“Great art can communicate before it is understood”
T. S. Eliot

> 1. Where are we now?  
> 2. Where do we want to be in five years time?  
> 3. How do we get there?  
> 4. How we will know when we’re there?  

1. Where are we now?

The Derby Arts Strategy is being re-written at a significant time for visual arts in the city and the UK. QUAD’s arrival will place contemporary visual culture at the very heart of the city and will change the landscape of the capital infrastructure for the arts generally and for visual arts specifically. It will also provide a much-needed hub / focal point for practitioners and help stimulate a culture of production in the city as well as drawing new audiences from the local population and elsewhere. Through QUAD, Derby will for the first time have an appropriate venue from which to achieve a serious profile on the national and, hopefully, international visual arts ‘map’. 

Across the East Midlands Region, QUAD is just one of a raft of new arts capital projects that will be coming on stream from 2008 onwards. Within this portfolio of projects, there are a number of major visual arts / visual arts-centred initiatives, most notably, CCAN (Centre for Contemporary Arts Nottingham) which has aspirations to be a major UK / international contemporary visual arts centre on the scale of BALTIC in Gateshead. Other initiatives include the New Arts Exchange, Nottingham, a visual arts centred organisation, again aiming for national / international recognition as the most significant black arts organisation outside London; an expanded and refurbished Broadway Cinema in Nottingham opened in late 2006 incorporating a broader programme including digital arts; plans for a new, purpose-built artists’ studio, again in Nottingham, are progressing and have stimulated many new artists’ initiatives in that city. Other new visual arts capital and project initiatives in Leicester, Lincolnshire and elsewhere are being supported by ACE-EM with the intention of changing the region’s current position as the least well-served in terms of buildings, financial support and audiences, in England. Derby’s current provision and aspirations need to be seen in this wider context, as these initiatives will bring both threats and opportunities for the sector in and around the city. 

A significant development in 2006 was the publication by ACE of Turning Point, a major new, 10-year strategy for the visual arts in England. This is the first review of the contemporary visual arts ever undertaken in England and the first major review ACE has undertaken since its theatre review in 2000. It would seem appropriate for the visual arts section of the Derby Arts Strategy to take note of, and perhaps align with, the key findings and recommendations in the national strategy.

The Ace Review embraces the full breadth of disciplines currently practised within this broad-ranging and cross-cutting artform that stretches from “the established practices of painting sculpture, photography and crafts to moving image, new media and live art.” 

The following information assumes ‘Fine Art’ to mean those contemporary practices such as painting, sculpture, print, drawing, that are not covered by the terms ‘film, contemporary crafts and photography’. 

Facilities and venues:
Nb. In 2004/05, consultant Sally Williams undertook research into exhibition spaces for visual arts in Derby. This piece of work was co-commissioned by Derby City Council (lead contact: Anneke Bambery) and ACE-EM. It contained an audit of current provision and recommendations for the future.

QUAD (and previously Q Arts) – has for several years been the leading visual arts organisation in Derby and a major player in the region. The organisation promotes a number of exhibitions each year; a comprehensive participation and education programme; off-site exhibitions and events in the city centre and elsewhere – often linked to partnership projects; professional development opportunities and support for artists through commissions and freelance contracts. 

QUAD will bring about a broader, more dynamic programme of contemporary visual culture as well as new state of the art facilities including high quality gallery space suitable to host major artworks.

Derby Museum & Art Gallery (DM&AG) – is the other main publicly-funded venue in Derby with a regular programme of contemporary and historical fine art exhibitions. The temporary exhibition galleries currently show 6-10 exhibitions per year featuring a full range of contemporary and traditional artforms and local, national and international artists. 

Exhibitions include a very successful annual Open which attracts submissions from artists across the Midlands. The temporary exhibition programme operates on a very low core budget and the galleries have not been properly re-furbished for a number of years. 

The programme is supported by in-house and outreach education work, particularly with schools. Relevant exhibitions of contemporary work are also shown in DM&AG’s other sites: Pickford’s House and the Silk Mill Industrial Museum.

DM&AG is home to a renowned ceramics collection and to a collection of works by Joseph Wright of Derby, an historical artist of major international renown. JW is the most important visual artist to have emerged from Derby and his work continues to have relevance to the sector today. Funding is being sought to refurbish the Joseph Wright Gallery at DM&AG in order for the museum to make more of its collection.

