Axisweb Research Validation beyond the gallery | Page 6

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Purpose

Context

Validation beyond the gallery reports on research
undertaken by Lucy Wright and Amanda Ravetz
(MSA/Manchester Metropolitan University), in
association with the charity, Axisweb1.

The research responds to a potential paradox within
professional visual arts practice. Although there has
been rapid growth in the demand for artists to work
across a range of public sectors2, the role and value of
art practice taking place outside of galleries is often
misunderstood, something that arguably impacts on
the value and status attributed to work of this nature.

The research investigates how artists operating
mainly outside of the gallery system gain traction and
visibility within their chosen idiom or field.
Through interviews with producers, commissioners
and artists, we gathered views on current routes to
validation and solicited opinions and experiences
about whether existing structures enable or
impede artists’ visibility and success. Mindful
that our respondents might have different ways of
conceptualizing success - possibly even rejecting
this category altogether - we used semi-structured
interviews (lasting approximately one hour each)
to capture differing values. We wanted to hear
how artists conceive of success and visibility and
about their own experiences of validation. The
term validation was chosen to emphasize external
recognition – public and institutional confirmation of
the credibility of artistic work.
The research was conducted in two phases. Phase
one (April 2015) involved semi-structured interviews
with selected commissioners and producers working
in national and international arts organizations in
the UK and Ireland. At the end of each interview,
the respondents were asked to suggest three or
four artists to take part in phase two. Our rationale
for using this ‘snowball’ technique was to focus on
artists who already have national or international
validation, thereby capturing first hand experiences
of the validation process. Phase two involved
interviews with 13 artists who responded to our
invitation, selected on the basis of who could take
part within the given timeframe. The second round of
interviews happened during May 2015.

Work “outside of the gallery system,” describes a
diverse range of practices and approaches, including
being a (professional) practice i