Following the success of the 2012 ELIA Biennial Conference in Vienna (hosted by Die Angewandte – University of Applied Arts Vienna), ELIA, the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland and The Glasgow School of Art hosted the 13th ELIA Biennial Conference in the vibrant and cosmopolitan city of Glasgow from 13-15 November 2014.
The ELIA Biennial Conference is the largest conference on higher arts education worldwide, drawing an audience of approximately 500 directors, artists, teachers and thinkers. The programme of events included high profile speakers, plenary discussions, networking events, mobile cultural sessions and much more.
The 2014 conference theme focused on the relationship between the creative and the city and the dynamic interplay between place, culture, creativity and the artist. Recognising that the arts are both the most local and the most international of activities - proud of their traditions and identity, but at their most exciting when they break down barriers and cross borders, LOCATION/AESTHETICS explored the cultural, social and economic role that creative individuals and institutions play in creating and transforming a city, regional or national identity and place in the world.
Four sub-themes were identified to address more specific issues:
The conference saw Glasgow Royal Concert Hall as its main venue, located in the vibrant heart of Glasgow, Scotland’s largest city and its creative hub, and close by the city’s art schools, galleries, museums, national performing arts companies and cultural venues.
The 13th ELIA Biennial Conference in Glasgow has come to a close.
Photographs and a video 'trailer' offer quick impressions of the Biennial events while full length video recordings of all four Biennial keynote speeches provide a more in depth look at the content of LOCATION/AESTHETICS. All content is available for sharing with credits and can be found on this page as well as on the ELIA Facebook and Vimeo webpages.
13th ELIA Biennial Conference Glasgow 2014 Impressions from ELIA on Vimeo.
13th ELIA Biennial Conference Glasgow 2014: Pier Luigi Sacco from ELIA on Vimeo.
13th ELIA Biennial Conference Glasgow 2014: Geoffrey Crossick from ELIA on Vimeo.
13th ELIA Biennial Conference Glasgow 2014: Josette Bushell-Mingo from ELIA on Vimeo.
Please Note: This video features a live translation for the deaf and hearing impaired done without a script, therefore the translation may be inaccurate in some places.
13th ELIA Biennial Conference Glasgow 2014: Martin Boyce from ELIA on Vimeo.
11.00 – 12.00 Table Talks
12.00 – 14.00 Lunch with Pecha Kucha
14.00 - 15.00 Plenary Session
15.00 – 18.00 Mobile Sessions
19.00 – 21.00 Civic Reception
Glasgow is a vibrant, cultured and creative city. Artists and other creatives of all disciplines live and work here; they have always been at the very heart of Glasgow’s cultural and economic life. So as to allow delegates to engage with the city in a broader sense, the Steering Group has designed the Mobile Sessions programme. Delegates are invited to choose which of these sessions they wish to be a part of though the registration page. All sessions will take conference participants to an interesting place in the city where they will meet practitioners and producers. Through dialogue with these experts, delegates will explore the relationship between art, the artist, the place and their combined connection to their city.
Here below the list of the sessions. Further details and a confirmation of programme for each possible venue will be confirmed nearer to the Conference. Delegates should expect to take part in a tour and attend a talk about the significance of the venue within the city. There may also be the opportunity to see a performance or exhibition.
Discipline: Theatre, Music, Visual Art
Sub theme(s): IDENTITY/DIVERSITY, ECONOMY/CULTURE
Activity: Tour, talk & performance
Discipline: Film, Television, Visual Art
Sub theme(s): REGIONALISM/GLOBALISM, ECONOMY/CULTURE
Activity: Tour & talk (Theme: Regional based programming with a national role)
Discipline: Theatre, Heritage
Sub theme(s): IDENTITY/DIVERSITY, REGIONALISM/GLOBALISM, ECONOMY/CULTURE
Activity: Tour & talk (Theme: Regeneration of the local area)
Discipline: Visual Art
Sub theme(s): REGIONALISM/GLOBALISM, HOMECOMING/NOMADISM
Activity: Tour, exhibition & paper presentation on VELOCITY (art for a changing city is a collective and cultural response to the impact of the Glasgow 2014 Commonwealth Games on the city and its communities).
