After Maximo Caminero, an artist from Florida, deliberately smashed a vase that was part of an installation by Ai Weiwei at the Pérez Art Museum in Miami, he made the following statement to the Miami New Times:

“I did it for all the local artists in Miami that have never been shown in museums here. They have spent so many millions now on international artists. It’s the same political situation over and over again. I’ve been here for 30 years and it’s always the same.”

The same situation afflicts artists in the UK. Greater Manchester is known all over the world for football and music. It also has one of the most vital and diverse visual arts scenes in the UK, and yet very few artists who live and work in the area have received any significant exposure in our major public-funded venues or the Manchester International Festival. Nobody is to blame for this, we simply need curators to have more confidence and pride in North West artists.

Come along to the next meeting of Manchester University’s Urban Forum. The theme is Manchester’s creative economy. I’ll be raising issues relating to the severe blockage in the arts ecology of the region. At a time when per capita Arts Council spending in London is 15 times higher than the than the rest of the UK, our major galleries persist in spending most of their meager share of the cash on promoting London based or ‘international’ artists.

We need to fight for exposure for Greater Manchester artists and for regional artists all over the world!

Tuesday May 20th 6-9pm at Twenty Twenty Two in Little Lever Street off Stephenson Square in Manchester, England.