A Visiting Tutor in Animation at AUB has been named one of 15 active artists appointed to the Artist Council at a-n. Alys Scott-Hawkins, a practising artist and Visiting Tutor in Animation, was selected for the three-year appointment after responding to an open call to artists from across the sector.
A-n, which champions and supports artists, is the largest artists’ membership organisation in the UK, with more than 28,000 members from across the visual arts sector. Alys wanted to join the Council after witnessing the hardships experienced by artists during the COVID-19 pandemic.
She says: “It feels powerful to be part of a group of 15 artists who are informing the organisation of a-n based on our grassroots experiences as individual practitioners, but also based on knowledge and experience of the communities that each of us work with.
“My sense is that the cost-of-living crisis and the government that we have at present creates a very challenging context for all the arts: of course in terms of funding, but also because it becomes very easy to say ‘we must have hospitals, we must have social care, we must have schools'..."
“Less experienced creative professionals are often subsidising the creative sector with their time and with their financial investment, whether it's because they're not getting paid for their work, or they're getting underpaid for their work, there's a lot that's invisible, and I think it's important to try and make that visible and to campaign for the value which artists bring to society.
“One really powerful tool which a-n provides is the standard pay rates framework, so that when an artist needs to work out how much they should charge for their time, there’s a nationally recognised framework to support them.”
Some of the issues that Alys intends to highlight are around access to funding, including the processes required to apply to public bodies for funds. She says: “Making an application for funding as an individual artist is very demanding. It takes a lot of time and it’s very complex. If you haven’t done it before, if English isn't your first language, if you don't have any support, or if you're not connected to other artists or sources of advice, if you're dyslexic - which many, many, many, many creative people are - or if you don't have easy access to technology: there are many barriers and obstacles to overcome in making an application."
Alys, who has recently seen her work displayed at Southampton City Art Gallery’s Open exhibition, used the COVID-19 pandemic to draw a series of self-portraits to sharpen up her skills and creativity: "In a tiny corner of my bedroom I had a setup where I could just stop for five minutes each day and make a quick observational drawing, which made me feel like I was remaining connected to my practice, even though I had no studio and my children to look after.”
Alys’s time-lapse film I AM OKAY, I AM NOT OKAY, used an iPhone and a wildlife camera to document the strangeness and dislocation of living through the pandemic, won the Gallery’s 2022 New Media Prize.
A-n provides online sessions offering advice on applying for funding as well as other topics, and the a-n website provides information on opportunities such as exhibition open calls, public art commissions and residencies.
Some of the issues that Alys intends to highlight are around access to funding, including the processes required to apply to public bodies for funds. She says: “Making an application for funding as an individual artist is very demanding. It takes a lot of time and it’s very complex. If you haven’t done it before, if English isn't your first language, if you don't have any support, or if you're not connected to other artists or sources of advice, if you're dyslexic - which many, many, many, many creative people are - or if you don't have easy access to technology: there are many barriers and obstacles to overcome in making an application."
Alys, who has recently seen her work displayed at Southampton City Art Gallery’s Open exhibition, used the COVID-19 pandemic to draw a series of self-portraits to sharpen up her skills and creativity: "In a tiny corner of my bedroom I had a setup where I could just stop for five minutes each day and make a quick observational drawing, which made me feel like I was remaining connected to my practice, even though I had no studio and my children to look after.”
Alys’s time-lapse film I AM OKAY, I AM NOT OKAY, used an iPhone and a wildlife camera to document the strangeness and dislocation of living through the pandemic, won the Gallery’s 2022 New Media Prize.
A-n provides online sessions offering advice on applying for funding as well as other topics, and the a-n website provides information on opportunities such as exhibition open calls, public art commissions and residencies.
