The importance of collaborations

There are as many advantages to collaborating with other artists as there are reasons to join forces, as Sarah Edmonds explains

Collaboration: the action of working with someone to produce something

Collaboration within the art community is nothing new. Artists like to seek out fellow creatives, people to share studios with, grow from professionally, forming collectives with whom to exhibit. As the definition suggests, the outcome is as important as the social aspect of joining forces. Some of the most renowned groups of artists found each other in turbulent times to explore and discover new ways of thinking. Strength in numbers worked in their favour, allowing for finances to be shared and movements to be launched.

Think of the Impressionists Monet, Pissarro, Degas, Renoir, Sisley and Morisot holed up in a back-street Parisian bar curating their eponymous 1874 exhibition at Rue du Capucines. Or the post-war gatherings of the radical Omega workshops in Fitzroy Square, followed decades later by Bacon, Freud and Melly cooking up mayhem in the Colony Rooms. The private club also attracted the Young British Artists of the early 1990s, a group who began artist-led exhibitions in warehouses and factories around London, a novelty at the time.

Finding your tribe is a natural human urge, possibly more so for artists, who often work in isolation, fostering an even closer bond at key moments in their career and a true spirit of collaboration. In a digital age, there are ways to connect with and build an online community, which provides a much needed support network.

Our Case Study, floral and landscape artist Alison Vickery, has always been instinctively attracted to fellow artisans in her locality. Far from being solely an exercise in profit and sales, it’s the social and co-operative benefits that invite this kind of arrangement. Sharing ideas, venues, mailing lists, expanding contacts, even manning exhibitions and Christmas fairs makes for a much more symbiotic relationship. But choose your collaboration carefully, warns Alison: ‘Just because you are friends doesn’t mean you can work together, but the benefits of shared knowledge and energy are immense.’

Ultimately, collaboration is about a generosity – working with rather than against – with huge benefits attached. It helps us problem-solve, bringing people closer together, learning from each other, opening up channels of communication, boosting morale and fostering greater community awareness.

Alison Vickery