Discipline: Visual Art, Music, Heritage
Sub theme(s): REGIONALISM/GLOBALISM, HOMECOMING/NOMADISM, ECONOMY/CULTURE
Activity: Music recital, tour & talk
Discipline: Music
Sub theme(s): Economy/Culture
Activity: Tour & talk at the home of the BBC Symphony Orchestra
Discipline: Visual Art, Theatre
Sub theme(s): REGIONALISM/GLOBALISM, HOMECOMING/NOMADISM, ECONOMY/CULTURE
Activity: tour, talk (Theme: Glasgow Green Regeneration), Glasgow Women's Library, performance by GSA Choir
Discipline: Architecture, Theatre, Heritage, Regeneration
Sub theme(s): HOMECOMING/NOMADISM, ECONOMY/CULTURE
Activity: Discussion on design in found spaces & performance
Discipline: Theatre, Dance, Visual Art, Architecture, Regeneration
Sub theme(s): IDENTITY/DIVERSITY, REGIONALISM/GLOBALISM, HOMECOMING/NOMADISM, ECONOMY/CULTURE
Activity: Tour of Talk at the home of Scottish Ballet & one of Glasgow’s most diverse arts spaces.
Discipline: Visual Art, Design
Sub theme(s): REGIONALISM/GLOBALISM, ECONOMY/CULTURE
Activity: Tour, Talk and visit to the Macintosh Centre which celebrates Glasgow’s most famous architect and explores his life and work.
Discipline: Visual Art
Sub theme(s): REGIONALISM/GLOBALISM, HOMECOMING/NOMADISM, ECONOMY/CULTURE
Activity: The King street cluster will see delegates taken on a journey round a number of Glasgow’s small arts venues in the King St area of the city, meeting artists and discussing the relationship between art, the artist, the place and their combined connection to their city.
Discipline: Theatre, Music, Film, Heritage
Sub theme(s): IDENTITY/DIVERSITY, HOMECOMING/NOMADISM, ECONOMY/CULTURE
Activity: The Trongate cluster will see delegates taken on a journey round a number of Glasgow’s small arts venues in the Trongate area of the city, meeting artists and discussing the relationship between art, the artist, the place and their combined connection to their city.
Discipline Theatre, Opera, Visual Art, Regeneration, Heritage, Architecture, Dance, Education
Sub theme: ECONOMY/CULTURE
Activity: The Speirslocks cluster will see delegates taken on a journey round an area known as the ‘North Quarter’ in the Speirs Locks area of the city, which is part of Glasgow’s’ canal network. The theme will be how the arts has driven regeneration in this area and therelationship between art created in this hub, the artist, the place and the city.
Following the keynote speakers, a selected panel of experts will address specific themes guided by experienced journalists. Delegates are an active part of the debate and will be invited to submit their questions beforehand.
Delegates will be able to choose between three parallel Panel Sessions, each addressing a different theme: CREATIVE CITIES/CREATIVE INDUSTIES, THE ARTIST'S PLACE and THE ROLE OF THE ART SCHOOLS.
Paul Williams is the director of Stanton Williams, a leading architectural design practice which he founded in 1985 with Alan Stanton. He was the first design trained British architect to be registered by ARB (Architects Registration Board), awarded the title of Royal Designer (RDI) in 2005 and received an OBE for services to architecture in 2014.
Lia Ghilardi is a creative polymath and the founder and director of Noema, a London based organization working internationally to deliver place mapping and strategic cultural planning projects. Internationally recognized as a leader in the field of cultural urban development, she has worked for more than twenty years with civic leaders, urban designers, architects and arts organisations to provide creative and integrated solutions to the challenges of place making in contemporary cities.
Naomi Turner is Head of Group, Manufacturing, Design and Innovation at Policy Connect. She has broad knowledge and expertise in public service delivery with a particular interest in housing, and studied History of Design at the Royal College of Art and V&A Museum- where she also worked at the Research Department. One of the Policy Connect projects she delivered was a joint APDIG / APSRG exhibition of sustainable materials research at the Palace of Westminster.
Dana Whabira was born in London and grew up in Zimbabwe. She is a trained architect and studied art and design at Central Saint Martin’s College in London. In May 2013, Whabira founded Njelele Art Station, an experimental project space in downtown Harare, Zimbabwe that focuses on contemporary art media. Njelele Art Station is an urban laboratory and form of urban intervention, its proximity to the street creates a socially-engaged dynamic space that supports participatory practice through projects that involve and interact with the local community and general public.
