Last week I visited Perth for the ARI 2 ARI forum  “A national forum for artist run initiatives” which was held on Saturday 7 March, 2015. This is the second ARI symposium organised by Paper Mountain. Accompanying the forum was the exhibition curated by Paper Mountain, titled Keep Running, which is a survey of artist-run initiatives across Australia featuring  Boxcopy, FELTspace, Firstdraft, Freerange, Gotham Studios, Kings Artist Run, Moana Project Space, Sticky Institute, West Space & Paper Mountain.

The very clever theme of ‘keep running’ was humorously deployed across the gallery program with lovely touches like an “hydration station” and the artworks were cited/sited in the programme guide as if in a Fun Run. At the Forum the next day, participants were given running numbers to pin to their backs (or fronts), instead of name tags. Very cool. It was also a reminder of the enormous energy, commitment and love that building an ARI and keeping it running, entails. Just like an athlete. It’s practice and love, and just like an athlete it’s not simply you alone, artist in the garret, but it’s team work, and this is what Paper Mountain set out to explore…”the importance of community, collaboration and collective support in national artist-run culture.”

Here’s some pics from the opening on Friday 6 March.