A New Necessity. The First Tyne International.

"A New Necessity" sets out to examine the possibility and necessity for art to acknowledge its social meaning without being reduced to simple propaganda or Community Arts. The exhibition speculates on what the new agenda for artists, art and administrators could be. This speculation includes the process of exhibition making itself because too often the questions stop at how and why art is made without addressing how and why art is mediated through an exhibitions, even though is clear these are crucial determinants in our reading of artists' work. A key question is whether this process is part of a private or a public "transaction". Publicly funded galleries and museums are already public spaces, but it is clear we should not assume that there is a consensus about the meaning of public. "A New Necessity" defines art's value as being extrinsic rather than intrinsic, inclusive and enabling rather than exclusive, and challenges the increasingly inadequate metropolitan hierarchies.