Art Portal is part of Arts Electronic,a new artist-led inititive, that supports grass-roots contemporary art that remains unswayed by fashion, trends or the whims of government funding. The project involves ongoing research into the placing of contemporary art, it’s audiences and it’s relationship to the everyday and we place great emphasis on context. Our mission is to support new works of contemporary art and foster an audience from a wide range of backgrounds. Arts Electronic acts as a testing-ground for innovation with a strong emphasis on supporting new risk-taking ideas and cross-disciplinary collaboration. I. MISSION Arts Electronic aims to be a hub for new and up and coming international contemporary visual art; A forum where all can engage with contemporary ideas through a unique, risk taking, cross art-form and culturally diverse high quality programme of art. In today’s climate the factors that determine which artists receive credit for their work and which works are carried forward, does merit inspection. Individuals with valuable insights might easily be overlooked or passed by in a world increasingly underwritten by market-driven forces. However, when individuals are marginalized, it can force them to embark on higher-risk courses of action, enabling beneficial innovation that would otherwise not have happened. The aim is to retrieve art that may have a different type of value from those dictated by market forces while stimulating questions about the history-making process of art. At the same time we hope to develop a network-based creative community as a model of innovation in curating and practice. The objectives of the project is to introduce new audiences to the work of significant artists and to engage the work of artists as interacting generative agents, remediating one another as a vital part of contemporary social space. Given the simultaneous emergence of conceptual art in several art centers around the world and the emergence of the new forms of interconnectivity via digital platforms we hope to encourage international collaboration and exchange with both artists and audiences. This curatorial project presents a flexibility of approach to the curating of artistic works that make use of the contradictory relationship of the respective participants and characteristics. II. VISION Within the next 4 years to become a creative crossroads to build new partnerships and to be acknowledged by our audiences as being central to artistic, cultural and educational life. Playing a leading role on innovation and risk taking, to span the virtual and real worlds, achieving openness, access and excellence making a positive contribution to the regeneration to the arts. III. VALUES Arts Electronic values: 1. People A. The work of artists and curators and audience. 2. The Work A. Critical dialogue between artist, audiences, curators. B. Innovation in the visual arts and wider cultural industries. C. Original thinking and a contemporary outlook. D. Internationalism and multiculturalism. E. The Way We Do Business F. Creative collaboration with individuals, institutions and funding partners. G. Education as a tool for change and for increasing understanding of cultural, social, aesthetic and political issues. H. Taking calculated risks in the pursuit of artistic excellence. I. Fiscal responsibility. IV. Business The Mission, Vision and Values of the organisation have been translated into 7 aims which underpin the Business Plan. These are: 1. To be a leading international centre for contemporary visual arts engaging audiences, artists and curators in ideas, knowledge and dialogue. 2. Support innovation, creativity and the development of talent. 3. Make a leading contribution to local, national and international cultural and knowledge agendas. 4. To develop inclusive participation, learning and skills in visual arts and digital media. 5. To be a social, creative and business network hub. 6. To attract talented people and invest in them. 7. Achieve our objectives within a framework of a balanced budget and a well-run organisation. IV. PROGRAMME STRATEGY The core of the programme strategy is as follows: •To conceive of projects as a loose series, with a methodological freedom in the curatorial-editorial approach, and which will remain inherent in all issues of the project, and will manifests itself in all the respective forms of presentation. •Programming in an integrated way across the visual arts with engagement in the programme seen as central. • Developing innovative partnerships to increase the quality of the programme and increase risk taking by sharing the risk more widely. • Expanding the digital footprint of artselectronic to engage a wider audience. •Increasing the impact of the work of artselectronic on the Knowledge Economy. • Becoming more commercially focused and effective as state funding for work in the arts becomes squeezed. • Adopting open working practices at the core of the new strategy and making this central to delivering an integrated, innovative and risk taking programme. (Open in this context means creating a way of working where there is a continuous and open dialogue between audience and artists about ideas and this dialogue helps to shape and redefine what artselectronic does.) V. RESEARCH Arts Electronic explores two specific lines of enquiry: •International socio-political change •Participation in artist practice Arts Electronic is a cross art-form that engages with: •Visual Arts – group and solo exhibitions of emerging, mid-career and established artists; thematic shows across all forms of contemporary visual art. Produce the majority of its exhibitions to tour, initiating original projects and commissioning a range of artists. •Digital Media – this is a cross-cutting theme rather than a distinct programme. Areas include online artistic projects, interactive artist-led projects, user-generated content, participative projects and applications that enable creative innovation. Creative Industries – A programme of formal and informal events and initiatives to support the creative sector and talent through information dissemination and networking. Projects will range between small and middle scale with the aim of producing high profile projects utilising and interacting with each city and region. Work will be produced in a number of ways: •Commissioned •Toured •Developed from artselectronic research programme VI. Visual Arts Our core programme 2012-13 continues the exploration of international socio-political change through the groundbreaking exhibition and tour, Crazy Like a Fox. Arts Electronic aims to develop further investigations, whilst socially engaged art and participatory projects are a strong focus. We are currently developing ideas for inclusion in a Festival of Live Art Performance that provides the opportunity for an in-depth enquiry into issues around the economy with strong new commissions and partnerships. In 2012-13 we also begin our Curator initiative, where international artists work strategically on our long term programme development with us. VII. Engagement Engagement is not a separate team or area but works across all of artselectronic participation in a current line of enquiry. Engaging new communities in projects with artists is a focus for our work. Engagement activities are not restricted to but might include tours, debates, digital content, workshops, interpretation, Q&As and seminars. artselectronic is also developing a number of targeted projects including: • Projector: young people (Youth Hostel inititive) • Exposures: new talent in moving image • Wire: creative industries http://artselectronic.wordpress.com/ For further information go to our website http://artselectronic.weebly.com/ or join us on our new Facebook page at: https://www.facebook.com/ArtsElectronic contact Abel Magwitch: magwitch@live.com