In Conversation: Clo Sargent & Viki Starmore of Artemis Collective on building an open & inclusive arts community in Plymouth

What’s On Plymouth Culture Community Reporter and Fashion Designer Victoria Lammie caught up with Clo Sargent and Viki Starmore  from Artemis Collective to find out more about who they are and what they do as an open and inclusive arts community based in Plymouth. 

For people discovering Artemis Collective for the first time, how would you describe who you are and what you do? 

We provide a platform for artists within the Plymouth community to showcase their work. We try to be as barrier free as possible, having experienced other spaces to display work having barriers. We try to keep all communications and interactions with our artists as low key as possible to try and make them feel comfortable. We don’t want to feel like a large scary gallery space that maybe feels off limits to artists who might see themselves as part time or amateur. We are there for all artists rather than being selective. As a group of local creatives we like to congregate together and put our work on walls, by getting work out of studios and on display it helps artists to build confidence in their work in a way that's not pressured. We’re building a community where every artist has the opportunity to celebrate their work-no matter how small or where it was created, even if it’s just something painted in their spare room. We want to make it clear that we aim to connect with artists at every stage.  From newer, emerging and part-time artists to established career artists. We believe this is what makes us special. We champion artists at every stage of their artistic journey. 

How did you form and when?

‘We formed almost two years ago. We came about as we were all emailing cafe Momus at the same time asking to display our work on their walls. The owner of the cafe set up a group chat for all of us and we had a meeting, five people turned up and basically we organised an exhibition and everything just seemed to click and fall into place really well and we all just wanted to keep going. We feel the reason it worked so well is it was completely organic. Andy Downe, the owner of cafe Momus had big dreams of having a community based gallery but had struggled with the admin and communication that comes with that. So when we did the first show he contacted us asking us to do more of them. We just all connected really well as a group of five’. 

I then go on to ask how many of them there are running Artemis Collective? There are five of us on the committee Viki Starmore, Clo Sargent, Heather Williams, Rita Burnside and AS.I.AM. We have sixty three members in the collective. 

Clo Sargent

Your work involves supporting and empowering  full-time, part-time and sometimes any-time artists based in Plymouth. Can you explain how you achieve this?

By very rarely saying no. We love hearing artists' stories but the length of time they’ve been practising is irrelevant, if the art has a quality to it we will put it on a wall. We can count on one hand how many times we’ve said no. It’s free to submit your work, artists taking part in the shows pay a small fee that goes towards renting the space etc.  That’s where we are different,  most open calls charge a submission fee that you still have to pay whether you are selected or not. We feel this helps and attracts people who may be nervous about applying and especially with a fee on top. 

What are you currently working on?

We are preparing for our second birthday/anniversary show. We’ve just released our open call within the collective for it and we will hopefully be showing some great work. We have some excellent artists in house and it’s always really exciting to see what they create and seeing how their journeys have developed. It’s going to be a celebration, a party! Running from the 2nd until the 18th of May at Cafe Momus with our opening night on the 1st of May which is open to everyone. We don’t do private views so that it's not for just a select few, everyone’s welcome!

Viki Starmore

What's next and what are your further plans for Artemis Collective?

Over the summer we are planning some outdoor art meet ups keeping it quite informal but offering opportunities to meet at the park, Barbican or up on the Hoe. We would also like to get some more social meet and greet dates in our calendar, to share knowledge.  Also some potential workshops, we are in talks with Devonport Guildhall to have an ‘Artemis Print’ membership so that we can start offering print workshops to some of our members who maybe haven’t been to university and haven’t had the opportunity to get into a print room.

We would also like to support other local initiatives especially within the arts world.  Do more collaborations with other local creative groups and just keep building a community and grow that arty village!

Artemis Collective are certainly striving hard to break down those barriers within the arts world by ensuring everything they do is accessible to everyone. By opposing gate keeping and promoting inclusivity they are building a very supportive and diverse community of local artists set out to support each other, share ideas and in Chloe’s words ‘Get work on walls’. 

Go along and join in with their Second Birthday/Anniversary Party everyone’s welcome! 2nd - 18th May, opening night 1st of May at Cafe Momus, 14-17 Manor Street, Plymouth PL1 1TL

@artemis_collective_plymouth