Competition?

We're not about competition. Ask us to share your event or work with you and we'll very likely say yes, send us the details and we'll push them out there...

So, we asked the National Museum if we could deliver once a month life drawing in various rooms in the museum with a model or models reacting to the artworks in that room. We committed to delivering a minimum of one session in Welsh and also having a Welsh speaking artist on hand at all others. We said we'd work at times to suit the museum and would tweak the proposal to suit the museum.

The answer was an immediate 'No' with the explanation that we would be in competition with the museums own life drawing. Now, the museum has three sessions of life drawing planned in for November, charges a good deal more than we would for the sessions and hits a very different demographic to us. Importantly, we were to supply models for these November sessions and instead of being protectionist we would have promoted these sessions through our social media, as we have always done in the past.

We are a very different beast therefore to the museum...

This is our response:

'That’s a shame and thank you for trying. 

I don’t really understand in that you have just three sessions planned in November and I am assuming that would form part of a course or similar. The sessions we would have delivered would have attracted a different demographic, perhaps schools, perhaps working artists, perhaps retired people, a real mix. There would have been no risk or cost to the museum and your group, in rejecting the proposal, have missed an opportunity to reach out and develop art opportunities in Cardiff and perhaps in Wales (we would have gone on to request to deliver similar in other museums if successful). We would most definitely have promoted your sessions and worked closely with you on any others that you decided to deliver.

I therefore feel that we can’t work with the museum, not because of the rejection of the proposal, but because the proposal was rejected without any attempt to tweak it. We clearly stated that we’d be happy to engage with you to iron out the proposal and to make it work for both the museum and Cardiff Life Model Collective and our artists. 

We only work with those organisations that work together for the benefit of all and I feel that on this occassion, because of a false belief held by your committee that we would be competing against each other, that there is a conflict of approach. Castle building and competitiveness is an old fashioned and misguided approach to business and it’s one I’m not even sure has a place within the broad aims of the museum. Protectionism strangles creativity and the artists in Cardiff and South Wales, the remit of the museum to get many people through its doors, the remit for the museum to educate, Cardiff Life Model Collective and it’s tutors and models, all loose out as a result of this decision.'

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