Interview: Contemporary Art Society Director, Caroline Douglas
THE WICK: What does a typical Monday look like?
Caroline Douglas: Mondays are all about checking in with my colleagues, 1:1 meetings with heads of teams and getting ourselves revved up for the week ahead. The meetings always produce a giant to-do list of things I need to help with – I find it really energising. We are all out and about a lot the rest of the week, which makes these moments ring fenced for in-depth discussion very important. The CAS is a small organisation so we can be quite nimble and the meetings are also a moment when we can catch opportunities and share intel.
TW: You are the Director of the Contemporary Art Society, which develops public collections of contemporary art in the UK. What is the overarching mission of the Contemporary Art Society, and how can the culturally curious show their support?
CD:
We were founded in 1910 with the express purpose of supporting living artists, and making sure that public collections in the UK reflect the best of art being made now. I am particularly passionate about our regional museums and galleries – so many artists have a vivid memory of a childhood visit to their local museum as part of their origin story. I am very proud that the CAS has this long history of placing great works of art in museums up and down the country, so that no matter where you grow up – you can go and be inspired by incredible art, for free. We made an exhibition at the Whitechapel Art Gallery about the CAS a few years ago and it was called “The best is not too good for you”. I really believe in that sentiment.
We are almost entirely funded through private donation, and we have a wonderful, loyal, and culturally curious group of patrons. We always extend a warm welcome to anyone who would like to join that group.
TW: Are there any CAS projects this year that you’re especially looking forward to or feel particularly passionate about?
CD: Frieze London is always a very big moment in our calendar. For the last nine years we have assembled a committee of patrons who together create a fund to buy at the fair for one of our member museums. It is quite an adrenalin-fuelled moment, the fund is one of the biggest we have to spend during the year, and it’s a huge moment for a UK museum to make such a major and high-profile acquisition. And of course, it’s really important to us to be supporting the commercial scene in London and adding to the buzz around the fair. This year we are buying for the Walker Art Gallery in Liverpool and we are deep into the research process right now. I’m really looking forward to announcing what we have bought in October.
TW: CAS is known for acquiring work early in an artist’s career and identifying talent ahead of the curve. What qualities or indicators do you look for when deciding which emerging artists to support?
CD: I wish I could give you a formula, but honestly, there isn’t one. The only way to form a judgement is to constantly go out and look at a lot of work, talk to people, read as much as you can. When I look back at some of the extraordinary things that were bought by our predecessors at CAS, I see it as a challenge to meet the same levels of excellence. That’s quite bracing.
“I am very proud that the CAS has this long history of placing great works of art in museums up and down the country, so that no matter where you grow up – you can go and be inspired by incredible art, for free.”
TW: Is there a recent acquisition by the Contemporary Art Society that particularly struck you? What made it stand out?
CD: There are so many, and they are all so unique, I can’t pick out just one. There are a few commissions in the pipeline that I am pretty pleased about: the ceramicist Ranti Bam has just completed a wonderful new piece for the Craft Study Centre in Farnham; the artist Hannah Starkey is in the middle of a really incredible project to make a work that will honour the women of the mining communities around Doncaster to mark 40 years since the Miners Strike; and the silversmith Adi Toch is working on a new piece in response to the collections at the Reading Museum. We always try to respond to the uniqueness of the museum and its cultural context as well as buying work from the most outstanding practitioners.
TW: Previously, you were Head of the Arts Council Collection. How did that role prepare you for your current position at the Contemporary Art Society?
CD: The stewardship of a collection is a privilege and a big responsibility. Sometimes we would pull something out of the racks that had not been on display for a long time, and you would look at it and just be blown away by its brilliance, even if it was by an artist you didn’t know. I love the long view that comes with collections – what is fashionable now is put sharply into perspective when you see how taste changes over time.
TW: What book would you pass on to a loved one?
CD: The artist Toby Ziegler recently recommended Werner Herzog’s memoir ‘Every Man for Himself and God Against All’ to me. Specifically he recommended the audio book, which is read by the author – Toby did a brilliant rendition of one of Herzog’s stories over lunch, which had me doubled up laughing. The book is hilarious, eye-opening and profound by turns and I’m recommending it to everyone at the moment.
TW: What’s your favourite Culturally Curious spot in London, whether a gallery, museum, library, or something more unexpected?
CD: When I can, I prefer to get around London on my bike, and I often find myself cycling to Mayfair from our office in Clerkenwell, past the extraordinary St George’s church in Bloomsbury. It’s by Nicholas Hawksmoor and was originally completed in 1731. The church has the most extraordinary stepped spire said to be inspired by the mausoleum at Halicarnassus, one of the seven wonders of the ancient world. At the top of the spire is a statue of King George I in Roman costume, but what really always grabs my attention is the sculpture of a lion and a unicorn clinging to the base of the spire. They are so enormous and so dynamically modelled, they look like they could climb down into the street at any moment. Apparently, they allude to a nursery rhyme popular at the time, ‘The Lion and the Unicorn were fighting for the Crown’, that was all about the competing factions fighting for the throne at the time of the Jacobite rebellion and the Hanoverian succession.
TW:
Who would your dream dinner party guests include? (alive or dead)
CD: This is too hard, and I would give a different answer every day of the week. For today I pick Virginia Woolf, Vita Sackville-West, Tacita Dean, Leonora Carrington, Cedric Morris, Noah Davies and Lynette Yiadom-Boakye.
TW: What’s one piece of advice you’d share with other women leading in the cultural sector?
CD: I wouldn’t presume to.
