SLAC Q&A (II)

WHY AN ‘ARTISTS CLUB’?

Clubs for artists don’t seem to exist so much any more. There are co-operatives, and collaborations, but clubs? Not really.

It seems like in centuries past there were lots of clubs, or groups of artists, which formed due to a shared sense of feeling left out of, or misunderstood by, the mainstream art world. Contemporary Art Societies were formed by artists whose work was so cutting-edge that it wasn’t recognised as art by the establishment, and they provided exhibition and discussion opportunities for artists of like-mind.

I don’t think of the Sydney Ladies Artists Club as being a refuge for like-minded artists necessarily, or as a place where artists who are unrecognised can go for mutual support. In this sense the club may be almost a simulation of those artist’s clubs of earlier years, borrowing the framework, but not necessarily arising from the same impulse.

Rather, perhaps, the Sydney Ladies Artists Club provides the artists involved with the chance to emphasise their activities and socialisation as artists, their lives as artists, over their art.