EMVAN January update

Happy New Year! We hope you had a good and festive break and aren't finding it to hard to get back into the swing of things!

2012 is looking like a busy one for EMVAN if the next few weeks are anything to go by! From the end of January to the beginning of March EMVAN's holding EMVAN on tour. As part of its Strategies for Survival programme, EMVAN's holding a series of roadshows across the region, presenting an opportunity for all of you to engage in critical discussion, to exchange ideas and information, to meet friends and make contacts, and to find out more about EMVAN's future programme of activity.

Each event will feature networking opportunities as well as an in-conversation with a panel of guest speakers comprising artists, curators, funders, facilitators and commissioners. Organisations such as artsadmin, AXIS, Artquest, Lincoln Art Programme, Beacon, QUAD, New Art Exchange, University of Lincoln and Leicester Print Workshop will be represented.

Events will be held on the following dates at the following venues:

Tuesday 24 January – The Collection, Lincoln

Thursday 2 February – QUAD, Derby

Tuesday 21 February – New Art Exchange, Nottingham

Thursday 23 February – University of Northampton

Thursday 1 March – New Museum & Art Gallery, Leicester

Thursday 8 March – Rutland, venue and time to be confirmed

We're really looking forward to hearing people's thoughts and to seeing what comes of the conversations.

Hard on the heels of the tour, will be EMVAN's annual conference. This year it'll be in Leicester and will consider the political context in which the visual arts exist and will seek to enagage a range of speakers in a conversation about the role and the impact of the visual arts in areas such as place-making, well-being and cultural-collateral. Watch this space for further details of speakers and for confirmation of the date and venue.

We'll continue to hold our Curators' Coffees in February, May, August and November and our Arena drop-ins as and when! Dates for a series of Encounter netwalks will be announced in due course very soon and other events relating to EMVAN's three priorities; connecting regional collections with contemporary practice, increasing professional capability and diversity and raising the profile of and advocating for the region's visual art, are also in development.

Better get on with it then!