Archive for January, 2009
Artist Kajsa Dahlberg invited the YES! Association to collaborate with her on the piece The Name of This Association Shall Be Transmission for the exhibition Moot Points: Exercises in Self Organisation, Discourse and Collaboration, curated by Kathryn Elkin at Transmission Gallery in Glasgow in November 2008. A point of departure for Kajsa’s project was an interrogation of Transmission’s constitution. We decided to set up a meeting with the Transmission committee to discuss their constitution in relation to the YES! Association’s Equal Opportunity Agreement(#1, 2005).
The Transmisson constitution read as follows:
To advance the education of the public generally and in particular the inhabitants of Glasgow and its environs by securing and maintaining premises for the purpose of presenting the arts in all their forms. In particular the works (in the widest meaning) of persons who under normal circumstances would be denied a platform for expressing their artistic ideas, so long as such ideas expressed through their work are not subversive of all religion and morality.
After negotiations with the Transmission board on November 28 and after numerous emails the following weeks our proposal for a new formulation of the constitution read as follows:
To develop sustainable structures and strategies for a non-profit engagement in the production of exhibitions as well as the circulation of knowledge within the field of art. To advance the education of the public generally and in particular the inhabitants of Glasgow and its environs by securing and maintaining premises for the purpose of presenting arts in all their forms. Transmission will observe an intersectional perspective and work to ensure equal opportunities in regard to gender, ethnicity, sexuality and class in all aspects of their activities; meaning exhibitions, programs, screenings, publications, availability, PR, budget and choice of committee members. A gender equal exhibition program means that at least half of the exhibited works should be made by women. An ethnic equality practice means that the institution’s selection of originators should reflect the ethnic spectrum of society.
It was in particular the following part of the objectives that we found problematic:
“so long as such ideas expressed through their work are not subversive of all religion and morality”. We also considered that an expansion of the implications of: “persons who under normal circumstances would be denied a platform for expressing their artistic ideas” was necessary.
At Transmission’s Annual General Meeting, January 22, 2009 Kathryn Elkin introduced the motion to amend the Transmission constitution put forward by the YES! Association and Kajsa Dahlberg (at this point also members of Transmission) as stated above. At the meeting it was voted unanimously that the constitution should remain as it is.
For more detailed information about the project, read more here >>
Comments 0
