Mission Statement

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lucky
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Mission Statement

Post by lucky » Mon Jul 09, 2007 8:53 pm

What's your mission?

"To make great art appear as if by magic, both in the Total Kunst gallery and elsewhere in the Forest."

Just a suggestion :->

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lucky
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Post by lucky » Thu Jul 12, 2007 11:57 am

Um, if anyone wants to have a crack at this it's actually good to have one.

I won't take it as the definite, have a discussion on it here.

Or let me know you're thinking about it, at least.

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stephengoodall
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Post by stephengoodall » Thu Jul 12, 2007 8:32 pm

i think the problem is that alot of the long term members aren't around just now.

having been around for a couple of weeks after attending 1 meeting it would feel presumptious to attempt to speak for the whole group.

but hey, i'll give it a shot;

"to create an open access working group with the intention of using the forest building, gallery space and bulletin board as a site for the creation, development, discussion and exhibition of contemporary arts with a specific focus on building a dialogue between the working group, the artists and the forest community as a whole."

maybe it needs a bit about using the gallery space to grab peoples interest and get them in the door and involved. does the the term "contemporary art" too narrow and carry too much stigma?

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lucky
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Post by lucky » Thu Jul 12, 2007 10:09 pm

stephengoodall wrote:
"to create an open access working group with the intention of using the forest building, gallery space and bulletin board as a site for the creation, development, discussion and exhibition of contemporary arts with a specific focus on building a dialogue between the working group, the artists and the forest community as a whole."

maybe it needs a bit about using the gallery space to grab peoples interest and get them in the door and involved. does the the term "contemporary art" too narrow and carry too much stigma?
What do you mean by contemporary? As long as it won't put anyone off doing something, it's fine.

In general, a very beautifully written mission statement. I'll give it a couple of days in case anyone disagrees, but I think that hits it.

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James
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Post by James » Fri Jul 13, 2007 10:31 am

I vote leave of Contemporary. It might put people off and we will take applications from anyone, we're easy like that.

Good work :-)

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stephengoodall
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Post by stephengoodall » Fri Jul 13, 2007 5:10 pm

yeah i think you guys are right i think contemporary should be replaced with visual.

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Post by martinmckenna » Fri Jul 13, 2007 5:12 pm

good work steve ! it covers all bases

i would also leave out the word contemporary , seems a bit old hat these days . cant think of a better word . would hate to think no outsiders applying !

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bill
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Post by bill » Fri Jul 13, 2007 6:54 pm

the wording of this i feel needs to suitably vague.....why i feel tk is good is because of its independance.....we need to make no money and a funded by the cafe.......this is pretty much not the case anywhere else....they are all funded by arts councils etc or money making ventures......this means we can be cooler....also we don't care what people think of stuff it can be totally wild and fuck with people........i think or mission statement should reflect this, morelike peotry or more abstract than a ridgid factual thing.......

we wrote our responsibilities in a previous post this was so the more boring technical stuff wouldn't be in the mission statement:

"We decided to have a detailed list of responsabilities asside from the mission statement. Here they are so far:

Accessability.

1. We will publicise the space and events. There will be a visible box in the cafe for submissions.
2. There will be a discussion about every exhibition. The artist may or may not attend.
3. There must be some writing somewhere in the gallery about the work. If the artist doesn't want to do it they surrender themselves to being reviewed by Ryan.
4. We will try for closing parties not opening parties
5. we will try to have a night for a performance piece in between exhibitions.

Budget

1. We will try to support the artists by using the monthly budget on exhibitions and the yearly one on other things.
2. the monthly budget rolls over every month so it's worth trying to save.
3. All spending will be written down in the red book.
4. 30 pounds of the budget can go to artists expenses(travel etc.). They can spend 10 of this on booze for thier opening party if they like.

Environment

1. Publicity: will be kept on the web as much as possible. Posters will be small and printed on the back of things but still lovely to look at.
2. we will try to be as low impact as possible.
3. We will try to get energy saving light bulbs
4. Eco paint will be used where possible (it is worth spending a little more on this)"




so........ideas?

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bill
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Post by bill » Fri Jul 13, 2007 6:58 pm

ir could be something as simple as

" to blow our own socks off "

or

" to create different spaces and times "


tk is not limited to the forest building...we are integral to forest but we can organise events far and wide......

check this manifesto here
http://www.ralphmag.org/AR/dada.html

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Jane
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Post by Jane » Fri Jul 13, 2007 9:15 pm

bill, you are a bona fide sock blower
"We all tend to idealise kindness and tolerance, then wonder why we find ourselves infested with losers and nutcases." Sebastian Horsley

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stephengoodall
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Post by stephengoodall » Sat Jul 14, 2007 5:43 pm

fair points, all. I geuss what i wrote above could be seen more as a mission statement for the visual arts working group rather than a manifesto for the TotalKunst artist collective.

