Arting

For CG Associates members only

What can art be, and do? Does calling something “art” set up barriers or does it open doors? What types of opportunities arise if you work outside the gallery system? What does it mean to make art in the everyday? Environment artist, ecosystem service ecologist, and Director of In-Situ Kerry Morrison leads a discussion on what it can mean to be an artist.

Kerry Morrison has operated outside the gallery system for many years, working in the everyday landscape of our urban lives and exploring people’s connections with the environment: how we move through it, take from it, and give to it. Her projects include Bird Sheet Music, a collaborative composition with the birdlife of Liverpool, composer Jon Hering and sound artist Helmut Lemke.

Her approach is durational, transitory, and process-led whereby art is a verb: a process of action, dialogue, and performative patterns resulting in new, shared experiences, unfolding narratives, and creative solutions to issues encountered.

In 2011, Kerry co-founded In-Situ, a not-for-profit artist led organization based in Pendle, East Lancashire. In-Situ artists work with and within the community, listening to people’s concerns and aspirations through meaningful conversations. With a social and environmental approach, In-Situ nurtures into existence art that addresses local issues with the aim of making a positive difference to people’s lives and the environment.
http://www.in-situ.org.uk/

In 2013, Kerry was invited to become a member of the UNESCO UK MAB Urban Forum. http://www.ukmaburbanforum.co.uk/. And in 2015 she completed her PhD in Environment and Life Sciences, examining the cultural ecosystem service of urban brownfields. With an ecosystem approach, she merges art with ecology to produce intriguing interventions, which bring into focus the natural world about us.

Kerry is also a natural beekeeper and in 2010 initiated and co-founded a community natural beekeeping collective www.bee-credible-bees.blogspot.co.uk https://www.facebook.com/groups/bee.credible/?fref=ts