Installation Art Now: A Roundtable Discussion

To coincide with Mike Nelson’s Hybrid Scripts exhibition currently on display at Northern Gallery for Contemporary Art (NGCA) this roundtable discussion will explore the current climate for producing, commissioning, exhibiting and collecting ambitious installation art. The roundtable discussion will be followed by a Q+A. The term installation art is used to describe large-scale, mixed-media constructions, often designed for a specific place or for a temporary period of time.

The key questions we will be looking to address are:

• Where does installation art sit within an increasingly immersive, experience driven cultural sector?
• Does installation art hold the key to connecting audiences to histories through storytelling, lived experience and cultural heritage
• How can experimentation, ambition and interrogation be maintained against a backdrop of arts funding cuts and rising costs such as storage, transport and materials?
• How can public institutions, commercial galleries, commissioners and funding bodies continue to support ambitious installation art?
• Are artists being fairly paid for delivering ambitious installation art commissions both institutionally and within the public realm?
• Where does installation art sit within the current art market?

Speakers: Simeon Barclay (Artist), Persilia Caton (Collections Curator, Artangel), Tim Dixon (Deputy Director, Matt’s Gallery) and Alona Pardo (Head of Programme, Arts Council Collection). Chaired by Jon Weston (Curator, Northern Gallery for Contemporary Art).

Image: Mike Nelson, Lionheart detail, 2023, Northern Gallery for Contemporary Art. Courtesy the artist and 303 Gallery, New York; Galleria Franco Noero, Turin; Matt’s Gallery, London; and neugerriemschneider, Berlin.