Exeter City of Literature, in partnership with GWR, proudly present a £20k commission for a Devon-based painter, illustrator or designer to celebrate Devon's literary history. Why am I so depressed?
You read it right - twenty thousand pounds. It will be a major coup for the artist or organisation that snags this opportunity. The selected individual or group won't have to fund materials or installation costs from their £20k - just produce two large-scale images that can be "fastened onto the bridge railings" on the inner surface of passenger walkways at St David Station, Exeter.
You don't even need to do much research because the panel have already run "six workshops with members of the public to investigate what literary themes they would
like to see represented in the artwork". They have decided what they want the content to be and what sort of mood it should have (a calm aesthetic). They will later vote on your proposal too. I'm all for public involvement, but at no point does anyone mention involving artists or curators or experts in public art commissioning in the development of this brief.
If they had, I believe it could have been so much more. All the opportunities - for in-depth research (that might throw up some new perspective on Devon's literary history), for genuine public engagement with a professional artist and their practice, for innovative use of the space and, ultimately, for a truly outstanding piece of work - seem to have been thrown away. Even though the budget to do all these things was clearly available.
It's GWR's money and they can do with it as they wish but I feel frustrated when I think of the amount of talent and expertise in this region that has been disregarded and excluded. Also of the arts organisations here that do so much with so little (a city poetry slam featuring more than a dozen poets plus hosts and judges offered a mere £500 by ACE-funded Exeter City of Literature, or a local gallery that, I suspect, runs its entire annual visual arts programme on less than the cost of this single commission).
All the same, at a time when arts funding is so perilous, no one can be blamed for gratefully accepting this chance to work for a decent fee. And I'm sure that whoever gets this commission will do a great job. I wish them all the best.
