Helen Nisbet: how I found my feet in the art world
Helen Nisbet is an art curator and consultant who works across the UK and internationally — currently she is the Artistic Director of Art Night festival as well as sitting on the UK Arts Council Collection Acquisitions Committee. Originally a Shetlander, she moved to London over a decade ago. Here she discusses the land in which she grew up, her pathway towards curating and work and life in London.
I grew up in Shetland — the island at the very top of the United Kingdom, closer to Norway and often syphoned off into a box on TV weather reports. My dad is from Shetland and my mam is from Orkney (we'd spend all our holidays on Orkney, which felt very exotic). I really miss Shetland — I've lived in London on and off for 15 years, but I'll always 'belong' to Shetland and Orkney.
I grew up in a culture far removed from the world of contemporary art. I was lucky enough to have a couple of good teachers who encouraged me to apply for university and then got the chance to study in Glasgow. In university, you chose three subjects and only decided what your major would be in third or fourth year. This allowed me time to experiment with English and Politics before I found History of Art.
History of Art created a place for me to explore the things I was interested in, through the lens of art. There wasn't much information around what we might do with our degrees after graduation, and I didn't have family links to get an internship at the right place, so it took me a long time to find my feet in the art world.
Looking back, if I had to give myself advice, I think all the things we do wrong, all the missteps and false starts actually lead us to where we are now. So I know that advice (which at times I sorely needed) might have changed situations that ended up being important to me. So rather, maybe the confidence to know "don't change who you are; you're doing fine" would be a useful mantra for the younger Helen.
Zadie Xa at Walthamstow Library for Art Night 2019. Courtesy of Art Night. Photo Matt Rowe
In regards to why I chose contemporary art, I think I have always been interested in the politics, questions and problems of our current times — so contemporary art was the natural choice. Of course, all history is vital to understanding where we're at right now, so I'm very grateful for my grounding in the History of Art.
My golden rule for work is that solidarity and care are vital — for my colleagues, for the artists I work with and for the communities. This goes for life too. As a curator, I am first and foremost interested in supporting artists at all points in their career. My work has a particular attentiveness to representation and solidarity, especially around race, gender, sexuality, class, disability and education. Most importantly, I'm interested in showing and developing really good art, but it is important to interrogate who is shown and why so many opportunities are always given to the same people. This also helps to redress some of the great imbalances of the dominant traditional art history.
Julie Cunningham at Waltham Forest Community Hub for Art Night 2019. Courtesy of Art Night. Photo Thierry Bal
I’m the artistic director for Art Night — a contemporary art festival that takes place in different parts of the city each year. Because we are nomadic and coming into different communities each time, it is important that the festival is sensitive to its environment, to local people and to the specific cultures of that place. In Summer 2019, the festival took place in Walthamstow, East London.
I was careful to make sure we worked with schools and young people, and with venues that local people know and love (libraries, shopping centres, social clubs...). In doing this, the team and artists spent a lot of time getting to know people and responding to their concerns and interests.
I'm currently developing Art Night 2020 which will take place at The Strand, London in spaces like Somerset House, 180 The Strand and King's College, London. I'm finalising the list of artists now and it's going to be beautiful. I've curated one project with an art organisation in Skye, so the work will be developed and premiere there before coming to London for the festival in June.
Art Night takes place on 20 June 2020 in London.
Find out more: Helen Nisbet Twitter | Instagram | Art Night Twitter | Instagram