Collecting Contemporary Art

Last Thursday I went to an inspirational talk at the Site Gallery , Sheffield. Part of the CIQ 's First Thursday series, the topic this month was collecting and owning contemporary art.

First up was Sheila McGregor, arts consultant and Chair of Sheffield Contemporary Art Forum (SCAF). She introduced the event and talked a little about some of SCAF's initiatives (including the new Arts Ambassadors scheme) to get the public in Sheffield to engage directly with artists.

Tim Dickson was a living example of such direct engagement. A designer and gallery technician, he started frequenting artists' studios in London in the early 90s. Over the course of several years, he got to know most of those subsequently known as the "Young British Artists", and at the same time he amassed (on a very limited budget) a stunning collection of contemporary art (in 2003 his collection was the subject of a major show at Sheffield's Graves Art Gallery , "Amongst the Constallations", featuring work by Damien Hirst, Tracey Emin, the Chapman brothers, Antony Gormley, Marc Quinn, Gary Hume and many more). For the CIQ event, Tim displayed a slide-show of some of his acquisitions, interspersed with photographs of the artists, accompanied by what he promised would be a five-minute stumbling commentary but which in the event proved to be an extremely engaging and passionate thirty-minute tour of contemporary British art.

The "engaging and passionate" theme continued with Greville Whitbread, an artist, collector, owner of Catterick race-course and a former Turner Prize judge. Greville's talk and slideshow hopped from contemporary art shows to parties at Greville's house, to bamboo, to country fairs and back again. It was all told with such enthusiasm and such charming anecdotes that I could have listened to Greville all night. He rounded off by showing some photos he had taken of steam-engines and their owners at a fair at his racecourse. He wasn't quite sure what to make of them himself yet, but he was sure that there was "something there", and I couldn't help agreeing with him: the photos combined something of the inventory-making of Bernd and Hilla Becher with the joy at English eccentricity of Martin Parr. Splendid!

Finally Gill Hedley, Director of the Contemporary Art Society , had a hard act to follow in Greville, but she managed admirably. She introduced us to some of the work of the society, and how it had transformed over recent years from a "club for ladies who lunch" into a real force in supporting artists, particularly in filling in the gaps which the public sector couldn't or wouldn't fill. And she also described some of the fun they had on their various outings.

Afterwards there was chatting, nibbles and wine, and then I headed off with Paul and Jacqui to a once-in-a-lifetime performance of Psychic TV at the Boardwalk (photos here).

This entry was posted on Tuesday, October 10th, 2006 at 2:04 pm and is filed under Art, Art Events. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.