One thing i gleaned from last month's meeting was that TotalKunst was an inclusive operation and that participation and interaction were important elements of TK policy. In my opinion TK is both excellent and unique in the way in which the running of the group is open access. This is a quality that is sorely lacking in many other artist's collectives/artist led initiatives.

With this in mind i would say that there is a potential danger of having a mission statement that is either deliberately obtuse or too wild and trying to fuck with people. If the mission statement is too abstract people may become alienated and feel too intimidated to participate if they don't get the joke. The trick is getting it right.

also you face the difficulty of making ethical judments about what art is/ should be and its purpose and would have to participate in the cat herding carnival of trying to get a group of artists to agree on the purpose and definition of art. That said i think a manifesto would be very useful.

personally i think we should have:

a list of responsibilities and a mission statement detailing our core values and goals and a manifesto.

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Post by lucky » Sun Jul 15, 2007 4:01 pm

Maybe incorporate the two.

The thing about a mission statement is it needs to have some straightforwardness about it. Quite a bit.

There are some mission statements that are more abstract but are self explanatory in their nature as WGs, like Drama and, my personal favorite, Equipment, Tech and Broken Things.

The Mission Statement StephenGoodall came up with incorporates all aspects of the Visual Arts WG I can think of. Maybe the only thing to add would be about doing things outside of the Forest, if you're wanting to? Maybe you don't need to implicitly state that.

***************************************************************

"to create an open access working group with the intention of using the forest building, gallery space and bulletin board as a site for the creation, development, discussion and exhibition of visual arts with a specific focus on building a dialogue between the working group, the artists and the forest community as a whole."

To blow everyone's socks off"

**************************************************************

How's that?

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bill
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Post by bill » Tue Jul 17, 2007 12:16 pm

go to hell alex.


personally i would rather not have a mission statement than have one which is generic or written in the style that alot of institute/galllery's/ whatever use....i mean no offense to anyone (except alex) and don't mean to be harsh, just honest......our interest in dialougue between artists etc is perosnal and may chnage as the w.g evolves thats fine and i feel down't need to be included. perhaps all the technical stuff can be in our responsibilities and our mission can be something beutifooly simple and open and inviting like



"to make some places and times for some arts to exist and grow in"


i love and hate you all


b

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bill
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Post by bill » Tue Jul 17, 2007 12:17 pm

also perhaps it is worth considering that what we will be known as is what we do not what we say so we shouldn't worry too much about this/

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Post by Duncan » Tue Jul 17, 2007 1:18 pm

This is great ! Bill, if you're on the TK Yahoo group you should read up Sally Felt in the archives.
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Post by lucky » Tue Jul 17, 2007 3:39 pm

To be autonomous we need to have a structure we all agree works.

We have entered into a WG structure.

All I'm asking for is a straightforward mission statement that anyone who comes into the Forest and reads it (as I am intending to print them all up for the WG board) and knows straight away what that WG is all about. I think the one suggested is great, if anyone else but Bill (and, probably golden Mark) doesn't object shall it be stuck witheth?

I don't know what other galleries use. Mission statements are effective full stop.

I'm sick of WG meetings being poorly attended, if we don't want to get burnout then we need more people. Which means we need to be less abstract at information points. It seems you have some 'fresh blood' in VisArts which is great, which means this may not be such an issue for you. But being too abstract cloaks things sometimes.
bill wrote:go to hell alex.
I've already lived in Salford. I've wasted too many precious years there already, I'd rather not go back, thank you very much.

Ultimately, can someone just give me something to put on the bloody WG Mission Statements board that Joe/Jill public will understand.

Thank you, you've been a great audience.

A*
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stephengoodall
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Post by stephengoodall » Tue Jul 17, 2007 6:22 pm

certainly no offence taken on my part, i'm interested in and enjoying the discussion.

i am interested in the generic and writing generic statements is something that comes naturally to me, its always good when that ability can have a use.

(spiderman style thought baloon)
but i must use that ability for good! not as part of some homogenising white space gallery disease!
(/spiderman style thought baloon)

as i said above, i feel too new to make that call. if the paragraph is of use then by all means use it, if it does not suit then i will happily help to work on something better.

i agree that this is something that should not be worried about too much.

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Post by Duncan » Tue Jul 17, 2007 9:22 pm

Ask yourself, is it less than green to subvert ?
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Post by lucky » Wed Jul 18, 2007 2:59 pm

Duncan wrote:Ask yourself, is it less than green to subvert ?
What!?!

Yes, it's good discussion.

Any answers?

A*
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bill
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Post by bill » Fri Jul 20, 2007 4:10 pm

"to make some places and times for some arts to exist and grow in"

that will sound awesome on the poster thanks alex.
and yes probably golden mark will agree with me but i am not joking and neighthor is he.

serious


any objections.


then we can continue working on this even after these posters alex is going to make.


right.

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bill
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Post by bill » Sat Jul 21, 2007 8:10 pm

ok then so thats it

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Post by lucky » Mon Jul 23, 2007 7:29 pm

Good job.

A*
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