AA2A Artists Newsletters
AA2A ARTISTS' EMAIL NEWSLETTER No.2 Year 9
Dear AA2A Artist
Materials/Travel funds
I hope all is going well with your AA2A scheme. Your access time officially finishes in April and all your expenses need to be in by the end of April at the latest (check with your college if your scheme finishes before then. Easter falls early this year which means that technically your access period might appear to finish in March. Where colleges had given you a date in March I have asked them to extend the access period to cover a couple of weeks after the Easter holidays if possible to give you a little more time. You should have been given access to the workshops,etc some time in October. If your college didn't manage this, then I would expect them to offer you an appropriate extension. Do let me know if this hasn't happened.
New look newsletter
I have always kept this newsletter very basic to allow for those of you who only have dial up internet access and don't want pictures included as they take a while to download. Now is the time to reassess this and ask if any of you would have a problem if I included images etc. I can always send a text only version to those of you who don't have broadband etc. I will send this newsletter again (with pictures, website links etc) in the next few days so please let me know if there are any problems with it at your end and please let me know if you want a text only version in future.
Artists' evaluation questionnaires
These will be sent out to you by post in late April. They are quite detailed, but it is crucial that we get them all back as your college's evaluation 'score' has a bearing on whether it can continue to run a scheme. If any are missing we do chase you up, so please get them back to us promptly. A sample evaluation from last year is available in artists downloads so you can see the type of questions you will be asked. NB: Please let me know if your address etc. has changed since you started the scheme.
Images for the AA2A website
Nearly all of you are already represented on the AA2A website. This is usually the statement and the non-returnable image you provided in your original AA2A application. This information was provided before your access began, so during April you will have a chance to update your statement and image to one which reflects the actual work done on AA2A. Please do NOT send this directly to me unless I specifically request it. I will be asking your AA2A coordinators to send us at least one (and a maximum of 6) images of each artist's work for the website. If you cannot provide a digital image yourself, your college may be able to help you with the photographing of work or the digital formatting of a conventional image. If any of you do not wish to show your work on site (eg. because work is not finished or not visual) we will accept an image of you at work to ensure you get an entry on the site. Unfortunately we cannot show moving images or sound clips but we can include links to other websites. Accompanying information will be needed for each image. Your college will provide you with a form to fill in with the supporting information we need, nearer the time.
For an example of what artists' pages look see jennie cunningham or jessica curry's webpage
General project news
An application for funding has been made to the Lottery through the Arts Council for another two years of AA2A schemes in 2008/10 which (if successful) will see an increase in colleges taking part from around 20 to 30+. If you have found AA2A useful please do recommend the scheme to others. If we have your/their email address we will send the advert for next year's schemes as soon as available (usually in May/June) so that you can forward it to anyone who is interested.
I notice that I always give the impression that there are a few of us working on AA2A by using the 'corporate - we'. There is only myself running AA2A centrally and I only work on average two days a week. This helps hugely to keep the funding going to where it's best used - by you! I am very proud that each AA2A placement costs the public purse less than £600, whereas the average bursary/residency is between £10,000 to £20,000. Our 'per head' figure includes all the project overheads and your £200 materials budget. This is only possible because of the time put in by the college staff to make AA2A work. I am sure that is why the Arts Council are so supportive of the project in the current cash strapped climate.
Do make the most of the weeks left on the scheme and try to ensure students get as much benefit from having you there as possible.
Many thanks
Wendy Mason AA2A National Coordinator
_________________________________________________________________________AA2A ARTISTS' EMAIL NEWSLETTER No.1 Year 9
Dear AA2A Artist
I am delighted to welcome you on to the AA2A
scheme. Most of you will now be working on your projects and are
probably well informed about how AA2A works, but I thought this would be
a good opportunity to remind you of the basics and pass on some news. I
do hope you enjoy your AA2A experience and are able to make the most of
your access hours. We will aim to send another newsletter in February.
Project background
AA2A is now in its ninth full year as a national project with 22 colleges across the country taking part. This year we are welcoming Hull back onto our AA2A list, in the shape of Hull School of Art and Design. Again this year's funding is routed through the Arts Council, England from the Grants for Arts scheme. The project continues to be managed by the Council for Higher Education in Art and Design.
Artists Access Agreement
Your college AA2A scheme should have allowed you access from 1st November. Please let me know if this didn't happen so we can negotiate extended access beyond April to make up for this. They also should have provided you with a copy of the Artists Access Agreement (which you should have agreed and signed). This outlines what you can expect from the scheme and what the scheme requires from you. Should you find you have any questions about your entitlements this document should be your first port of call as it covers most eventualities! A general version of this Agreement is available on the website for reference in the artists/downloads section.
Contact with students
As you know, you can use the college facilities for at least 100 hours. Your college may be recording your hours but it might also be worth keeping a record yourself, so you can keep track. As AA2A is both for the artists' and students' benefit, we hope that you will use as many of the 100 hours as possible so that students have the best chance of seeing you and your work before the scheme officially ends in April. Although we understand that some circumstances may arise which may affect your original plans, there is an expectation that you will try to use at least half of the hours available to ensure students benefit from your presence.
You may have been asked to do some form of talk for the students. This is not compulsory and will probably take the form of an informal meeting with students/staff with an opportunity to show your work and talk about it, or answer questions. Staff time is often very limited to arrange these type of 'events' so do approach them if you or your fellow AA2A artists would like to arrange something to benefit students.
When you applied you were asked for a non-returnable photo of your work and a short statement about your project. The idea was that this and a photo of yourself should be displayed somewhere prominent within the department so that students and staff know who you are. If this has yet to be done, please chase up your Coordinator or ask if you can put up something similar as it makes the communication with students easier. You may even find that there's an AA2A noticeboard you can use.
The website and your AA2A webpage
Your image, statement and limited contact details will be on the AA2A website as soon as we receive them. This will allow you and the students to see who the other artists are both in your college and in the rest of the AA2A colleges around the country. This improves the schemes' benefit for students, particularly those who may not have an artist working in their area of interest at their college. If possible please be open to enquires from students, but also let me know if this becomes a problem or you want your contact email removed from the site. We would be interested to hear from you if you are contacted by students or if you find any ways to encourage them to use the website for artist information.
While we are developing a more student friendly area of the website. We would also welcome information about how your AA2A projects affect students, any quotes, anecdotes etc. We could also do with the names of students you work with so we could contact them directly.
You may have already visited the website for the project, but if you haven't please do. Do let us know if you have any exhibitions using work produced either during AA2A or as a result of the scheme and we will try to add this to your page. Each college also has its own 'page' which shows the work and the contact details of the artists from that AA2A scheme over the years.
AA2A logos
We are always pleased to see the AA2A logo emblazoned on publicity you may produce. This helps our profile with funders. If any of you have the opportunity to display our logo alongside work produced during the scheme, please do download the digital logo from the artists/downloads area and use the Arts Council England's Lottery logo as well. You can also help AA2A's profile by adding the wording "Selected for the Artists Access to Art Colleges Scheme (hosted by ........University)" on your CV's etc.
Evaluation
At the end of your AA2A scheme I will send out a detailed evaluation questionnaire which you will need to complete. This will be sent directly to the address we hold for you. If any of your contact details change during the year please let the your college AND myself know asap.
Finally if ever you have any problems with AA2A which cannot be answered by your college AA2A Coordinator contact me by email on AA2A@wendymason.biz and, with the limited time I have available I will do my best to help.
Many thanks
Wendy Mason National Coordinator AA2A
