Arts Capital Building Programme Development
In 2002 The Arts Council embarked upon a capital development programme which resulted in the creation of two “flagship” visual arts venues: the Nottingham Contemporary and the New Arts Exchange. Both are multi million pound buildings built in the late Noughties which were reflective of the regional arts council’s vision of what Nottingham people wanted in terms of those arts visitors. Of course before these premises were built no-one had the sense to ask the local artistic community and local people “what would you want for a premises showing contemporary art? What work do you want to be shown here in Nottingham?” The buildings both are cubic, ugly and represent the “white cube template” for exhibition space.The same steering groups that created these edifices did not create them for local artists, neither premises has a working studio space for artists to use.
The late artist Jacqueline Allen from the 2002 exhibition in EMACA
Neither steering group consulted with artists about the design of the new premises. No, they only catered for their funding bosses; build a cube. In the creation of these buildings and their inhabiting organizations, there was the untold story of the demise of their parent arts organizations: in the case of Nottingham Contemporary, Bonnington Gallery at Nottingham Trent university, and Angel Row gallery of Nottingham City Council; In the case of the New Arts Exchange Arts Council funding was removed from Apna Arts and EMACA Visual Arts. In all cases the managers of these parent organizations were removed or dismissed and their contributions airbrushed and whitened out of the history of arts development in the city. Hidden histories indeed.
Donovan Pennant from "Requeim" exhibition
Credit was instead given to the chairmen of the organizations who sold out the employees and their colleagues of the parent companies. As for the true engineers of these edifices, the development workers, managers and administrators of the Arts Council who devised these plans (whilst at the same time giving dubious mealy mouthed assurances to their victims) did not succeed, most of them are retired and no longer working for the organization after a series of well deserved funding cuts.
viewing from an African cultural gallery in Gambia, 2009
Contrary to the web site link below both of the parent organizations Apna arts and EMACA continue to operate today, in a much diminished form. So much for a career in the arts. The current staff in these places, as sincere as they are, have to contend with the uninviting and unwelcoming environments that exclude the very people they were intended to impress. For instance, many writers cite the New Arts Exchange as a space dedicated to Black and Asian arts, but this is not reflected in an “architecture award winning” black mausoleum box structure with no multicultural icons on the exterior, and with a café bar that cannot supply even a decent curry and roti. This is a premises that reflects the White coloniser vision for the Black artist and her community: put your work to death in a dark cubic prison. No Mr. Chairman, we won’t be celebrating Kwanzaa, Diwali, Eid Mubarak, Caribbean Carnival, and Black History month in your big black vault. You can keep your grey concrete walls, and grey floors with your high cold ceilings. Nottingham Contemporary unfortunately resembles a very large corrugated brass cubic shed.
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