Documents: A series of 3 publications capturing the exchange of ideas and thoughts between young artists at an early stage in their development

‘Documents’, a publishing initiative instigated by Newman in her capcity as Artist-Advisor at the Rijksakademie, is an ongoing series of publications based on individual artists’ presentations held at Rijksakademie van beeldende kunsten Amsterdam NL. They are organised in co-operation with the Bureau Alumni, and co-edited with Edith Rijnja, Martijnjtje Mailman and Els van Odijk.

Rijksakademie van beeldende kusten is an international institute for artists' residences based in Amsterdam. Approximately 25 artists a year, with an average age of 32, are chosen from a world wide open submission to spend two years developing their practice. Each is given a separate studio in which to work, access to a wide range of workshops and media laboratories and a high level of technical support, as well as a generous budget for materials and fabricating work. Consequently the range of work produced is very broad, emphasising as it does, the desire to question the limits and boundaries of contemporary art practice within the global community. With the expectation of publication the Bureau Alumni invites former resident artists, who have recently concluded their working period at the Rijksakademie, to make a presentation.

Newman’s role is to work with each artist, to help define the content of the event and to find an appropriate structure for their presentation. After which, the editorial process presents, in an appropriate form, the spirit and meaning of the artist's work and conceptual frame of reference. The purpose of ‘Documents’ is to underline the importance of such questions and consequently the series focuses on the artists’ record of their processes of research and artistic activity that precedes the finalised work of art, installation or exhibition. In this respect ‘Documents’ is innovative, since it captures the voice and direct first-hand accounts of artistic practice and process.