You Would Cry Too If It Happened to You: Bob and Roberta Smith's Art Party

When Bob and Roberta Smith wrote his public letter of protest against the marginalisation of arts education from the curriculum to then education secretary Michael Gove, he was voicing the worries of the entire creative community in the UK. "It was actually a very spur of the moment thing," says Smith. "It was the day that Amy Winehouse died and that lunatic had just shot all those young people in Europe… so those issues of youth and creativity dying out were at the surface."

Gove’s intention was to scrap some GCSEs, replacing them with a new system of EBacc (English Baccalaureate Certificates), which would redefine schools' core subjects: English, Maths, Science, Foreign Languages, History and Geography. This meant that subjects such as Art (along with Design & Technology, Drama and Music) wouldn't count towards the EBacc, and the subjects would be increasingly pushed out of secondary school education.

This was a pretty crazy thing for the government to propose but if you’re not sure why, let’s for a moment talk figures: in January of this year, the DCMS (Department of Culture, Media and Sports) published statistics stating a 10% growth in the Creative Industries, outperforming every other industry in the UK. This sector also accounted for 1.68 million jobs (5.6% of all UK jobs), generated £8 million an hour and made up 5.2 % of the total UK economy.

Gove was forced to back-track somewhat on his EBacc plans last year after warnings it would not survive a change of government, but damage has been done and repercussions are already being felt. In 2013 there was a 14% fall in the number of children taking Art and similar trends have been reported in Music, Drama and Design. Some schools opted to scrap creative subjects completely. Furthermore, says Smith, although the plan was abandoned and Gove is now reshuffled, replaced with Nicky Morgan, "the concept of the EBacc hasn’t changed. The core subjects that make up the reconstituted GCSEs haven’t been changed. Morgan is just overseeing the process and hasn't publicly come out to speak in support of the arts. EBacc or GCSEs… it’s really just semantics."

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"We cannot stand still… the world does not stand still" – Bob and Roberta Smith

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Smith’s Letter to Michael Gove and subsequent articles for the UK press resulted in the organisation of 2013's Art Party Conference at Scarborough Spa, which brought together artists, teachers, performers and musicians for a day of agitprop action. This has been developed into a film that's part road movie, part documentary, part political fantasy. Directed collaboratively by Smith and Tim Newton, Art Party was released across the UK on the day of the GCSE results – Thursday 21 August. Galleries, arts organisations and cinemas across the UK organised Art Party afterparties and we invited 12 critics, students, writers and artists from each of these towns and cities to respond to Smith’s Art Party, each attending an event simultaneously. The complete set of reports, published below, add another layer of critical collective action to the noisy and necessary bandwagon. (You can also find a review of the film itself from director and critic Ian Mantgani here.)

Art Party the film is by no means the end for Bob and Roberta Smith. Now it has been released across the UK, the artist is setting his sights on the run up to 2015's general election. "We're going to ask organisations across the UK to host Cultural Question Times," he says, "asking museums, galleries and libraries to gather parliamentary candidates from all the parties and bring them together to quiz them on their local and national cultural commitment."

Art Party has the potential to go way beyond educational policy, becoming a vehicle for wider issues of how makers, producers, commentators and consumers of culture can participate in an active conversations with politics. "It’s now about how we go further," says Smith. "We cannot stand still… the world does not stand still."

Reports from the Art Parties

Cornerhouse, Manchester, by Jack Welsh

Sugar. So much sugar. After a well-attended screening of Art Party, the third floor of Cornerhouse transformed into a bustling party venue dominated by Squirtapalooza: a monstrous cake installation constructed by Manchester bakery Home Sweet Home. Backed by a bouncing 'gay disco' soundtrack, Manchester's Art Party afterparty slapped it on thick.

Flanked by tables of endless saccharin goods – giant party rings, 'millions', tongue painting lollipops and gloopy icing sugar – the party featured inclusive activities such as hitting a picture of the reshuffled Gove with cake (highly satisfying) and face painting with icing sugar. Dirty Protest was an invitation for people to use a white cube as a mass canvas for fluorescent paints. The room was packed all night. Picking up a white plastic paint palette to get started, I had flashbacks to my own GCSE art class – particularly poignant given the context.

Amid all this mischievous, spontaneous creativity and outrageous fun hung a more serious question: was there any substance here? I'd suggest that the answer lay in the conversations I had over the course of the evening with artists, marketing officers, staff from the main Manchester universities and a pastry chef, among others. What linked them was an early personal connection with creativity that underpinned their strong belief in the significant message driving Art Party.

These boisterous gatherings are successful because they physically bring people together and that is where Art Party's strength lies: in mobilising a critical mass to support and defend the crucial role of creative education. What exemplifies this better than a room of adults wearing boiler-suits furiously painting, Pet Shop Boys playing in the background? 

Jack Welsh is an artist, producer and researcher based in Manchester and Liverpool.  

FACT, Liverpool, by Ashleigh Owen

Weather forced us to retreat to the warm, dry indoors of FACT on the night of Art Party's screening and afterparty, planned to take place in Ropewalks Square. There to greet us were the Bluecoat Print Studio running a screen printing workshop, and artist-led gallery Model selling prints from artists such as Emily Speed. Most notable on the night were designers/developers Draw and Code, who over the years have established a reputation by generating immersive experiences through new technologies. Topically, Draw and Code decided to show us what Hope Street would look like without arts funding. Through the virtual reality headset, Oculus Rift, they had people explore this landscape with galleries, theatres and studios rendered as abandoned sites or turned into sterile offices and flats. Overall however, due to the cancellation of the live music, the general atmosphere of Liverpool's Art Party was less revolutionary rave and more of a grown up, mild-mannered affair.

Admittedly, some aspects of the documentary-cum-political fantasy are hard to swallow, with serious speeches and inspiring interviews cut up with quirky footage of performances and parody. Yet there is an exuberant charm in musician Flame Proof Moth and in John Voce’s characterisation of ‘Michael Grove’ [Art Party's Michael Gove stand-in] that sweeps the viewer along. Overall, it feels Art Party’s efforts to seriously champion art's place in society translate as a rather tame attempt at advocacy. This being said, I think the real point behind Art Party is to emphasis the seriousness of having fun, and perhaps the personal benefits, joy and pleasure being creative can bring.

Ashleigh Owen is an artist based in Liverpool.

Turner Contemporary/LIMBO/Crate/Resort Studios, Margate, by Charley Vines and Matthew de Pulford

A seaside walk. Foil-covered walls. Gin. Surreal pop standup. Participatory painting. Funk. Umbrella dancing. Stolen shoes. A Michael Gove colouring-in book.

The screening of Art Party at Turner Contemporary led to the first collaboration between Margate’s three artist-led organisations, Resort Studios, Limbo and Crate. Held in the former furniture depository building where Resort Studios is based, the afterparty was organised to raise funds for the future projects of the artist-run spaces.

The party started with a walk from Turner Contemporary along the coast and up the hill into the exotic Cliftonville area of Margate. Here was to be found a room decorated in emergency blankets and tissue paper, with a bar built from left-behind removal crates serving flavoured gin and tonics. There was also a raffle draw with three prizes, the most desirable of which was a colouring-in book featuring illustrations of Gove in what can only be described as compromising scenarios.

DJs Wolf Zines, Prime and Chico provided music ranging from indie-pop to 70s funk, and performance artist Dul Fin Wah! re-told nursery rhymes and shared songs written in the week leading up to the party. Throughout the evening party-goers covered a wall in a collaborative mural with neon coloured paints, while local residents peered in curiously, occasionally braving the threshold to join in.

With a total profit of £5.16, the event paved a way for future alliance between the artist-run spaces involved, and acted as a reminder of why artists have no money and that sometimes it doesn’t really matter. 

Charley Vines is an artist based at Crate, Margate. Matthew de Pulford is an artist and curator of LIMBO, Margate.

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"What began as a playful, politically engaged conversation goes way beyond both the party and the film" – Jade Montserrat

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Crescent Arts, Scarborough, by Jade Montserrat

“It looks a little like a doss-house,” Stuart Cameron (Crescent Arts’ director) harks as we manoeuvre the sofa to face the screen, the exhibition space jam packed with banners and portraits of the ‘bogeyman’ Gove. But you don’t know until you try it! Richard Hamilton and Victor Pasmore will no doubt have had this sentiment in mind when they imagined the Art Foundation course, founded in Scarborough. Doss-house or not, through the course of the evening, this space becomes the hub of proceedings.

Crescent Arts is the diamond in the rough: Scarborough’s haven for contemporary art, progressive ideas and radical implementation. So of course Smith was going to produce the Art Party at Scarborough Spa – a favourite for party political conferences (including, very recently, UKIP). Scarborough is a town that hinges on its illustrious past as a spa resort but now saddles up to ex-X Factor stars for its entertainment – apart from the Stephen Joseph Theatre. This is the venue that puts the town on the map, and it’s there where Art Party is screened to a full house.

Two years in the making, I treasure the very first visit Smith made to Crescent Arts. We flooded the office table with ideas, suggesting artists, art educators and institutions (Lynda Morris! Jeremy Deller! David Shrigley!) who might champion freedom of expression on behalf of students and practitioners nationwide. Crescent Arts, 35 this year, was once one of those ideas, and with stalwart dedication, passion and stoicism, not only does it still support artists, it thrives. This is to the credit of Cameron who, supporting Bob and Roberta’s project, embodies the belief that ‘true art is unable to be anything but revolutionary, aspiring to a complete and radical reconstruction of society… Only on a basis of friendly cooperation, without constraint from outside, will it be possible for scholars and artists to carry out their tasks, which will be more far-reaching than ever before in history.’

