Please join us for the launch of… The Artist in Time

What is creativity over a lifetime, and what is creativity now? This event is to celebrate the launch of The Artist in Time (Herbert Press, 2020), a book bringing together 20 artists from all media and backgrounds who were born before 1950. Here, participants from the book discuss their projects and work of recent months, and their methods and insights on keeping inspired.

With guests:

Margaret Busby

Busby became the UK’s youngest and first black publisher when she co-founded Allison & Busby in 1967. She went on to be editorial director of Earthscan, and since the early 1990s has been a freelance writer, broadcaster and editor. In 1992 she edited the influential anthology Daughters of Africa, and in 2019 the New Daughters of Africa. She is the Chair of the judges of the 2020 Booker Prize.

John Fox and Sue Gill

Fox and Gill are artists and performers, who in 1968 founded the performance group Welfare State International (WSI), which staged outdoor theatrical events internationally until 2006. Over a forty-year career they created street bands, carnival processions, sculpture trails, gardens, summer schools, installations and secular ceremonies. They now work as Dead Good Guides.

Bisakha Sarker

Sarker is a dancer, choreographer, and facilitator. Trained in classical and creative Indian dance, she has performed and led countless workshops and conferences across the UK. She is the founder of the Chaturangan Dance Company.

They will joined by:

Chris Fite-Wassilak, author, The Artist in Time (Chair)

Ollie Harrop, photographer, The Artist in Time

David Cutler, Director of the Baring Foundation.

“It is the fact that these artists are not at the heady, frantic stage of their careers, but can look back on a lifetime, that gives the book its depth and absence of pretension. […] Sensitively edited, Chris Fite-Wassilak's interviews have been formed into standalone monologues that, together with Ollie Harrop's intimate photographs, feel direct and personal, as though we are visiting these artists in their homes or studios.” – Times Literary Supplement

“It is great to see an older and diverse generation be celebrated with good writing and sensitive photography.” – Nicholas Serota, Chair of Arts Council England

About the Baring Foundation

The Baring Foundation is an independent foundation which protects and advances human rights and promotes inclusion. From 2009- 2019, the Foundation dedicated its Arts programme to supporting activity with older people. At the end of a decade of funding, it commissioned this publication to celebrate and make visible the working lives of older artists. The book includes both artists with a life time of acclaimed work behind them and some who are newly emerging onto the scene, perhaps having found new creative interests and enjoyments through organisations the Foundation has supported.

Getting a copy of The Artist in Time

Former and current grantholders of the Baring Foundation's Arts and Older People funding programme will receive a free copy when we are able to send out publications again; if you're not, Bloomsbury Publishing are offering a discount of 25% to attendees of this event (details to come).