Art of the State: Introduction.

Art Back in 2015, when I wrote the final blog post describing my adventures working through the late Edward Morris's book Public Art Collections in North West England, which was naturally the Walker Art Gallery where we both worked together in the late 90s, I closed with the slightly tortuous line: "When really it's about time for the project to end. Here. For now."  Even as I ended that little crusade, something was nagging at the back of my mind that I'd end up back on the trail again in some form.  What about all the art collections Edward didn't include in his book?

In the past couple of weeks, I've been "boxsetting" the YouTube series, All The Stations, which records how rail enthusiasts Geoff Marshall and Vicki Pipe visited all the stations on the National Rail Network during Summer 2017. Seeing them dashing between trains and wrestling with logistics has made me nostalgic for the old times of some of my more specific projects. After a few rather sedentary years, I know that it's about time I got myself back out there and however enticing it is to repeat their exercise, it feels like it's been done. Plus I'd be lonely. And it would cost a lot of money.

So instead, having recently also signed up for an Art Fund card, I've decided to take a crack at all the art collections Edward didn't include in his book. The Art UK website, formerly the BBC's Your Paintings and mentioned weekly on the likes of Britain's Lost Masterpieces and Fake or Fortune, lists over three thousand two hundred venues. I don't for one minute think I'll end up visiting all of them, which is why this isn't called All The Art Venues or something less clunky, working my way through all the Art UK listed sites feels like a decent guideline.

What to do about collections I've already visited in my life?  Geoff and Vicki conducted a couple of test days as part of their Kickstarter campaign and then went back to those stations again as part of the main project.  This seems like a good guide, plus it's been four years since The Walker and times change, people change.  I'll also be tackling them in a slightly different way, talking about how accessible the collections are and choosing a single favourite items from what's on display (or not as I expect will be the case sometimes).  There will be some ground rules.  Here we go again.