Taylor Le Melle for not/nowhere

This writing workshop is intended for an intergenerational group of freelance artists, writers and curators who regularly interact with institutions (via art administrators in salaried roles), galleries and artist run spaces. We will troubleshoot issues that arise for those who rely on email communication as a primary mode of exchange to facilitate 1) negotiation of fees and contracts 2) production and installation arrangements 3) marketing, communications and framing of your work for public consumption.

The facilitators will place particular emphasis on how writing techniques can be used to distill your desires clearly and establish your boundaries effectively when face-to-face interaction is not possible. Workshop participants should expect to leave the workshop with a collectively-produced toolkit that will help each individual to spend less clock time writing email communication, which the facilitator believes will save valuable life energy for artists and other cultural workers.

Though interactions between freelancers/ independent artists/ curators/ writers will not be the main focus of the discussion, we can spend some time on this if it would be useful to the group.

not/nowhere is an artists’ workers cooperative that programmes workshops, displays artist moving image and otherwise works to facilitate new modes of transferring knowledge. our mission is to ensure that local artists who use new media in their work can access film and audio equipment, and access training to use these machines creatively. we are committed to exploring new possibilities for owning the means of production of our work and finding sustainability in our practices. not/nowhere’s additional focus is to provide infrastructural support for artists working in all mediums and to enfranchise people to take pleasure in expressing themselves creatively.

 

Taylor Le Melle writes, organises and produces objects. Taylor has written for publications and monographs on and with artists Adam Farah, Helen Cammock, Sophia Al-Maria, Ima-Abasi Okon, Zadie Xa, Evan Ifekoya, Imran Perretta, Aslan Goisum, Jamila Johnson-Small, Melvin Edwards, Torey Thornton, Sola Olulode, Rehana Zaman, and Daniella valz Gen. As the publishing imprint PSS, Taylor has published and edited numerous artists’ books. With not/nowhere, an artist workers’ cooperative, they have organised over 50 workshops and events to provide contemporary artists with training and space to experiment with writing, movement and film.

Register for this session here via Eventbrite

In your registration you will be asked Why this session will be useful to you. Attendees will be chosen based on this answer. Those selected will be asked to submit via email up to three examples of email exchanges that you would describe as any of the following:

1. Draining or aggravating exchanges (when you felt you had to ‘tell someone off’ diplomatically or not)
2. Threads of emails that overwhelmed you or were difficult to manage
3. Emails that you sent that you thought were perfectly clear, but ultimately did not function to put you and the arts administrator ‘on the same page’
4. Any other instances in which you expressed a need or desire, which was not met

In each instance, the facilitator is most interested in what YOUR side of the correspondence was and so do feel free to edit out as much of the other person’s details as you deem necessary or appropriate.

If you require any further assistance with the application form or need to discuss access needs for participation, please drop us an email with a contact telephone number so that we can get back to you and talk through alternative options: admin@deptfordx.org

With thanks to: