Honoured, and also somewhat daunted, to be external examiner for a PHD. It arrived in the post today and I'm looking foward to getting stuck in. Someone mentioned 70,000 words, so better start reading!

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I'm on Instagram now if you want to keep up with all things Wysing and life related. Find me at wysing_donna

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So, I'm a bit lapsed with blogging because there has been a lot going on and it's often difficult to find time to quietly reflect. If you've seen any of our publicity for our 2016 programme you'll know that we are taking Wysing Poly as the starting point for the year's programme. Just to explain the thinking behaind that - for quite a while now we have been introducing new programmes to support artists at different stages in their lives. What tends to happen is when a programme becomes established - like residencies and retreats - they become over-subscribed and increasingly competitive. We've been looking at current residency applications over the last couple of weeks and they are incredibly impressive - well considered, relevant and very international which is not surprising as we specifically asked for diverse cultural and artistic perspectives in this call out. But more about residencies another time. When programmes become over-subscribed then we create new ones to fill the gaps - hence retreats, study weeks, study days, Circuit and The Syllabus for which we are collaborating with peers across the UK on an altternative learning programme. Wysing Poly has emerged from this background but it is specifically rooted around the word Poly to reference the meaning of Poly - many - and the Polytechnic. That's because last summer we hosted an event curated by Irene Revell of Electra which involved David Toop being in-conversation with Conal McStravick about the legacy of the artist Stuart Marshall, who died in the early 1990s and who had been central to emerging video and sound art in the UK during the 1980s. Listening to David Toop it suddenly struck me what an experimental time it was for the arts in the 1970s and 1980s, when networks of artists slipped in and out of roles to generate an energy that seems to have re-emerged today in the plethora of impressive artist-run spaces and initiatives. This energy came out of centres of learning, predominantly Polytechnics, in a way that seems to have been lost today; as Universities have been pressurised to operate as businesses. Wysing Poly is our contribution to this discourse and alongside residencies we will be hosting events and discussions that both look back to the 1970s and 1980s, a period which did of course also have it's problems and exclusions, and look to what is happening now in the arts and education. Wysing Poly starts on 13 February, 6-8pm, with the launch of a group exhibition The Practice of Theories that brings together some of the people who have influenced the year, not least David Toop. Join us if you can.

Tags: wysingpoly |  thepracticeoftheories |