artist spaces in Melbourne
Artist-run-spaces have often been seen as 'energetic' and 'industrious' but peripheral to the art establishment. We now refer to the 'art establishment' as the 'art world' comprising galleries, art organisations, artists, para-arts professionals, art schools etcetera. This semantic shift from an 'art establishment' to an 'art world' may have connections to recent developments in communication technologies, but it also speaks of changing perceptions of controlling mechanisms and the role of large organisations.
Yet 'art world' does not mean that everyone shares an art-eco friendly planet. Just as the 'global village' and the 'world wide web' only have currency for those with a credit card, the socio-political positions amongst members of the 'arts community' can be worlds apart. In Melbourne there are significant shifts in the attitudes and roles of its participants. While the art system is undergoing changes in many different areas, some of the ones most significant to artists are being generated by artists themselves, through their own organisations. These changes go back to the beginning of the 1990s, but rather than providing a history of artist-run-spaces, I find it more useful and appropriate to look at what Melbourne's artists' spaces are thinking about now and for the future.
The idea of an 'art establishment' is one that artists-run-spaces have helped to undermine, resulting in the institutions of art becoming more fluid and responsive. The museum is no longer an institution contained totally within its 'sandstone walls'. It is understood as a set of ideological relations that can be comfortably located to any space - public or private, commercial or artist-run. The expanded influence and network of institutional structures has also made them more transparent and interactive. The... The rest of this article is available to subscribers of Eyeline