March of the Artists – An artists networking event @ Arc Centre – Sunday July 29th 17:00-19:00

Anthropologist Margaret Mead said “Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world; indeed, it’s the only thing that ever has.”

How Many Artists does it take to change the World?
Are artists being pushed further out of cities due to corporate pricing?
Does a city without artists lose its identity? Do artists lose their agency in the city if they don’t have a physical place there?
Can you occupy a city’s culture without a physical space?

March of the Artists, launched at this year’s History Festival, sees artists Lauren Sagar, Eve Robertson and John-Paul Brown walking from Manchester to London in July/August. Inspired by the March of the Blanketeers in 1817, and driven by the current trend of artists being forced out of city centres, it’s about artists visibility. With artists being largely invisible, it is too easy to not notice the artists and remove them from sight, to the detriment of the city and its people.

The event at Arc is the first of the walk and will be a conversation with Lauren, Eve and John-Paul to find out more about the March, or share ideas about how we as artists build a more healthy, sustainable future where we have greater agency.

As part of the evening Eve Robertson will run a session around the role of the artist/the role of the city artist, for us to take on tour with us and share with people we meet – start up a conversation. Eve’s practice focusses on making community consultation theatre work. Eve will record individuals who want to share their experiences, opinions etc. She will also share previous statements through a ‘play-back’. The words from the evening with Arc artists will become the stories that we build on during August, and beyond.

The original Blanketeers were offered a bed for the night in each town they passed through – if you are able to put any of the 3 artists up for the night on Sunday 29th July please let us know by contacting laurensagar.me.com!

Find out more about the original march of the blanketeers here. Thankfully our artists shouldn’t be met with such violence – but the threats to artists livelihood are very much a reality in 2018.

Book you place for the free artist networking event and March of the Artists launch discussion here.

Visit Lauren’s website below to find out more and support the campaign here.

http://laurensagar.com/portfolio_page/the-march-of-the-artists-2018/