Overview

Artspace and Campbelltown Arts Centre are pleased to co-present Joe Scotland, Director, Studio Voltaire, London, in-conversation with Michael Dagostino, Director, Campbelltown Arts Centre. 

For over twenty years, London-based arts charity Studio Voltaire has championed emerging and underrepresented artists, offering an alternative and agenda-setting view of contemporary art.

Studio Voltaire is a place of constant creativity, with a full year-round program of exhibitions, events and education projects, as well as an onsite complex of affordable artist studios. They also maintain an innovative fundraising store called House of Voltaire, which offers unique artworks, limited-edition prints, homewares, clothing and objects by leading contemporary artists and designers.

Biographies

Joe Scotland is the Director of Studio Voltaire, a not-for-profit space based in Clapham, London. Scotland has curated a number of major exhibitions and new commission projects with London-based artists such as Elizabeth Price, Marvin Gaye Chetwynd, Ruth Ewan, Hayley Tompkins, Joanne Tatham & Tom O’Sullivan, Nicholas Byrne, Cathy Wilkes, Benjamin Senior, Jimmy Merris and Laura Aldridge. International artists Scotland has worked with recently include Nicole Eisenman, Thea Djordjadze, Paulina Olowska, Nairy Baghramian, Henrik Olesen and Judith Hopf. Scotland was also responsible for introducing a new participatory and commissioning program, Not Our Class, taking the research and practice of Jo Spence as a starting point for investigating the legacy and potentials of her work in relation to contemporary culture and life. Artists include Rehana Zaman, Marysia Lewandowska, Emma Hedditch, Anne Collier and Judith Hopf. Partners include Body & Soul, Intoart, Lambeth Women’s Project and Trinity Hospice.

Michael Dagostino has 20 years' experience in the contemporary arts sector commencing his career with fellow artist Michael Lindeman in Michael and Michael Visual Art Project Management, then Exhibitions Manager at Casula Powerhouse Arts Centre followed by Curator at Artbank. Within the last 10 years he was the inaugural Director of the Parramatta Artists Studios where he developed an innovative hub for emerging artists to extend their professional practices. In 2011 Dagostino became the Director of Campbelltown Arts Centre (CAC), a flagship cultural venue for contemporary art. Under his directorship, CAC has continued to pioneer a multidisciplinary arts program that engages artists to develop new forms of practice that engage with communities. Curatorial projects that cross the boundaries of social history, contemporary art and community engagement include Transmission (2012), Towards the Morning Sun (2013), Temporary Democracies (2013), TV Moore's Rum Jungle (2014), Cosmic Love Wonder Lust (co-curated with Nicholas Tsoutas, 2015) and a major international partnership program, Helsinki Dance Exchange (2014). Michael has sat on a number of arts boards, was the Chair of Artspace, Sydney and is a current board member of FBi Radio.