Leónidas Martín Saura is a professor at Barcelona University where he teaches New Media and Political Art. For many years, he has been developing collective projects between art and activism, some of them well known internationally: Las Agencias, Yomango, Prêt à Revolter, New Kids on the Black Block. He writes about art and politics for blogs, journals and newspapers, has created several documentaries and movies for television and internet, and is a member of the cultural collective Enmedio.
Sorcha Dallas started her career with Glasgow based projects, being the co-founder and curator of the transient artist-run space Switchspace and running until 2011 her own permanent commercial gallery, that offered a support structure for a new generation of emerging artists. Dallas has worked since as an independent curator, and established in 2012 the Alasdair Gray Foundation to preserve and promote the visual and literary work of this unique artist and writer. She is also a selector of the Young Gallery section at Art13, London’s newest global art fair.
Ron Burnett has been involved in arts education for over 40 years and is President and Vice-Chancellor, Emily Carr University, Order of Canada, Chevalier de l’ordre des arts et des lettres and member of the Royal Academy of Canadian Art. He was Director of the Graduate Program in Communications at McGill University from 1986 to 1996, has published three books and over 100 articles in journals worldwide. Furthermore, he received a Outstanding Leadership Award International Digital Media Arts Association in 2010.
Tom Inns was appointed Director of The Glasgow School of Art in September 2013. He was previously Dean of Duncan of Jordanstone College of Art & Design (DJCAD), Director of Research for the College of Art Science & Engineering at the University of Dundee and appointed as Director of the UK Research Council funded, Designing for the 21st Century Research Initiative. He has a strong interest in the future of design and how design thinking can facilitate interdisciplinary discussions.
Hilary Boulding is principal of The Royal Welsh School College of Music and Drama, the National Conservatoire of Wales. Prior to taking up the post in 2007 she had worked as head of music strategy for the Arts Council of England and head of arts and music at BBC Wales.
Location, Aesthetics and History
Anna Birch- Royal Conservatoire of Scotland (UK)
`Stop leaning against the wall – it’s wet’ (Banksy): The Limits of Urban Visual Practice?
Inga Bryden, University of Winchester, Faculty of Arts (UK)
Border Crossing: The Dynamic Interplay between Place, Culture and Creativity
Andy Milligan, Sandra Wilson, Jasna Kralj Pavlovec, Lesli Robertson- Duncan of Jordanstone College of Art & Design, University of Dundee / Faculty of Design, University of Primorska / University of North Texas (US, UK, SI)
REGIONALISM/GLOBALISM |
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Presenter | Institution | Title | Country |
Conor McGrady | Burren College of Art | Redefining the Rural | Ireland |
Franziska Nyffenegger | Lucerne University of Applied Sciences and Arts | Swissness, Globalised: on crosses, cows, and chocolate | Switzerland |
Tanya de Paor | Mary Immaculate College, University of Limerick | Playing Between the Spaces: from seed to setting | Ireland |
Lynda Devenney | Dun Laoghaire Institute of Art Design and Technology | Re-mapping the City: artists and new technologies | Ireland |
HOMECOMING/NOMADISM |
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Presenter | Institution | Title | Country |
Hana Miletic | LUCA School of Arts, Campus Sint-Lukas, Brussels | Le Cul entre deux chaises |
Belgium, Croatia |
Richard Vodička | Tomas Bata University in Zlin | Little Differences | Czech Republic |
Marika Hedemyr | University of Gothenburg | The Event Series | Sweden |
ECONOMY/CULTURE |
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Presenter | Institution | Title | Country |
Lars Ebert |
ELIA - European League of Institutes of the Arts |
Participation on Trial: The PROS AND CONS and the DOS AND DON'TS when it comes to artists working in communcities | The Netherlands |
Lesley Bain | Framework Cultural Placemaking | Art in the Participatory City | United States |
Bridget Kievits | Amsterdam School of the Arts | The Amsterdam School of the Arts and its role in the cultural centre of the Netherlands | The Netherlands |
The Open Space Programme is intended to accommodate requests from ELIA members for networking, discussion, sharing of experiences and information, and the starting of new initiatives. On Saturday afternoon, several parallel sessions focusing on specific topics or disciplines will be organised by ELIA and Partners in the following categories: Network, Thematic and ELIA Sessions.
