In March 2025 I co-organised the event ‘We Appreciate it’s Been Some Time Since Our Last Letter’ with Incidental Unit (IU) at Modern Art Oxford, during Barbara Steveni’s retrospective ‘I find myself’.
As a founding member of the Artist Placement Group (APG), Barbara Steveni wrote to many industries during the 1960s and 70s. Following up on this correspondence, I included the line “We appreciate it’s been sometime since our last letter”, inviting companies to attend Barbara’s exhibition and join us at ‘The Sculpture’ to resume the conversation.
Over fifty years on from Barbara’s first approach, we were delighted that the manufacturer Scott Bader took us up on the invitation. Together we read from Barbara’s remarkable ten year correspondence with Godric Bader, the then Chairman of Scott Bader Commonwealth.
Since the event I have continued the conversation and in November visited the Scott Bader chemical production facility at Wollaston along with IU members, Marsha Bradfield, Nic Ellis, Harriet Latham, Esther Windsor. I am now looking at ways to carry on the conversation to consider how art and industry can work together towards a new life in industry.
