Foreperson Marie Thams welcomed the approximately 100 conference participants present.
On Wednesday, the Association of Visual Artists held its annual municipal conference in a beautiful setting in the Sculpture Hall at Kunstmuseum Brandts in Odense. The assembly in the hall consisted of, among other things, members of municipal visual arts councils, cultural consultants and professional visual artists who collaborate in many places in the country to create art projects and involve art in the municipalities, so that citizens can enjoy art in everyday life.
After the welcome of front person Marie Thams, visual artist Simon Starling presented in diary form the work with his 'Houseboat for Ho', which has been developed for the low-lying village of Ho, which is threatened by rising sea levels, and is partly inspired by the area's thatched country houses and partly by Bolivian reed boat building.
Postdoc Ditte Vilstrup Holm from CBS and KØS shared her views on how art in public space must relate to not just the place, but also local and global agendas such as the UN's global goals.
Sofie Myschetzky, Cai Ulrich von Platen and Trevor Davies each presented their art project.
After lunch and a visit to Brandt's exhibitions, we were presented with three very different art projects; Sofie Myschetzky, who is a development consultant in National Park Skjoldungernes Land, presented 'Art in the national park', including especially visual artist Mikkel Carl's work 'The future was here already'; Trevor Davies, who is part of the artistic management of Metropolis, told about some of the many activities in Metropolis Landskab, which is a nationwide collaboration between a large number of municipalities, which did not let corona stop them, but rather let themselves be inspired by this ; and finally visual artist Cai Ulrich von Platen told about his task of integrating art at Skærbæk District School as part of his years-long commitment to the village in Tønder municipality.
The day ended with a presentation by the director of the Architects' Association, Lars Autrup, of the feasibility study 'Artist environments - the development of the mixed city', which maps existing artist environments and offers suggestions for new models for how to avoid pushing artistic and creative environments out of the city when housing prices increases.
The conference was not just an exciting presentation, but also an excellent opportunity to strengthen networks and relationships for the fortunately more and more people who are working to strengthen the professional visual arts in the municipalities. Therefore, BKF will of course also hold a municipal conference next year, just as two upcoming events are planned in the municipalities' network for art in the public space, which BKF facilitates together with KL.
Top: Lars Autrup, director of the Association of Architects, in conversation with Marie Thams.