Adam Sutherland, Grizedale Arts Director Talks: How Did We Get Here? (Part 2) <2006-2012>

In this second episode, Grizedale Arts begins the painstaking transformation of run-down Lawson Park into an inspirational headquarters for the organisation, a £1.2 million refurbishment taking four long years. As if that’s not enough to keep busy, Adam starts to develop ‘art as a verb’, commissioning creative people for non-gallery spaces and taking the Grizedale way of doing things to farther afield places, or at least to Liverpool and China. Locally, reviving the Coniston Institute takes centre stage, including the introduction of the still-thriving Honest Shop. In the London art world, Grizedale curates an evening at the Tate, makes a now-legendary Frieze Art Fair stand that includes a life size gingerbread person and produces ‘Child’s Play’, a collaboration between Kinks frontman Ray Davies and John Ruskin School, performed at the South Bank Centre and Coniston Institute. In West Cumbria, Grizedale helps Egremont develop a creative programme that sees Jeremy Deller revive its famed greasy pole as a public sculpture. Grizedale’s enduring relationship with Japan starts now, with the ‘Seven Samurai’ artist residency in the Echigo-Tsumari Triennale and the villagers’ return visit to Lawson Park to landscape The Paddies, now a thriving vegetable garden.

About Our Autumn Talks Series: 

The Farmer’s Arms is not your typical pub. Nor is Grizedale Arts your typical arts organisation. They’ve both come a long way, and this autumn we’ve tasked our longest-standing staff members to tell you all about how we got here. Pick up a pint in The Stable Bar and settle down to hear some extraordinary and inspirational stories that connect art and life in ways that you’ve never dreamt of. Each session lasts an hour with ample time for questions at each talk’s end.

In 2023 our Talks season continues with varied guest speakers from the worlds of art & design, business, ecology, local history and much more.

About the Speaker:

Adam Sutherland MBE distils his 23 years as Grizedale Arts director into four unmissable chapters. Richly-illustrated with archival and rarely-seen images, Adam will highlight favourite creative projects in far flung spots, adventures with artists and lift the lid on just how much like herding cats working in the arts really is.

Adam was appointed Grizedale Arts’ Director in March 1999. He was previously director of art.tm, a visual arts organisation in the Scottish Highlands, prior to which he was a visual artist, producer and maker based in London. Adam has curated projects for commissioners such as Hauser & Wirth Somerset, Irish Museum of Modern Art (Dublin), PS1 / MoMA in New York and Jerwood Visual Arts in London.