Arthole Artist’s Award announced

LADA is delighted to announce that the recipient of the first ever Arthole Artist’s Award is Marcia Farquhar.

Arthole is a new LADA initiative intended to plug a hole in art funding for open-ended research and professional development. 

The biannual Award supports a groundbreaking and inspirational UK-based artist working in Live Art with £10,000 to undertake a self determined two year-long research and artistic development programme. The Award particularly encourages research into a range of critical, cultural, and practical concepts; dialogues and intergenerational collaborations; and ideas of legacy and future potentials.

Following an open call for applications for Arthole in September 2015, LADA received 64 proposals addressing a wide range of concepts and enquiries, and reflecting the diverse and exciting ways in which artists working with Live Art approach their artistic and professional development.  

Marcia Farquhar is a London based artist known for her work in performance, installation, video and object making. Conceptual in nature, much of her practice revolves around the stories and interactions of everyday life, as well as the engineering of unexpected social interactions in which the distance between audience and performer is frequently breached. Her site-specific events have been staged and exhibited internationally in museums and galleries, as well as in cinemas, kitchen showrooms, pubs, parks and leisure centres. 

Marcia says: “I’m delighted, thrilled and amazed to have received the news that I have been awarded the Arthole Award and look forward to embarking on a programme of work within the time and space that it will give me. This award will give me the chance to look back at what I have done over four decades and consider my archive in terms of my performance practice and its future. I look forward to discussions with scholars and practitioners, to engage critically with my work and to develop a deeper understanding of its place in the history of Live Art. I also intend to complete some unfinished business, projects that I will now have the time, space and support to attend to.”

The Arthole Artist’s Award was conceived by the artist Joshua Sofaer, and developed by LADA in collaboration with Gary Carter. 
The First Arthole Artist’s Award Patron is Lucio A C Shala.