Christopher N Fremantle
Chris Fremantle is a researcher and producer. He is a Senior Research Fellow at Gray's School of Art, Robert Gordon University and has associated with On The Edge Research at Gray's School of Art for fifteen years.
Fremantle worked as Research Associate on the research strand of The Artist as Leader, a collaboration between On The Edge, PAL labs (http://www.pallabs.org/) and Cultural Enterprise Office (http://www.culturalenterpriseoffice.co.uk/).
He was also on the steering group for the Working in Public Seminars (http://www.workinginpublicseminars.org/) and co-edited elements of the website.
He was Honorary Senior Research Fellow by Duncan of Jordanstone, University of Dundee 2010-13.
Fremantle established ecoartscotland (http://ecoartscotland.net/) as a platform for research and practice. Highlighting practices, providing a bibliography and journal, and acting as a vehicle for projects, ecoartscotland.net also represents information from a wide range of sources for a Scottish audience.
He practices writing on his website (http://chris.fremantle.org/).
Fremantle works as a freelance producer and project manager and his recent work has included working with Ginkgo Projects (http://www.ginkgoprojects.co.uk/) developing and delivering Working Well: People and Spaces, a therapeutic design and arts strategy for the NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde's (NHSGGC) New South Glasgow Hospitals. He project managed the art strategies for NHSGGC's New Stobhill and Victoria Hospitals working with artist teams led by Thomas A Clark (http://thomasaclarkblog.blogspot.com/) and Ally Wallace (http://www.allywallace.net/) respectively. The New Stobhill Hospital, designed by Reiach & Hall Architects (http://www.reiachandhall.co.uk/), has won numerous awards including the Prime Minister’s Better Public Building Award 2010, Building Better Healthcare Awards Best Designed Hospital 2009, and Grand Prix Roses Design Awards Best Public Building 2009 Gold.
Fremantle has worked on a number of artist-led projects including Helen Mayer Harrison, Newton Harrison (http://theharrisonstudio.net/) and David Haley's Greenhouse Britain: Losing Ground, Gaining Wisdom (http://greenhousebritain.greenmuseum.org/). He has been working with PLATFORM (http://www.platformlondon.org/) on Remember Saro-Wiwa (http://remembersarowiwa.com/), with responsibility for fundraising. He developed and managed the ten year 'landscape as art' project Place of Origin (http://www.publicartscotland.com/reflections/34), by artists John Maine, Brad Goldberg and Glen Onwin. Place of Origin won a Saltire Award in 2007. He established the Cairngorm Landscape Art Project currently being undertaken by Arthur Watson.
Fremantle is a member of the Executive of the Scottish Artists Union (http://www.sau.org.uk/). He helped establish and contributes to the programme of the Ayrshire Arts Network (http://www.ayrshirearts.com/) and is on the board of the Ayr Gaiety Partnership (http://www.ayrgaiety.co.uk/).
He was formerly Director of Scottish Sculpture Workshop (http://www.ssw.org.uk/), and Links Officer with South Ayrshire Council.
He has a Masters in Cultural History and an Undergraduate Degree in English and Philosophy.
Personal Statement
"We really need to move beyond nouns, thinking of buildings and developments as discrete entities, art as a commodity rather than as service to communities and ecosystems. Mix, interconnect, hybridize, challenge, delight and engage wherever we can, with tons of compassion, diversity and experimentation." Sam Bower, Greenmuseum.org
Fremantle's research interests focus on the complexity of creative practices engaged with a range of interlinked contexts (ecology, health, activism, cultural history, inhabitation, etc.). Underlying these pragmatics is an investigation of systems aesthetics: seeking to understand practices in art that are also interwoven into wider social and environmental programmes and projects.
Phone: +44 (0)7714 203016
Fremantle worked as Research Associate on the research strand of The Artist as Leader, a collaboration between On The Edge, PAL labs (http://www.pallabs.org/) and Cultural Enterprise Office (http://www.culturalenterpriseoffice.co.uk/).
He was also on the steering group for the Working in Public Seminars (http://www.workinginpublicseminars.org/) and co-edited elements of the website.
He was Honorary Senior Research Fellow by Duncan of Jordanstone, University of Dundee 2010-13.
Fremantle established ecoartscotland (http://ecoartscotland.net/) as a platform for research and practice. Highlighting practices, providing a bibliography and journal, and acting as a vehicle for projects, ecoartscotland.net also represents information from a wide range of sources for a Scottish audience.
He practices writing on his website (http://chris.fremantle.org/).
Fremantle works as a freelance producer and project manager and his recent work has included working with Ginkgo Projects (http://www.ginkgoprojects.co.uk/) developing and delivering Working Well: People and Spaces, a therapeutic design and arts strategy for the NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde's (NHSGGC) New South Glasgow Hospitals. He project managed the art strategies for NHSGGC's New Stobhill and Victoria Hospitals working with artist teams led by Thomas A Clark (http://thomasaclarkblog.blogspot.com/) and Ally Wallace (http://www.allywallace.net/) respectively. The New Stobhill Hospital, designed by Reiach & Hall Architects (http://www.reiachandhall.co.uk/), has won numerous awards including the Prime Minister’s Better Public Building Award 2010, Building Better Healthcare Awards Best Designed Hospital 2009, and Grand Prix Roses Design Awards Best Public Building 2009 Gold.
