Yahoo News Sky Arts' Kate Bryan talks about inclusivity in the art world
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An 'Artist of the Year' judge on Sky Arts has spoken out about how she tries to ensure more inclusivity in the art world through her role and projects.
Kate Bryan, who is also Soho House's head of collections, spoke to Kate Thornton on White Wine Question Time as part of How the Light Gets In Festival.
She talked about her role looking for works of art to line the walls of the 25 members' clubs worldwide, totalling more than 5,500 pieces.
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She said: "I love it so much. It's such a privilege because, basically I get parachuted into a new city. And I get to meet all of these fabulous people.
"I speak to curators, and dealers and critics and artists and people who work in museums, and I say: 'Tell me about your art scene, who are your great artists?' And then I make friends for life.
"And I'm paid to do that! You know, it's like getting a sort of intense degree in Indian contemporary art. And you get all these fabulous people that you connect with along the way.
"It's so much more vivid than any course or any book. It's just real life. It's wonderful."
She spoke about how she uses her role to tackle inequalities in the art world, and wider society, including how she did so at her role selecting the art for The Ned in the City of London.
She said: "The Ned was a new thing. And it wasn't a Soho House, it wasn't for Soho House members. And it was going to be right in the heart of the city of London.
"So this is a site that really speaks of money, it speaks of power, it speaks of status, it's this old beautiful building. And I was thinking it just seems so sort of patriarchal to me.
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"And I just felt a bit uncomfortable. What am I curating for this? Who's this for? And it showed my own prejudice, as well [thinking] it's going to be for a bunch of guys, in double breasted pinstripe suits. And I knew it couldn't be because I knew that otherwise, the people [behind Soho House] wouldn't be doing it.
"Through conversation with them, I realised that they were really interested in something which was different and progressive and dynamic.
"And so once I knew that I just took the problem that I had and made it the central thesis of the collection. Which was gender imbalance, there's a huge gender imbalance in the city.
"The FTSE 100 CEO ratio, that's the top 100 financial leaders of this country, 93 of them were men and seven women. And so that's why I had that perspective of the city, of course.
"The art world is absolutely rife with inequality as well. And gender equality and equality of people from different racial backgrounds is a huge problem. So I decided to make that the central premise, I took that FTSE 100 CEO ratio of gender, and I just inverted it.
"So I presented the work of 93 women and only seven men, and the seven men only got in by virtue of the fact that they were in a collaboration with a woman. So there's technically not one solo male artist in there."
She also talked about her role representing up-and-coming artists, and how her perspective has changed since she worked on the Ned.
She said: "I'm also accountable that I need to do better as well, because looking back now that project was 2016. If I was to do it [now], I would also make sure that the diversity and inclusivity was higher.
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"In hindsight, I look at it, and I go: 'Well, now I'm in a much better position to make the number of young black artists higher, I could have done better with the visibility of artists who who are queer.'
"I'm constantly holding myself to higher standards and learning and wanting all the time to try and be as progressive as I can. But you know, I'm really lucky to have this job and just want to make sure the art world is as inclusive as it possibly can be
"There's an elitism to the art world, we all know it's there, which is totally nuts, because we all made art as a kid.
"You can say, the opera is a bit elite. Well, fair enough. I've never bloody sang opera. I don't know how to sing opera.
"But I know how to draw a picture — not to say that it's better than opera, but it's just something intrinsic and natural about art.
'But we all made it as children, we've all got that sensation of paint on the page, and we understand what it is to want to express ourselves.
"And yet as an adult you're not making art anymore. But you're also feeling a little bit nervous about talking about it. I could ask you who are your favourite musicians, and you would never reply and say: 'I don't know much about music, but I quite like Adele.' You just say: 'I like Adele.'
'With art people go: 'I don't know much about art. But you know, I did sort of like that Rothko.' And there's an apology the whole time."
She spoke about how important it is to her to champion all artists in her work as a mentor.
She said: "There are some kinds of artists who just sort of born with this great charisma, maybe they've got a godfather in the right place, maybe they went to the right art school, they've got a very strong peer support group and you're kind of like, you'll be alright, you'll be fine.
"But there's other artists where I think, you know, their talent is so great, but maybe they're not so hot at self promotion. A lot of great artists, part of what makes them a great artist that they navigate the world in a different way.
"They're often quite interior within themselves, and they kind of look at the world as an outsider."
Buy it: The Art of Love: The Romantic and Explosive Stories Behind Art's Greatest Couples by Kate Bryan | £14.31 from Amazon
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