Culture 24 - Interview with Robert Dingle, April 2010
Wakefield Express - Focus on the creation of a collection, March 2010
Yorkshire Post - Telling the stories behind great art works, February 2010
The Culture Vulture - The Gathering at Yorkshire Sculpture Park, February 2010
The Metro - Going out, February 2010
The Times - New shows, February 2010
The Big Issue - In pictures, February 2010

Full press release

THE GATHERING
Building the Arts Council Collection 1973 - 2009
Longside Gallery, Yorkshire Sculpture Park
4 March - 18 April 2010

The Gathering, a new exhibition at Longside Gallery, delves into the archives of the Arts Council Collection, the largest national loan collection of modern and contemporary British art managed by Hayward Gallery, Southbank Centre. The exhibition looks at how a number of key works came to enter the Collection over the past 36 years; who was involved and why these particular pieces were acquired.

The Gathering is the first exhibition to come out of the new Select.ac scheme launched by the Arts Council Collection in 2008. This new initiative is a curatorial competition for post-graduate students, which invites them to create an exhibition drawn from the Collection. From its outset the intention of the Collection was to support artists at the beginning of their careers, in the same vein, Select.ac aims to support and nurture a new generation of curators. The selected exhibition, The Gathering, has been curated by Robert Dingle, who graduated this summer from the Masters Fine Arts (MFA) in Curating at Goldsmiths, University of London.

Featuring 31 works by 21 artists and with historical text and interviews, it traces seminal moments in the Collection's history and captures the voices of the artists and selectors involved in the acquisition process. Artists represented include David Batchelor, Victor Burgin, Adam Chodzko, Keith Coventry, Tony Cragg, Martin Creed, Peter Doig, Gilbert & George, Richard Long, Rebecca Warren, Catherine Yass and Bettina von Zwehl.

Caroline Douglas, Head of the Arts Council Collection said:
"The Gathering is the first exhibition to focus exclusively on reviving and unpicking the interwoven narratives that seldom surface when viewing the Collection. Every work that enters the Arts Council Collection is individually discussed and debated; whether it is purchased by particular selectors, donated as a gift, or strategically purchased with the help of additional funding, each one functions as a tangible memory from which the process of acquisition can be traced. This exhibition reflects the work of the many individuals who have given their time and energy over four decades, and whose contributions define the character of the Collection, as well as providing a reflection of the history of British art itself."

Andrew Renton, Director of Curating at Goldsmiths, University of London said:
"The Curating MFA is a practical programme set within the context of the Department of Art. Students make things, rather than merely talk about them. In the curators' case it is exhibitions. This approach to learning does not set out orthodoxy of the history of curating, but enables ways in which rigorous thinking around artworks may be conducted in an original manner. The Select.ac commission and The Gathering, Robert Dingle's response to it, offer a brilliant example of how this type of research can work. The opportunity to enter so freely into the Arts Council Collection is a rare privilege."

The next call for submissions to Select.ac will be in September 2010 for an exhibition in 2011.

Notes to Editors:

• The Arts Council Collection was formed in 1946 by the Arts Council of Great Britain and has been managed by the Hayward Gallery, Southbank Centre since 1987. From the outset, the intention was to support artists living and working in Britain through the purchase and display of their work, and to tour exhibitions across the country thereby encouraging public appreciation of modern and contemporary art, making it the widest circulated collection of its kind.
  
  The Arts Council Collection is the largest national loan collection of modern and contemporary British art and includes work by all of this country's most prominent artists. With over 7,500 works by 2000 artists it can be seen in public exhibitions and displays across the UK and abroad. For further information please visit www.artscouncilcollection.org.uk
• Southbank Centre is the UK's largest arts centre, occupying a 21-acre site that sits in the midst of London's most vibrant cultural quarter on the South Bank of the Thames. The site has an extraordinary creative and architectural history stretching back to the 1951 Festival of Britain. Southbank Centre is home to the Royal Festival Hall, Queen Elizabeth Hall, Purcell Room and The Hayward as well as The Saison Poetry Library and the Arts Council Collection.

Address:
Longside Gallery
Yorkshire Sculpture Park
West Bretton
Wakefield
WF4 4LG
t: 01924 832631
w: www.ysp.co.uk

Opening Hours: 11am - 4pm daily

Photography:Stephen White