I’m occasionally asked to nominate artists for awards and was recently asked to nominate an artist for The Art Foundation’s awards for their Art in the Elements category. I hadn’t heard of these awards – actually, they call them Fellowships - before but after some research found that they had been set up by Arts Council twenty years ago when an anonymous donor gave them £1,000,000. ACE couldn’t accept the money but set up the foundation instead, investing the donation and distributing money to artists ever since. The best thing about these fellowships is that they actively seek out art-forms that sit outside any market forces. This year the fellowships included Choral Conducting and Spoken Word, alongside Art in the Elements for which I nominated London Fieldworks (Jo Joelson and Bruce Gilchrist) who made the final shortlist. London Fieldworks are interested in how ‘ecology’ encompasses the natural world in complex relationship to society and technology, website is here. I worked with them recently when they facilitated Gustav Metzger’s residency at Wysing because one of the things they also do is support other artists. I was sorry that they didn’t win the £10,000 prize. That went to Alex Hartley who I last saw sitting on platform on the side of a hotel in Folkstone, at a dizzying height. The fellowships announcement event was great fun, a really celebratory atmosphere and some fascinating people to see and talk to. The fellowships were announced by Jeanette Winterston who made a passionate speech about the role of art in society. Everyone in the room adored her! Here’s a photo of Jo and Bruce and the other nominated artists Amy Sharrocks and Paul Chaney receiving their £1,000 runner up cheques.

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