Outset Professionals

ART LICKS RADIO COMMISSION, 2019

Outset supported the seventh edition of Art Licks Weekend, centred around the theme of INTERDEPENDENCE, inviting the audience to consider the subject with 63 free exhibitions and events open to all, across the city.

Outset brought to life the fluid link between artist and audience with The Art Licks Weekend Radio, run in partnership with TACO! and hosted on RTM. The content surrounding interdependence was broadcast across the country, in keeping with the festival’s theme. The radio provided a new format for festival participants to voice their thoughts on the theme and reach audiences that may not be geographically within reach of the events.

Ranging from in-conversations, reading group discussions, experimental music and field recordings, alongside new commissions from emerging talent including: Simon Bayliss, Lola Bunting, Andrew Gillespie, Rosalie Schweiker and Holly Graham.

Shows were broadcast daily from 17th – 20th October 2019, and further available as a podcast via the Art Licks website.

The Art Licks Weekend is an annual festival that celebrates the activity of artist-led and non-profit project spaces across London; it launched in 2013 and is part of the larger organisation, Art Licks.

For its seventh year, the Art Licks Weekend (17th–20th October 2019) takes on the theme of Interdependence: inviting the audience to consider the subject with 63 free exhibitions and events open to all, across the city.

Interdependence is important to consider today, as the outlook for artists starting a career across the country becomes ever more difficult alongside growing economic and political pressures. The Art Licks Weekend explores how artists are responding to these challenges. Rather than working in isolation and being ‘independent’ from the system, these groups depend on community and acknowledge the importance of collectivism, support, care, and friendship as structures for working.

The festival included exhibitions and events programmed by 63 participating project spaces and collectives across Londonworking with 290 artists.

The festival also included fifteen exhibitions from projects based across the country that were hosted by London spaces for the festival, such as Caraboo, Bristol; EastCheap Studio, Letchworth Garden City; Edition Residencies, Manchester; Common Clay, Hastings; Gaada, Burra Isle, Shetland; Recent Activity, Birmingham; Underpinning, Aberdeen; Women Artists of the North East Library, Newcastle.

2019 also saw the launch of the Art Licks Weekend radio station run in partnership with TACO! and RTM.

Art Licks Weekend, Director: Holly Willats.
Art Licks Weekend 2019 Advisory Group: Anna Hart, Deborah Herring, Lawrence Lek, Sophie Risner, José da Silva, and George Vasey.

2019 Partners: Artquest, Cubitt, east bristol contemporary, Flint, Gasworks, Recent Activity, RTM, TACO!, The NewBridge Project.

The Art Licks Weekend 2019 was funded by Arts Council England Grants for the Arts, Outset Contemporary Art Fund, and the Art Licks Weekend Patrons.

With the support of Outset, Art Licks was able to launch an exciting and ambitious radio station for its festival, and commission five new artist works for broadcasts. This was only made possible with the support of Outset, and it's a real game-changer to work with such an open-minded and trusting organisation.

Holly Willats, Director, Art Licks