Fremantle has worked on a number of artist-led projects including Helen Mayer Harrison, Newton Harrison (http://theharrisonstudio.net/) and David Haley's Greenhouse Britain: Losing Ground, Gaining Wisdom (http://greenhousebritain.greenmuseum.org/). He has been working with PLATFORM (http://www.platformlondon.org/) on Remember Saro-Wiwa (http://remembersarowiwa.com/), with responsibility for fundraising. He developed and managed the ten year 'landscape as art' project Place of Origin (http://www.publicartscotland.com/reflections/34), by artists John Maine, Brad Goldberg and Glen Onwin. Place of Origin won a Saltire Award in 2007. He established the Cairngorm Landscape Art Project currently being undertaken by Arthur Watson.
Fremantle is a member of the Executive of the Scottish Artists Union (http://www.sau.org.uk/). He helped establish and contributes to the programme of the Ayrshire Arts Network (http://www.ayrshirearts.com/) and is on the board of the Ayr Gaiety Partnership (http://www.ayrgaiety.co.uk/).
He was formerly Director of Scottish Sculpture Workshop (http://www.ssw.org.uk/), and Links Officer with South Ayrshire Council.
He has a Masters in Cultural History and an Undergraduate Degree in English and Philosophy.
Personal Statement
"We really need to move beyond nouns, thinking of buildings and developments as discrete entities, art as a commodity rather than as service to communities and ecosystems. Mix, interconnect, hybridize, challenge, delight and engage wherever we can, with tons of compassion, diversity and experimentation." Sam Bower, Greenmuseum.org
Fremantle's research interests focus on the complexity of creative practices engaged with a range of interlinked contexts (ecology, health, activism, cultural history, inhabitation, etc.). Underlying these pragmatics is an investigation of systems aesthetics: seeking to understand practices in art that are also interwoven into wider social and environmental programmes and projects.
Phone: +44 (0)7714 203016
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Papers by Christopher N Fremantle
Whilst the linguistic origins of failure are in the economic domain, conceptualised in terms of a failed enterprise, over time the term has shifted and become personalised, in parallel with the emergence of individualised cultures. 'I made a failure' has become 'I am a failure.' (Le Feuvre (ed), 2010)
Conceptualisations of failure from both art and entrepreneurship will be explored with the aim of better understanding different nuances: absolute failure versus iterative failure, innovation versus improvisation (Hallam and Ingold 2007).
Such conceptualisations are important in a pedagogical context because failure, understood as part of a process of making (rather than a state of being), is recognised as a valuable learning tool.
George Beasley, Professor Emeritus Georgia State University
Mary Neubauer, Professor, School of Art, Arizona State University
Jana Weldon, Senior Project Manager, Scottsdale Public Art Program
Art in the public realm is an important part of Scotland's cultural development (e.g. Deveron Arts http://www.deveron-arts.com/ , nva http://www.nva.org.uk/), Glasgow International http://www.glasgowinternational.org/ and smaller festivals, and Velocity http://www.culturesparks.co.uk/intelligence/information/engaging-public-velocityart the public art development programme for the Commonwealth Games in Glasgow in 2014). Glasgow School of Art http://sea-studio-blog.blogspot.com/ has been central to this story.
Festivals, art schools, artist-led organisations and local government play key roles in the ecology.
For 26 years the Scottsdale Public Art (http://www.scottsdalepublicart.org ) transformed this 184-square mile city into an interactive outdoor gallery, largely utilizing the built environment with large scale projects. More recent initiatives focus on emerging practices and social context, with a few specifically addressing sculptural opportunities: In Flux and Belle Art. The initiatives take on overlooked but common nooks that exist in every place, but that highlight the quirks of expansion and space that are unique to create the unexpected experience.
Drawing on Scottish and US experiences, this panel will incorporate artists and public art managers working across urban and rural contexts.
We will re-frame the panel format away from formal presentations and desultory questions about opportunities, into a discussion focused on the key questions of initiative and leadership, organisational form and intervention.
Panelists (3 including Chris Fremantle and Professor Anne Douglas) will unpack the relationship between issue, process and material. There will be three short presentations; two focused on specfic examples in practice and one on a key theoretical position. 30-45 minutes will be given over to discussion with the audience.
Chris Fremantle is currently working with the National Health Service in Glasgow to deliver two sets of public art commissions into new-build hospitals. He produced the Harrisons' project Greenhouse Britain, and worked with PLATFORM on Remember Saro-Wiwa. He was formerly Director of the Scottish Sculpture Workshop. He has been Research Associate with On The Edge for The Artist as Leader.
Douglas and Fremantle co-authored The Artist as Leader Research Report, drawing on interviews with more than 30 artists, organisational leaders and policy makers to explore issues associated with leadership, practice and policy. Key case studies within the research included Helen Mayer Harrison and Newton Harrison, Suzanne Lacy, John Latham and Barbara Steveni (Artist Placement Group) and Jude Kelly, South Bank Centre. Fremantle and Douglas undertook the analysis of the interviews and contextualised the findings in relation to the development of Cultural Policy. The report is divided into 2 Sections: Section 1 reviews changes in Cultural Policy (post war to present) as a oscillation between access and participation; Section 2 identifies three approaches to leadership in the arts evidenced by the interview material.