The Story of an Urban Fox  

Secret Productions Limited, the production company behind festivals such as the Secret Garden Party, Glade, Wilderness and many other events launches Secret Arts Foundation today, Thursday 26th April.

Sponsors of  Installation Art at the Secret Garden Party since 2007, the idea behind Secret Arts Foundation is to help fund and support creative installation artists, whose work is interactive, out of the gallery, and accesses the wider community.

Secret Arts will focus on a section of the arts on which no funding body in the UK solely focuses: Installation Art. Installation Art is the contemporary format of choice and yet, conversely, the most difficult to sell and release into the art market, primarily because it is invariably site specific. As a result many young, grass roots artists and art collectives cannot gain the financial support they need to make work. Secret Arts is a long term initiative to create a deeper personal relationship with the artist, to nurture their work and careers and the communities with which they collide.

Born from recognizing the importance of installation, performance and participatory art in the festival arena, Secret Arts has been in a unique position to give out over £200,000 across its funding platform to a broad range of artists in the last 3 years. Many projects and installations have continued beyond their conception in the field and pieces have both toured and found permanent homes.

More importantly, through continued support from Secret Arts, artists have been able to expand their practice and the scope of what they can achieve, gaining public art commissions from institutions such as The Hayward Gallery, South Bank, London.

With the DCMS announcing last year that the money it gives the Arts Council England would drop by 29.6% over four years; public art funding is in crisis. Many smaller funding bodies rely on this public source to be able to support and commission artists and collectives.

As a result focus is shifting to philanthropic private sector sources. 

 “At this time of cuts, much more is being asked of the private sector and of volunteers to create a Big Arts Society. Maybe we are set to see a new beginning when private investment becomes the dominant funding force of UK culture. I predict that private sector arts funding will become larger than public sector funding within five years."

Colin Tweedy, Chief Executive of Arts Business

This shift is a vital necessity for the arts to survive and remain a key part of building communities.

 HISTORY

 www.secretarts.co.uk describes and outlines many case studies of artists and projects which we have supported over the last 3 years. Typically we work with them to commission one large piece per year, providing them with a unique opportunity to both grow and gain experience in big site specific builds.

Case Study1

'Is Land' by I.Rene

An almost post-apocalyptic fantasy image generating visual delight and intrigue, Is Land defies the laws of physics, an Eden endlessly hovering above our heads.

‘Is Land’ was one of the funded centre pieces of the Art line-up for Secret Garden Party 2011. After vandals cut its tethers on the Saturday night worldwide intrigue for the story instigated a huge search to find the floating island. 

Secret Arts funded a re make of the Installation and it continued its tour to Burning Man in the Nevada Desert. ‘Is Land’ has now been invited to exhibit outside the Saatchi Gallery for the Olympic month of July.

We will be working closely with I. Rene to continue this project and concept. For 2013 we hope to fund 'Lune & Tide' another helium installation which explores the Moon's tidal and gravitational pull. The piece incorporates performance and a ceremonious release of the piece with GPS tracker to record its changing narrative. The piece will then follow in Is Land's footsteps to USA but this time suspended over its carrier, a boat.

Case Study Two

The Urban Fox by Pirate Technics

Secret Arts has commissioned these explosive creators since 2007 to build and burn the floating lake installation at the Secret Garden Party. 

This commission forms the core of pirate technics’ practice. In 2011, for its 60th anniversary celebration of the 1951 Festival of Britain; The Southbank Centre in London invited the collective to make a piece of high profile public art.

Each summer at Snugbury’s Farm in Cheshire, the community comes together to make a giant straw structure. The Southbank invited The Pirate Technics to recreate this countryside tradition in the city. Ablaze with 3Dvision they took this idea and decided they wanted their design to capture the essence of British wildlife in the city and what better than an animal than our vexatious resident, The Urban Fox.

A straw phenomenon at the center of our city, the result was a 25ft high symbolic blend of medium and design that represented a powerful synthesis of the rural and the metropolis that is Britain. The commission was a beautiful reflection of their ability and ever progressing skill.

When we heard that the Fox must retire from its concrete plinth, Secret Arts raised funds to rescue this much loved fox and provide it with a, permanent, rural home.

WHAT WE HOPE TO ACHIEVE

Secret Arts hopes to raise awareness of the importance of private arts donations, in particular to support installation artists who do not have a funding body that specifically caters for them. 

Secret Arts hope to search for more permanent homes for these site-specific works and to be able to sustain and launch careers.

Cultural organizations and interested individuals are invited to contribute to help fundraising so that more projects and installation artists can be nurtured in an economic environment that is currently retreating from them.

HOW TO CONTRIBUTE

You can contribute to Secret Arts in two ways.

Firstly, membership can be submitted at www.secretarts.co.uk

MEMBERSHIP: 

STUDENT MEMBERSHIP:          £35

INDIVIDUAL MEMBERSHIP:   £50

ASSOCIATE MEMBERSHIP:      £100

SPONSOR MEMBERSHIP:         £500

SUPPORTING MEMBERSHIP: £1000

FOUNDING MEMBERSHIP:     £5000

Benefits of membership include:

 / A quarterly newsletter updating you on Secret Arts funding, events and collaborations. 

 / Invitations to all Secret Arts private views including ‘pre show private views’ on all festival sites: Secret Garden Party, Glade and Wilderness Festival

 / Voting rights on which artist receives the £5,000 annually awarded Secret Arts Members Award.

 / Recognition in the annual report.

Secondly, a donation to Secret Arts can be made at www.secretarts.co.uk that is either specific to an active project which is seeking funding or to the general fund 

http://secretarts.co.uk/foundation/#donate 

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