The Network Sessions are organised by ELIA Partners and will address specific themes and topics in their field of expertise, as well as accommodate networking and sharing information and experiences. During the Thematic Sessions selected delegates present their own works, projects or anything else they are passionate about and want to bring to the public eye at the conference. The ELIA Sessions are workshops, providing more information on the topic, as well as offering the opportunity to ask questions and to have individual consultations.
Please find here below the sessions scheduled for the Open Space Programme. Delegates will be able to attend at least two of the sessions listed. The time table and more details will be published later.
Based on the findings of the biannual Paradox Fine Arts European Forum Conference held in Granada in September 2013, this session will further elaborate on the implications and consequences of social, economic and cultural changes on the fine art practice, research and higher education- as well as the ideas that connect the arts to their contexts in the world. After a presentation which highlights the many queries raised during the biannual Paradox Fine Arts European Forum Conference, delegates participate in a discussion to address the main questions.
Presenter: Ana García López
http://paradoxfineart.net/
This session addresses Drawing as Tool for interdisciplinary sharing, by letting delegates experience this themselves and a lecture that discusses the interplay between the one that draws and places, culture, creativity and identity. In addition, there will be time for discussion, questions and answers.
www.cumulusassociation.org
Pier Luigi Sacco is Professor of Cultural Economics and Deputy
Rector for International Affairs at IULM University in Milan, Director of Siena its candidacy for the European Capital of Culture 2019 and recently appointed as Scientific Director of the Fondazione Campus. His work covers the topics of economic theory, game theory, cultural economics, the creative industries and cultural policy design at the urban, regional and national level and he is the author of more than one hundred and fifty papers, which appeared in international journals and edited books of major scientific publishers such as Oxford University Press, Cambridge University Press, Elsevier and Springer. In addition, he does extensive consultancy and advisory work for governments, local administrations and cultural institutions on the issues of culture-led local development and European Capital Culture Programmes.
Geoffrey Crossick is Distinguished Professor of the Humanities in the School of Advanced Study, University of London and Director of the AHRC Cultural Value Project. He is a social historian of 19th- and 20th-century Britain and continental Europe, including the world of small enterprise, which adds a historical dimension to his interest in contemporary crafts. He speaks nationally and internationally on the importance of the arts and humanities and on the creative economy. He is Chair of the Crafts Council, sits on the governing boards of the Courtauld Institute, the Horniman Museum and the National Maritime Museum, is a member of the British Library Advisory Council and Chair of the Board of the Arts & Humanities Research Institute at Trinity College Dublin. His previous roles include Vice-Chancellor of the University of London, Warden of Goldsmiths, Chief Executive of the former Arts & Humanities Research Board, and Pro-Vice-Chancellor (Academic Development) and Professor of History at the University of Essex.
Josette Bushell-Mingo OBE studied performing arts at Barking College of Technology and is a Swedish-based English theatre director and actress. She is currently the artistic director for The Swedish National Touring Theatre ensemble. Her production of The Odyssey, performed in Swedish Sign Language received huge critical acclaim in Scandinavia. It was while appearing as Rafiki in the London production of The Lion King, for which she was Olivier-nominated as Best Actress in Musical, that Bushell-Mingo became troubled that more of her peers were not enjoying the same chances for success. To counter this, in 2001 she co-founded at the Young Vic a black-led arts festival called PUSH, with the aim of inspiring diversity and promoting more Black artists into mainstream British arts. She was made an Officer of the Order of the British Empire in 2006 and is one of the nine board members of the Swedish Film Institute.
Martin Boyce is a Scottish sculptor and mulimedia installation artist inspired by early 20th century modernism, who studied at the Glasgow School of Art in the late 1980s. He won in 2011 the Turner Prize for his installation Do Words Have Voices, displayed at the Baltic Centre for Contemporary Art in Gateshead. The installation is a recreation of a park in autumn. He is in particular interested in the psychological experience of space, abandoned or abject terrains, and the material manifestations of time. He borrows the forms of objects found in daily indoor and outdoor settings, such as wire gates, lights, trees, benches, tables, and trash bins. Boyce then reduces, skews, and abstracts these shapes such that they feel familiar but are not immediately recognizable. Recurring motifs include wire fences, glyph-like shapes, and alternating use of flowing curves or angular geometry. In tandem with his installations, Boyce has cultivated an immense archive of photographic works detailing images that inform his practice.