What conditions might be necessary today to support open-ended collaborations with artists when working in non-artistic contexts? The “open brief” approach, referred to by Barbara Steveni as APG’s greatest achievement, enabled artists in placements to operate without predetermined outcomes.
Invited speakers will reflect on the processes of the ”open brief”, its significance to APG’s methodology, and its potential today to foster new forms of engagement for artists and organisations.
This conversation, convened by Elisabeth Del Prete and Gareth Bell-Jones, features contributions from APG artist David Toop, Incidental Artist and Raspberry Pi Foundation x Wysing Arts Centre artist-in-residence, Sahjan Kooner, and Data as Culture co-founder Dr Julie Freeman, along with Prof. Neal White, Prof. Mafalda Dâmaso, Amy Jones, Tiffany Black, Beth Atkin and Gavin Wade.
With support from Midlands4Cities Doctoral Training Partnership (Birmingham City University) and Eastside Projects
The Artist Placement Group (APG) was initiated by Barbara Steveni in 1965. The group devised the concept of the ‘Placement’ as a strategy to position artists within industrial corporations and government departments in order to explore the role of art in the decision-making processes of society. In her role as primary strategist and spokesperson she came to see her critical administrative role negotiating behind the scenes as representative of women’s invisible labour more widely, in later years understanding this as her own art practice. Barbara Steveni: I Find Myself includes the important Artist Placement Group work, The Sculpture from APG’s 1971 Hayward Gallery and Dusseldorf exhibitions. The Sculpture comprised a boardroom table with chairs in the gallery space where the APG artist members led discussions with industrialists and government officials as the main focus of the exhibition. Steveni was integral to these negotiations, so it’s in the spirit of highlighting her discursive approach to art-making that we’re re-staging this live artwork in collaboration with Policy Lab, Incidental Unit and the London Residency Network.