Provinciality and the art world: the Midland Group 1961–1977

Abstract

Thi s paper takes as its focus the Midl and Group Gallery in order to first, make a case for the consideration of the geographies of art galleries. Second, highlight the importance of galleries in the context of cultural geographies of the sixties. Third, discuss the role of provinciality in the operati on of art worlds. In so doing it explicates one set of geographies surrounding the gallery -those of the local, regional and international networks that connected to produce art works and art space. It reveals how the interactions between places and practices outside of metropolitan and regional hierarchies provides a more nuanced insight into how art worlds operated during the sixties, a period of growing internationalism of art, and how contested definitio ns of the provinci al played an integral role in this. The paper charts the operations of the Midland Group Gallery and the spaces that it occupied to demonstrate how it was representative of a post-war discourse of provincialism and a corresponding re-evaluation of regional cultural activity.

Material migrations of performance

“…It has also long been a feature of research examining the cultures of empire, particularly regarding the reproduction of distinctly ‘British’ homes and their artefacts abroad (Blunt and Dowling ), the migration of landscape aesthetics through built forms such as the bungalow (King ), and the circulation of imperial commodities that created new fashions and tastes (Cheang ). Although there is a growing body of work that investigates the circulation of art and performance across different translocalities (Morris ; Neate ; Rogers ), such research has yet to focus on how the material artefacts of the arts are also embedded in, and create, cross‐border geographies.…”

“…This is evident with scripts which are materially fluid objects, something that allows them to become hypermobile compared to their authors. Existing literatures on creative transnational networks analyse the circulation of artistic discourse through articles and journals, yet as objects they are always secondary to the art or performance work in hand (see Morris ; Neate ). In contrast, the script is the keystone of theatrical production and is, perhaps, the component that migrates the most.…”