Why the ICA?
Date: 10 September 2006
"We are always asking questions about the work we show, the state of the cultural world and about our place within it."
Why does the ICA exist? Next year, we celebrate our 60th anniversary and I'm currently spending time with colleagues thinking about how we celebrate that event - which invariably leads us back to that question. Asking why we exist isn't a cry of futility. Quite the opposite. The ICA isn't a museum, it's not a gallery, it has no permanent collection - our task is to seek out and present the most exciting and innovative work in art, music, film and other creative spheres. In order to do so, we are always asking questions about the work we show, the state of the cultural world and about our place within it.
It was always so.
The ICA was founded in 1947. Think about those bleak post war years, in the immediate aftershock of the Holocaust and Hiroshima and imagine the boldness it took for a group of artists and writers to come together in the belief that the arts could help forge a new future - especially when the Tate and other major national institutions were resolutely uninterested in Modernism. The ICA's first chairman, the anarchist, poet and art historian Sir Herbert Read put it best: 'in the heart of London, a centre where the living arts of painting and sculpture, of architecture and music, of theatre and film, can meet and mutually inspire one another... in open collaboration with the public.' The ICA said Read, would help bring into existence, 'the arts of the future. We would rather be thought of as a laboratory than as a museum... where a new vision, a new consciousness is being evolved.'
Fifty nine years later, those sentiments still remain at the core of who we are and what we do. And to make sure we succeed in those aims we have to keep asking 'why' of ourselves all the time. It's for that reason that we've changed the visual identity of the ICA and upgraded our website. The world doesn't stop shifting and neither should the ICA in its style and voice and the ways we present ourselves to the public. We hope you like the new look. I'll be blogging every week and I'm keen to know what you think of them and, more broadly, of the ICA in general. There'll be more changes to come up to and beyond our 60th anniversary next year. How could it be otherwise?
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Comment(s)
Nico Macdonald
I would like to see more considered discussion of design -- particularly interaction and service design -- and the ways in which designers work. This may not formally be within the arts remit, but the ICA has in the past 10 years chosen to address design in various ways. I would also like to see more thoughtful programming and chairing of events. And better documentation (in the spirit of the audio recordings that the ICA used to produce). There are also some interesting possibilities around 'social software' to help ICA members decide which events to attend.
Posted: 08:59 am | 24 Sep 2006
Laurence Parkes
Ekow, I couldn't agree more. This is a strange way of getting in touch but couldn't find your email. We were meant to be doing a project for Audi while I was at BBH(remember "TT:remastered"?). I'm now working in Engine with Meme who have created the website for Beck's Fusions. The project is another stroke of brilliance. Keep it up. In fact, get in touch if you're not too freaked out by the stalker-like behaviour. laurence.parkes@wcrs.com
Posted: 6:55 pm | 21 Jun 2007