{"id":52843,"date":"2013-11-27T13:30:34","date_gmt":"2013-11-27T13:30:34","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.indexoncensorship.org\/?p=52843"},"modified":"2017-03-27T15:52:55","modified_gmt":"2017-03-27T14:52:55","slug":"twenty-four-hour-arty-people","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.indexoncensorship.org\/newsite02may\/?p=52843","title":{"rendered":"Twenty-four hour arty people"},"content":{"rendered":"
\""Michael

“Michael Gove” (Image Julia Farrington)<\/em><\/p><\/div>\n

It\u2019s 5am on Saturday a crowd of artists, film-makers, musicians and poets are gathered opposite London\u2019s Whitechapel gallery, waiting to board a coach to Scarborough for the Art Party Conference. It is cold and extremely early so my heart is warmed by the lively figure of artist Bobby Baker handing out \u2018packed breakfasts\u2019 to all us passengers.<\/p>\n

If I was looking forward to tasty home cooking I should have known better, because the breakfasts are a piece of participative conceptual art and the food \u2013 a couple of slices of white bread, some currants, marge and sachets of jam, ketchup and vinegar \u2013 came with instructions: \u00a0Use the food to make a portrait of Education Secretary Michael Gove, photograph it, tweet it and then eat it. By eating it you are going some way to understanding what it is like to be Michael Gove and therefore you are that much closer to being able to change him.<\/p>\n

The artists are concerned about potential changes to UK education that they see as undermining the arts and free expression in the UK.<\/p>\n

Michael Gove\u2019s reforms which downgrade arts education at GSCE are the trigger for the Art Party conference and on the coach on the way up, Bob and Roberta Smith (founder and force behind the whole project) led us in our chant \u2013 \u201cWhere are we going?\u201d \u201cScarborough\u201d \u201cWhat do we want?\u201d \u201cTo better advocate the arts to government\u201d was a bit of a mouthful. \u00a0But that is the heart of artist Bob and Roberta Smith\u2019s argument \u2013 how can something that is so vital and fundamental to human existence and has the power to transform, inspire and regenerate be swept aside.<\/p>\n

Everything was filmed, the coach trip and the whole day of events, discussions and provocations at the Spa Complex in Scarborough, and the footage will be over-laid by the story of an imaginary figure called \u201cMichael Grove MP\u201d who attends the conference and has a life-changing epiphany about the power and importance of art. \u00a0It will be released in August next year and will be a central part of The Art Party campaign in the lead up to the 2015 elections.<\/p>\n

Like everything in the conference, the film will be a combination of serious message and playfulness; to get to a moving discussion featuring Sam West, Maureen Duffy, Haroon Mirza and Geoff McMillan on \u201cWhy is art important\u201d, you passed an Aunt Sally side show where conference delegates were busting porcelain busts of Michael Gove.<\/p>\n

Bob and Roberta Smith\u2019s letter to Michael Gove, painted on two pieces of eight by four took centre stage at the Spa ends with a rallying cry. \u00a0\u201cYou will be opposed by all people interested in art, design, free speech, freedom and democracy \u00a0and probably also by a few bankers and investors interested in British products and exports who are concerned about the colour of their money\u2026Education is about sowing seeds not setting standards for the shape of bananas.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Julia Farrington hits the north for the Art Party conference<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","_mi_skip_tracking":false},"categories":[581,21],"tags":[5956,5955,1157,5957],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.indexoncensorship.org\/newsite02may\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/52843"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.indexoncensorship.org\/newsite02may\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.indexoncensorship.org\/newsite02may\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.indexoncensorship.org\/newsite02may\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.indexoncensorship.org\/newsite02may\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=52843"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.indexoncensorship.org\/newsite02may\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/52843\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":87962,"href":"https:\/\/www.indexoncensorship.org\/newsite02may\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/52843\/revisions\/87962"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.indexoncensorship.org\/newsite02may\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=52843"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.indexoncensorship.org\/newsite02may\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=52843"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.indexoncensorship.org\/newsite02may\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=52843"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}