The ripple effect: what began as a playful, politically engaged conversation and was brought to public attention last November in the Art Party Conference goes way beyond both the party and the film. The project raises the revolutionary potential of artists and educators demanding the acknowledgment of the creative industries as our most successful export, and consequently expanding the core curriculum, turning STEM to STEAM.

Jade Montserrat is an artist and writer based between Islington Mill in Manchester, Scarborough and London.

ICA, London, by Emily Beber

‘Why did I go to art school? To express myself myself, man. To make ART.'

It began with humour. Protest placards, crude political slogans; sprawling wordplay upon house-sized banners. Then there was the letter, and then the Art Party. Bob and Roberta Smith’s public statements in the UK press have become, over the last four years, ever more fiercely political, more provocative, more absurd; harnessing humour as a method of exposure. The UK government, he feels, is beating the creativity out of society, starting in schools, where education reforms have created a hierarchy of subjects leaving art and design flailing at the bottom in the remnants of their own, empty materials. But rather than railing at the situation, Smith set up something that allegorises his concerns (if the government won’t fight for art, we will!) with a somewhat tongue-in-cheek ferocity.

The room I am standing in is full. Smith watches from the side, his toxic coloured suit jacket clashing with the sterile ICA walls. He stands out. A compilation of established artists flood the room in support of the ‘protest’ film we have just watched and in which many of them feature. It presents a powerful euphoria at times, amid the artist speeches, the smashed Gove effigies, the protest calls from podiums decorated with caricatures of politicians’ faces, and the swathes of students, school teachers, councils and artists holding Gove-slandering banners and parading them across Scarborough beach.

The room seems drunk on this elation. Yet I am uncomfortable and a little troubled in some ways by the Art Party’s preciousness – this is a collective protest, but you must have a ticket to be a part of it, the propagandistic aesthetic of Smith’s artwork that calls upon mass movement seemingly undone by the utter criticality of supporting struggling arts institutions but then limiting a broader, public engagement with the event. Or, the collective agreement that art is ‘useful,’ ‘makes kids powerful,’ without really addressing its greater manipulation in the job market. The evening teases at these tensions, yet does not directly address them. Then again, perhaps this is just the beginning of Smith’s performance.

Emily Beber is a writer, editor and performer based in London.

Plymouth Art Centre, by Edith Doove

Bob and Roberta Smith exhibited at Plymouth Art Centre almost a year ago so it made sense that his Art Party should take place here as well. Uniquely, the art centre was the only venue for this year’s event in the Southwest. It began with an afternoon of badge-making, drawing politicians and a barbecue, followed by a screening in the cinema, which attracted an enthusiastic audience. The docufiction gave a humorous account of last year’s conference in Scarborough, drawing people in with the surreal story of Gove’s transformation into an ardent art lover who finally seems to disappear into the North Sea. Surely Bob and Roberta Smith could not have predicted the film’s self-fulfilling prophecy. Gove, as we know, has indeed ‘disappeared,’ only to make way, however, for Nicky Morgan, who seems to be following closely in his footsteps. Art Party 2015 should therefore really be in the making.

Programmed by Vickie Fear, Plymouth’s Art Party afterparty took place in the PAC Home space, which functions as the centre’s network for artists, curators and writers who live in the region. The space played host to a soapbox where local artists including Steven Paige read out Smith’s recent letter to Nicky Morgan. The evening concluded with a conversation about the current state of art education. ‘Art Makes Children Powerful,’ one of the badges made earlier that afternoon read. Art makes them critical, and that’s exactly what’s needed. In today’s world, maybe more now than ever.

Edith Doove is a writer and curator based in Plymouth.

firstsite, Colchester, by Marina Christodoulidou

Art Party makes an efficient call for democracy. Arts organisations, as spaces of autonomy to produce lasting effects, turned the audience into activists of a progressive ‘collective will.’ Firstsite's afterparty set up a multi-disciplinary environment for participants to protest through creative activities, with firstsite’s associate artist Mandy Roberts investigating the intersections between art and politics to challenge the status quo.

Among the activities on offer was an invitation to dress up and choose a label to represent the political party you wished to be part of – or alternatively to parody conservative austerity. Adopting a made-up persona to be photographed, we presented and questioned what we think we know and crave; as Smith says, we ‘performed and informed.’ Badge-making turned out to be an intriguing way of being critical about the Art Party’s debate.