DM&AG is currently participating in the Renaissance in the Regions museums initiative and the Museumaker scheme, which supports contemporary practitioners to work with the region’s museum collections. Current policy at DM&AG sees an increasing cross-over between historical and contemporary work in both the temporary and permanent galleries, with an emphasis on making more of the museum’s collections. 

Assembly Rooms & Guildhall, the Council House, Derby Dance, and Derby Playhouse all frequently make space available for temporary exhibitions of (mainly 2-D) visual art. 

The University of Derby, through its current Open Studios research programme, has previously programmed contemporary art exhibitions in the corridors, studios and ex-library space in its Green Lane building and in Britannia Mill. The new Markeaton Street campus offers even greater opportunities in this area.. 

Banks’ Mill (see below) hosts occasional exhibitions and also holds popular seasonal ‘open studios’ events at its premises.

Tregoning Fine Art, a commercial gallery based in Queen Street that focuses on British contemporary fine art, is one of the most interesting and welcome recent development in Derby’s visual art sector. 

The owner, Phil Tregoning, has been dealing in contemporary fine art for some years and moved to the present Derby city centre premises in 2004. Tregoning deals in quality, accessible contemporary work by both established and emerging artists – mainly painting with prints, photographs and small-scale sculpture. All work is for sale at reasonable prices and the gallery operates the ‘Own Art’ scheme (an ACE-backed initiative providing interest-free credit) to encourage new buyers to purchase art. The Derby gallery has proved to be very successful and has expanded into 4 new upstairs display rooms and introduced work by contemporary designer-makers.

Practitioners:
For the visual arts sector to thrive it needs practitioners and production facilities as well as exhibition spaces. Attracting and retaining artists and arts graduates will be vital if Derby is to seek a higher profile in the wider visual arts world. 

At present, the most significant artists’ support facility in the city is Banks' Mill Studios, which was set up to retain graduate-level skills in the creative industries in the Derby area. It does this by providing easy-in / easy-out workspace in studios and business and professional development support, with a view to helping graduates earn a living from their skills, either as a sole trader or business.

University of Derby-owned and managed, Banks' Mill forms one of three incubators. Each actively encourages and supports emerging business with Banks' Mill Studios specialising in support for applied and fine art business practices. As well as providing workspace, the University of Derby provides business support activity including one-to-one advice, workshops, seminars and bi-annual Open Studios. 

Friar Gate Studios is a major new investment in creative industries within the city. The Studios opened in November 2006, and provide professional workspaces for businesses and a hub for the Creative Industries Network. In common with many initiatives in the creative industries sector, this development is not targeted at artists who have by and large, as noted in the Turning Point document, been sidelined by or priced out of the sector. 

As well as individual practitioners in and around the city, a number of artists groups / collectives exist or are starting to form. ‘Green Door’, an artist-run eco-friendly print-making studio, is an example of recent initiatives. Derby Sketching Club is one of several voluntary groups and societies that have been active for some time. 

Efforts have been made in recent years, including through the Arts Forum, to stimulate networks and artist-led initiatives. These have had varying degrees of success and on the whole, Derby continues to struggle to develop a sustained ‘critical mass’ of practitioners on a par with some comparable cities. 

Derby’s Education Sector, from schools and Creative Partnerships through to Derby College and University of Derby, plays an important role in developing and supporting visual arts practitioners. Having a thriving Faculty of Arts, Design and Technology within the university that attracts and retains quality staff and students, is an especially important element of the city’s infrastructure.
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2. Where do we want to be in five years time?

The visual arts sector in Derby should be aspirational and aim to be a much more significant player in the national and international scene than it currently is. This is in keeping with wider ambitions for the city and region as a whole. It is also a necessary aspiration if Derby is to play its part in ACE strategies to address challenges in the sector. In particular, studies have shown the East Midlands to be performing badly by most measures in comparison with other regions and there will be intense pressure to bring about a step change in activity, performance, profile and audiences over the next 5-10 years if they are to survive. 

Specifically, Derby should look to have a strengthened visual arts infrastructure by 2011 and with this, stronger local, sub-regional and regional partnerships that can enhance the visual arts community and attract major artists, exhibitions and projects into the city. 

