Motivation and Objectives

The consolidation of the artists’ initiatives national network - started in 2002 through our Cultural Management Research Workshop for Artists I- resulted in a proposal for an action plan that would allow the implementation and articulation of management clinics addressed to emerging artists.

The Argentinean economic context, added to the fact that the country lacked a State-run cultural policy outlined a critical scenario much earlier than the economic collapse of late 2001. Unlike other Latin American countries, Argentina does not have a patronage law to further entrepreneurial support of art. State agencies that manage cultural budgets work within clientelistic rules in very short terms, while few private institutions support cultural projects.

Nevertheless, there do exist, and ever more so, incipient organizations that respond to the very first intentions expressed by artists who gather in their home towns or villages and commit their efforts to take upon themselves collective responsibility for their artistic community, since they cannot but hopelessly admit that no relief will come to them from the State, the institutions, or the private sector.

Communication among these scattered attempts proved random and practically null. It was very difficult to contrast objectives and share efforts that would result in a wider scope for the specific tasks to be carried out. Thus, Trama intended to build a network, binding these artists’ undertakings.

The proposal included opening a space for initiatives to be registered at our web site. This project started in 2003. After a massive call at national level, all initiatives that wished to participate were represented in the web through self-registration. We are bound to say that we were able to reach remote localities thanks to the cooperation of artists who were members of RIA (composed of members who had attended the Trama Management Workshop in 2002.)

The activity consisted in organizing –in four different regions of the country- encounters of emerging initiatives, moderated by two tutors per region.


These were the regions where we worked:
-NOA (North-West of Argentina), with its seat in Salta
-Center Provinces and Cuyo, with its seat in the city of Córdoba
-Province of Buenos Aires and Federal Capital, with its seat in the city of Bahía Blanca
-NEA (North-East of Argentina), with its sear in Posadas, Misiones.

The emerging initiatives were invited on the basis of a selection made from Trama’s database or from suggestions made by tutors on artists’ initiatives in their region.
Each region sent about 10 participants, five from the city hosting the event and five from nearby provinces or cities.

Carina Cagnolo, Gustavo López, Jorge Gutiérrez and Daniel Besoytaorube, experienced artists-managers and ex participants of Trama’s Management Workshop 2002, were appointed tutors to the clinics. They worked in pairs, and never in their own region, to avoid ideas of vertical organization.

The activity was supplemented with a Trama Research Booklet in which participants could find practical information about cultural policies, project submission and fundraising for artists. The booklet was composed by María José Figuerero y Victoria Horvitz.

The proposed dynamics of work took into account four separate areas:

1) Initial work sessions per region over three consecutive days, with two tutors moderating the encounter of emerging initiatives where artists explained their projects to the group and received a preliminary diagnosis and analysis from the tutors. On the other hand, the tutors informed the participants of other artists’ initiatives at work in different regions.

2) The tutors in charge of each region held an encounter in Buenos Aires, moderated by advisor Fernando Frydman. Information was exchanged, shared problems were analyzed, and future strategies were discussed. This took up a full day’s work.

3) Final work sessions over three consecutive days. Practice works on a hypothetical project coordinated by the tutors during a new encounter in every one of the regions.

4) Tutors’ joint assessment, with their suggestions to strengthen the newly established network. A full day’s work and a discussion forum.

PARTICIPANTS

SALTA
Verónica Ardanaz, Ediciones del Agua + Molino Papelero
Roly Arias, Galería Fedro
Ana María Benedetti, Espacio de Arte Rayuela
Andrea Elías
Guadalupe Miles
Roxana Ramos
María Eugenia Pérez, Fundación del Taller de las Artes, Salta
Ricardo Díaz Villalba

JUJUY
Aldana Loiseau, La casa del Tantanakuy

TUCUMÁN
Rolo Juárez, Kermesse
Natalia Lipovetzky, Ridícula
Pablo Guiot, Museo Parlante
Julio Villafañe, Sur Art (Galería de Artes), Aguilares
Natalia Acosta, El Fabulario

CÓRDOBA
Soledad Videla
Soledad Sánchez Goldar, Ex- Azul Pthalo
Azul de Tocar
Grupo OO
Daniela Lamanuzzi
Rodrigo Fierro/Gabriel Orge, Taller de experimentación fotográfica
Liminar
Fundación El Cíclope

ROSARIO
Luján Castellani
CAMP
Fabricio Caiazza/Inés Martino, Planeta X
Juan Manuel Hernández/Mariana Sissia, contra.placebo

BUENOS AIRES
Nilda Rosemberg, Espacio de Arte de la Alianza Francesa, Bahía Blanca
Maximo Casazza, Obra en Tránsito, Bahía Blanca
Claudio Roveda, Doro Experimenta, Mar del Plata
Carolina Pellejero, Punto Joven, Mayor Buratovich
Fernando Mariani, Centro Cultural Médanos, Médanos
Benjamín Aitala, Devoción, Olavarría
Daniel Fitte, La Calera, Olavarría
Lucía Blanco, Minicentro 1+ , Punta Alta
Viviana Blanco, Viceversa, Capital Federal

LA PAMPA
Rosa Audisio, Centro Cultural A, Gral Pico, La Pampa

CHACO
Andrés Bancalari, Arte 18, Resistencia
Milo Lockett, Resistencia

ENTRE RÍOS
Lucas Mercado, Francisco Vázquez, Casacueva, Paraná
Silvia Lissa y Tacho Zucco, Casaculta, Chajarí

MISIONES
MacUNAM, Posadas
Asociación Civil Comunarte, Gricelda Rinaldi y Alicia Menises, Posadas
CAC, Oberá

This activity was supported by The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Netherlands/ Cooperation and Development, and by the DOEN Foundation, through RAIN, an international network of artists’ initiatives. Trama is a member of RAIN.