Before, during and after State of the Arts 2012, we will be hosting this online space as an important new facet of the conference.

We want this to be a place for anyone with an interest in the arts to share their thoughts and ideas. A carnival of voices discussing anything and everything about the state of the arts in 2012. In particular we hope that this site might allow people who can’t make it to Manchester for the day of the conference to have a really meaningful impact upon the event.

In the weeks leading up to conference on the 14th February we invite anyone with an interest in the arts to use this site as a space to discuss questions that are important to them. Your contributions could take any form – from a couple of words to a whole essay, a picture, a video, a link to a company or a project you admire, a tweet, a blogpost or simply a comment on something someone else has posted. We hope to nurture as free and open a space as possible. Head on over to the submit page to have your say.

As well as contributing their own thoughts we hope people will explore what other interesting things are being said. We will be here responding to what’s posted, drawing people’s attention to interesting contributions and sorting everything in relation to the major topics of the conference so that you can easily search for things of particular interest to you.

On the day of the conference itself all those ideas and opinions collected here will be given to the chairs of each separate discussion (the topics are listed at the top of this page) to use as the initial basis for the conversation happening in the room. As such we hope that this site gives everyone a means of having their ideas heard and playing a really important role in shaping the course of the day in Manchester.

Additionally, and equally importantly, we will be taking a team of live bloggers with us to the conference, to record and respond to every discussion taking place there. These bloggers will be the eyes and ears of those who can’t be in Manchester; a presence both in the conference room and here online. On the day you will be able to follow their posts live on this site simply by clicking on any of the discussion areas listed in the menu bar above. You can also interact with them on twitter and through doing so be part of a much larger online discussion that, again, we hope will influence events taking place in Manchester. You can find more info on our live bloggers by heading over here.

This site is an exciting experiment for us. We hope this might be a new means for people who, for whatever reason, can’t make it to the conference to be heard loudly and clearly by those attending. A rich network of thoughts, ideas and responses. We will be here in the before and after the conference, and are keen to listen to any ideas you might have for how we can improve both the site and our plans for the day of the conference itself.

We look forward to hearing from you.

Andy Field & Hannah Nicklin

Who are we?

In 2011, alongside Laura McDermott, we created the Flash Conference – a space amidst the State of the Arts Conference for artists and the online community to share their thoughts and be a part of the conversation. We then followed that this summer by creating our own alternative conference in Edinburgh this summer, Edgelands. Now we’re returning to again work with the Arts Council to help open the conference up and provide a dynamic new way for people to interact with it.