In 5 years’ time, QUAD should have established itself as a dynamic and distinctive centre for visual culture. It will hopefully be sustaining significant audience numbers, providing a focal point and stimulus for practitioners and supporting efforts to attract and retain artistic talent in the city. This in turn might by then have stimulated new projects in and around Derby, including more artist-led initiatives, production and exhibition facilities.

Derby Museum & Art Gallery should be benefiting from increased investment in programme, facilities and collections. A key strategy emerging from the ACE Visual Arts Review is a shift towards linking contemporary art with art from the past and with the heritage. An aim of this is to create a stronger and more united visual arts sector attracting a higher profile and greater sponsorship opportunities. In this context, QUAD and DM&AG should build on previous partnerships and work together on long-term planning and ambitious new initiatives. 

Jointly-hosted major international exhibitions that would benefit Derby audiences and bring cultural tourism into the city could be an outcome of closer collaboration, more strategic thinking and better investment. 

Similarly, stronger links between city organisations and partners in the sub-region – particularly Wirksworth Festival and Derwent Valley Mills World Heritage Site initiatives – should have been built to support a more thriving artistic infrastructure across Derbyshire. As well as further supporting cultural tourism, this closer link, together with a refurbished Joseph Wright Gallery and Silk Mill Museum, will enable the city to make much more of its heritage.

Building on the success of Tregoning Fine Art, Derby should have attracted more private sector galleries and agencies into the city by 2013. ACE aims to encourage the art market and collecting culture to develop in the regions and Derby could be well-placed to take advantage of this. Galleries are more likely to be successful if there is a ‘cluster’ and variety of offers to tempt visitors to an area and with an increasing number of galleries opening in the Derbyshire area, Derby could look to become a ‘hot-spot’. 

The specific outcomes noted above are a starting point only. These should be set in the context of some of the wider aims for the visual arts nationally that are identified in Turning Point: 

- more opportunities for people to experience and engage with the contemporary visual arts 
- more opportunities for artists to make new work
- a stronger culture of innovation and risk
- a more diverse contemporary visual arts sector and more diverse audiences and participants
- a stronger visual arts profession
- stronger contemporary visual arts organisations with longer-term planning and less ‘short-termism’
- stronger regional, national and organisation-to-organisation partnerships
- greater engagement in, and understanding of, contemporary art in its historical and cultural context
- increased public acknowledgement of the value of the artist
- increased opportunities for artists to find new markets / increased sales
- more new collectors – a strengthened private sector
- increased economic contribution of the visual arts including to the sustainable communities agenda
- more funding from public and private sector bodies for artists’ commissions / production initiatives
- more artist-run exhibition spaces and open studio programmes – helping to stimulate creative clusters
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3. How do we get there?

Establish an advisory group / network, affiliated to the Arts Forum, that brings together a wide range of interested parties from within the sector to help pull together and achieve ‘buy-in’ to this section of the Derby Arts Strategy.

Strengthen partnership working – both within the sector and cross-sectorial.
Investigate and make links with visual arts strategies for Derbyshire, the region and nationally.
Encourage ambition, creativity and entrepreneurialism across the sector.
Increase public sector investment in contemporary visual arts programme development in order that organisations can compete with peers for profile and audiences. 
Support bids to improve facilities at Derby Museum & Art Gallery.
Encourage networking, joint programming, education work and marketing between visual arts partners. 
Research the viability of attracting more private sector galleries and agencies into the city. Work with Cityscape and city partners to make this happen.
Encourage imaginative artist-led initiatives and projects to attract both high profile and emerging artists to the city.
Support efforts to create more affordable studio space for artists.
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4. How we will know when we’re there?
 
- All the above will have happened.
- With an exciting and distinctive programme, Derby QUAD will have become a name and place recognised nationally and even internationally.
- Visual arts events in Derby will be covered in national press.
- Galleries and artists will want to come to the city.
- The city will host a major visual arts exhibition / event that can draw big audiences to the city and generate income.
- The area between and around QUAD, DM&AG and Cathedral Green / Queen Street, will have developed into a niche cultural tourism / shopping quarter with several galleries, craft shops. At least one major new private / commercial gallery will have moved to / opened in Derby and be thriving. 
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