What matters is to give voice, not the ‘voice’ as Michael Gove understands it, but to give voice to people. Approaching people on the night to discuss their part in this, Karen Cooke, a parent, teacher and artist, expressed disappointment with the educational system. People are not passive recipients of meaning. Repressive ideological regimes restrict dreams, freedom of expression and creativity. Art Party ends on a shot of the Scarborough Sea; it is morning and Flame Proof Moth plays us out against the waves, which seems to me an ending of hope.

Marina Christodoulidou is an art historian and curator based in Colchester.

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"I imagined the other screenings dotted around the country and felt connected, part of a bigger cause" – Kayte Judge

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The Hepworth, Wakefield, by Rosie Heaton

The derelict warehouse, Hepworth Wakefield’s The Calder, was strewn with tires; I looked for the custodian that had absconded their post and allowed this monstrosity to occur. On further investigation, though, I discovered it was art, and you were openly encouraged to pick up, throw and squeeze into hollowed out rolls of rubber.

I was seated on a three legged stool, which is sturdier than a two legged but lacks the lustre of the common chair. Actors strolled around from behind the set, and successfully distracted me from my numb behind for ten minutes. However, their attempt at hauling the audience into the act was going too far – I personally do not like my art to speak back to me and am not a fan of interactive learning.

The Art Party film was next. I agreed wholeheartedly with the premise and think that creativity is vital for children to grow and develop into well-rounded human beings, but that does not mean that I wish to hunch for over an hour and listen to the assertion that ‘art makes children powerful.’

Elements of the film were contrived: the people were too eccentric and living up to the stereotype of the penniless artist, going without food to buy expensive oils, their clothes all clashed and their voices were too educated and smooth. Ultimately I do not appreciate modern art because I think it is a cop out. I have an opinion and it will not be changed by wiry wording, or a cashmere-wearing artiste. I did not find the film vital viewing and could live without its hapless heroism.

Rosie Heaton is a member of Theatre Royal Wakefield's Young Writers Group.

The Pad, Bedford Creative Arts, by Kayte Judge

Bedford Creative Arts screened Art Party in The Pad, a tiny nightclub that has been at the heart of the alternative music scene in Bedford for over a decade. The group of people who came to see the film included Bedford arts stalwarts but also new faces, teachers from the pupil referral unit, recently returned graduates, art teachers, and one CASS student who wanted to see ‘if he made the cut.’ (He did.) We began with a little needlework, gently guided by the ‘Kingpin of Cross Stitch’ Jamie Chalmers, Mr X Stitch himself. Some of us watched the film huddled together on the dancefloor/cinema while those who got the needlework bug hung back and watched the film while cross stitching school-based slogans such as ‘Wanna fight?’. Watching the film and seeing familiar faces on screen (The Grubby Mitts are from Bedford) I imagined the other screenings dotted around the country and felt connected, part of a bigger cause.

A fervent and persistent arts scene bubbles away in Bedford, led primarily by home-grown producers nursing families and day jobs as well as fringe/film/book festivals, pop up shops, outdoor cinemas and gigs. While we don’t have cultural strategies or arts officers (does anyone anymore?) we do have creative and cultural networks, constellations of individual practitioners and cultural organisations.

Bedford Creative Arts has been in the town for almost 30 years and has taken on a nurturing role for the networks here. We are noticing that things happen when networks start to organise. Together really is better; together we have a voice. Like the Art Party we hope to better advocate for the arts in education and have taken a lead. We are working with schools, young people and cultural providers to build a cultural entitlement list, ‘The Culture Challenge,’ for the young people in the town – to build confidence and unleash potential in our young people and the creative and cultural industries here. Bedford is like a microcosm of the UK; when there is no one in the system to advocate for the arts then the networks must strengthen and organise.

Kayte Judge is a curator and producer based in Bedford.

Glynn Vivian Gallery, Swansea, by Megan Leigh and Andrea Powell

As Black Kettle Collective [Glynn Vivian’s young people’s group] we were keen to make Swansea's Art Party a real celebration of the art, the cornerstone of our culture and the subject that Gove so wanted to limit. This was an opportunity to celebrate art's ability to infiltrate the current cultural climate – demonstrating how the arts are much more than an institution, and so implicit within everyday experience.

In the weeks leading up to our party, we ran various tie-dye workshops to get local people involved in the project. They were then invited to wear their creations to the event itself. These activities culminated in a parade down the Kingsway, at the end of which we handed out party bags containing instructions on how to make emergency formal wear (essential for a party), a DIY art sheet (aka a sheet of paper), and hand-made chalk bags. These items were part artworks, part promotional items. We then went on to watch Art Party at the Elysium Gallery. The event was home-spun and humble and resulted in a great many conversations with the public. By involving the community, Black Kettle Collective wanted to show art's ability to join people together; therefore in turn recognising it as one of the key foundations of UK culture.

Megan Leigh and Andrea Powell are members of Black Kettle Collective.