Henrietta Norton argues that big arts organisations turning to crowdfunding should be just as risk-seeking and adventurous as the small organisations that pioneered its use.
There was a fanfare of excitement when it was announced recently that the Royal Academy had exceeded its crowdfunding target by £23,577 – Ai Weiwei’s Tree sculptures would now be coming to London as part of a forthcoming major retrospective of his work.
Thanks to 1319 backers on Kickstarter – and a brilliant and inspiring video presented by Stephen Fry – the RA had raised £123,577. Well done RA, and well done to all those who contributed towards more people seeing sculptures by, in Fry’s words, ‘one of the world’s most famous artists’, someone who reminds us of the role artists have as ‘social critics… with the right to be different and the right to not conform’.
This right to not follow social norms, to find a different way, is at the heart of the crowdfunding phenomenon... Keep reading on a-n
There was a fanfare of excitement when it was announced recently that the Royal Academy had exceeded its crowdfunding target by £23,577 – Ai Weiwei’s Tree sculptures would now be coming to London as part of a forthcoming major retrospective of his work.
Thanks to 1319 backers on Kickstarter – and a brilliant and inspiring video presented by Stephen Fry – the RA had raised £123,577. Well done RA, and well done to all those who contributed towards more people seeing sculptures by, in Fry’s words, ‘one of the world’s most famous artists’, someone who reminds us of the role artists have as ‘social critics… with the right to be different and the right to not conform’.
This right to not follow social norms, to find a different way, is at the heart of the crowdfunding phenomenon... Keep reading on a-n