Collaborative Research Group (CRG) was an 18-month research, education and curatorial programme (September 2013 - April 2015) operating from CRATE, Margate in collaboration with University for the Creative Arts (UCA) at Canterbury.
Inter-regionally funded, it brought together a group of 6 arts practitioners who are interested in collaborative working and the pluralities of contemporary visual art practice - producing, curating, organising, writing, communicating. The programme was conceived as both an alternative and complimentary to post-graduate and research-based education, placing itself directly in both the art-world and academia.
CRG was led by its members through an open and discursive approach, evolving throughout.
CRG members: Trish Scott, Alex Parry, Charley Vines, Louisa Love, Áine Belton & Dominique Elsner. Founded and co-ordinated by Toby Huddlestone.
CRG's activity took the form of: hosting guest practitioners at CRATE and UCA; undertaking guest visits regionally, nationally and into Europe; working on collaborative public projects; commissioning; collaborating with other artists, curators, groups and organisations on their programmes and projects; undertaking workshops, events and weekly discursive sessions; contributing to research and teaching at UCA; sharing experience, research, networks and resources in order to build sustainable future support structures.
Major public projects included a curatorial project commission for Whitstable Biennale, 2014 and the symposium event & exhibition 'Work and Art: How artists make a living' at Herbert Read Gallery.
Over the course of the programme, CRG worked directly with over 260 thinkers including artists, directors, curators, builders, students, writers and researchers; presented and commissioned artworks bu over 120 artists; and presented lectures, workshops and other activity to approximately 9,600 members of the public, students and artists.
Guest visitors/collaborators to the CRG programme included: Ruth Beale, ESADHaR art schools (Le Havre/Rouen, France), Rebecca Gordon-Nesbitt, Anthony Gross, S Mark Gubb, Fiona James, Donna Lynas (Wysing Arts Centre), Maitreyhi Maheshwari (Zabludowich Collection), MFI (Flat Time House), Kieren Reed, Carey Young, Sacha Waldron, Lauren A Wright, Cardiff Contemporary & g39, Dover Arts Development, Turner Contemporary, Whitstable Biennale.
CRG guest hosting MFI (Mental Furniture Industry) group from Flat Time House - discursive research walk
Whitstable Biennale 2014 hub built in collaboration with Kieren Reed, from which CRG's curatorial programme ran
CRG hosting in-conversation & listening event with Bronwen Buckeridge, Whitstable Biennale 2014
Work & Art: How Artists Make A Living' symposium exhibition and reading room at Herbert Read Gallery, Canterbury
CRG guest host session with curator Lauren A. Wright, Turner Contemporary, Margate
Discursive research walk with Dover Arts Development (DAD), Dover