Adelaide's art THINKtank

Artist run spaces take a lot of work and dedication to build, much like an artist career come to think of it. But there's something to be said for artist run spaces, or artist run initiatives (ARI) as we call them here, who are consistently putting on interesting exhibitions, supporting young artists, and also holding interesting arts-related events.

Last Friday night FELTspace, an ARI in Chinatown, Adelaide, ended a month long series of creative events with a state of affairs style discussion by some of Adelaide's leading arts industry experts. The discussion, named THINKtank, was panelled by director of Greenaway Art Gallery, Paul Greenaway; senior art history/theory lecturer at UniSA, Jim Moss; artist/lecturer Katrina Simmons; artist/curator Monte Masi; and lecturer in art and philosophy at the University of Kent, Michael Newall.

Based around questions put to the panel by artist and FELTspace member Patrick Rees* the discussion started on an issue that undoubtedly affects most creatives: economics. This usually equals moving interstate or abroad. Why is this so and should this be the case? It seemed like an obvious question to ask but most of the panelists and even audience members agreed that geography and lack of opportunities affects early career artists in Adelaide (and to an extent established artists too), and there is no easy solution.

This led to the panelist questioning the art industry infrastructure already in place in South Australia. Many of the panelists spoke quite candidly on the quality of the public art galleries and exhibition spaces, and the fate of the state's country's longest running art school, the South Australian School of Art, an institution to which most people in the room have a connection.

THINKtank was no doubt an inspiring and encouraging event for a young art space to be facilitating, yet the overall forecast of Adelaide arts left a bad taste in my mouth. My roots aren't deep in Adelaide's soils but I do feel a sense of sadness when the verdict pointed at a stale and stagnate career prospect for most artists leaving art school here.

However it wasn't all dim and grim in the tank as many of the THINKers were also celebrating the history of the arts in this state and the possibility of seeing the light at the end of the tunnel even if it took a big torch at our end to encourage one to shine through. This is definitely an event that should be regularly scheduled in FELTspace's calendar and who knows there might be new ARIs in Adelaide wanting to launch sister events.




*Disclosure: Patrick Rees is my long term boyfriend (or 'partner' if you want to be PC)

Images from FELTspace