HAVING quietly spent the past 20 years supporting and removing risk from mid-career artists, the Mark Howlett Foundation is wrapping things up this year and plans to go out with a bang.
HAVING quietly spent the past 20 years supporting and removing risk from mid-career artists, the Mark Howlett Foundation is wrapping things up this year and plans to go out with a bang.
MHF’s work is characterised by the provision of support to artists and value-packed art ‘subscriptions’ to buyers.
MHF has a unique subscription model. Buyers subscribe to a program, with the subscriptions used to support the mid-career local artist chosen by the MHF board to produce the artworks; this structure provides the artists with the freedom to pursue professional careers in fine art.
Artists in the midst of their careers are chosen for good reason, according to MHF founding board member Penny Bovell.
“I think it’s because it is perceived that, if you are still there in your mid career you are commercial and you are making it, but I don’t think the public at large really understands that probably means earning below the poverty line,” Ms Bovell said.
“Mid-career artists get forced into that bind of having to go out and get another job, which sucks their energy away from doing their thing, so they can’t reach those heights; or they’re used to hanging in and running off the smell of an oily rag.”
MHF chairman and co-founder of architectural firm CODA, Kieran Wong, said the beauty of the model was that the subscribers, not the artists, take the risk.
“It is a much more social or community driven idea about a group of people coming together to produce work,” Mr Wong told WA Business News.
The foundation has never received a grant or donation and has generated more than $1 million of support for mid-career artists through its strong support base of subscribers, which has grown thanks to a strong word of mouth marketing campaign.
The foundation is celebrating its closure with a larger-scale subscription program in which 12 artists will produce original works and prints for 36 subscribers – all of which will culminate in an exhibition at the Fremantle Arts Centre early next year.
The history of the foundation will also be documented in a book the foundation has commissioned to complement the end of the MHF era.
“It is better that something closes with energy so that something else opens up. It is not a failure to close, even though it is easy for people to jump to those conclusions,” Ms Bovell said.
She said she hoped the foundation’s model would live beyond the close of MHF.
“It has had to be word of mouth and small wins, the idea if a number of people put something little in, it isn’t blowing anybody’s budget but that pooled amount can really make something big happen,” Ms Bovell said. “That is why we have never changed it, we have kept it about people, connections, low key.”
Mr Wong said an integral part of the model had been developing trust between the MHF board, artists and subscribers.
“As a result of that it is a tightly knit community,” he said.
“The effect is dissipated if it gets too big, I suppose we have been mindful to keep within our limits. We have been very effective in managing a project to keep it the right size, to allow it to stay relevant and constant.
“We have stuck to our guns for 20 years.”
