts of brick walls force artists to find more interesting opportunities elsewhere. Then I have also thought that [there is a reason] to close these mid-size institutions down altogether. Take their funding allocations and provide funding for 6 Artist Run Initiatives (ARI) full programs in each of these cities. A central ARI management structure could introduced to over see each 6 ARIs – coordinating printing, mail out, databases, documentation, audience development and public programs and the all important funding application process with government. That’s where Nick and Sarah and Michael can go to – leaving the individual programming and selection to young directors/committees.
“Each individual ARI then could better focus on getting their programs fully produced, their artist-director role better sorted out, and their artists fully paid for participation. With the Artspace model being 20 years old it is a generation out of date. I think if a serious shake-up could occur then the contemporary arts in Australia could again become vital.”
