What the folk say - contemporary artist interventions

“What the Folk Say” project was proposed to Compton Verney by Paul Ryan. It brought a group of 18 artists and curators together to intervene in the collections in Compton Verney. Those who took part in the programme were Paul Ryan, Tasha Amini, James Ayres, Daniel Baker, Sir Peter Blake, Sonia Boyce, Faye Claridge, Simon Costin, Jeremy Deller, Carolyn Flood, Jenny Gordon, Susan Hiller, Juneau Projects, Alan Kane, Paula MacArthur, Mike Nelson, Martin Myrone, Sarah Woodfine.

The project was part of the ‘New Ways of Curating’ programme (developed by Arts Council England, West Midlands and MLA, West Midlands), which aimed to show that where museums, archives and artists come together to work on substantial projects over a period of years, their collaborative activity - opens up substantial new opportunities for audience engagement and community participation. The inclusion of Deller and Kane within this exhibition was significant, insofar as it extended their existing contemporary art perspective on folk art, as a continuing social practice, into the territory of a hierarchy of curatorial values, in which the place of the folk object is considered in relation to museology and museum audiences in new ways.

• Organisation
• Organisation