{"id":23986,"date":"2014-11-17T22:05:18","date_gmt":"2014-11-17T22:05:18","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.jomec.co.uk\/altcardiff\/?p=23986"},"modified":"2014-11-17T22:05:18","modified_gmt":"2014-11-17T22:05:18","slug":"cardiff-character-richard-higlett","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cardiffjournalism.co.uk\/altcardiff\/2014\/11\/17\/cardiff-character-richard-higlett\/","title":{"rendered":"Cardiff Character: Richard Higlett"},"content":{"rendered":"

It is one week since Cardiff Contemporary 2014<\/a> closed its metaphorical doors. As an Arts Council of Wales project that Richard Higlett has been working with, you\u2019d think the 47-year-old Warwick born artist would be left with time on his hands. You\u2019d be wrong.<\/p>\n

\"Higlett

Higlett can now focus on his personal creative output. \u201cAt base level I class myself as a practising artist,\u201d he said, although Richard added, \u201cI mean, I don\u2019t like to think of myself as an artist; I just make things and other people decide that.\u201d<\/p>\n

Richard \u201ccame to art late in life\u201d. After giving up a career in carework he completed his MA in Fine Art at Cardiff Metropolitan University (formerly UWIC) in 1999. \u201cI\u2019d always made art but I went into full-time education when I was 25. I had been a stress engineer with an office, car and \u00a312,000 a year. It was 1989 and that was a lot of money but it was like \u2018Wow, this doesn\u2019t matter, what do I really want to do?\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Wally

Alongside Richard\u2019s successful art practise, he is an influential figure within Cardiff culture. He started ArtCardiff in 2007 and in conjunction with the project, initiated Cardiff Open Studios. That year, Higlett also co-founded Mermaid and Monster. He went on to co-found Goat Major Projects in 2012. Richard begins these initiatives because he sees gaps in the Cardiff art scene: \u201cWhat\u2019s missing, you know? Two, maybe three, commercial galleries the size of Bay Arts that could sell contemporary art? Now that Tactile Bosch has gone what opportunities are there for artists leaving college? That\u2019s missing. What\u2019s the relationship between the college and the indigenous art scene? Very poor. There isn\u2019t a great deal of crossover. That\u2019s lacking. It\u2019s about what\u2019s missing and what you can do to try and fill those gaps.\u201d<\/p>\n

Richard initiated Cardiff Contemporary festival in 2005. \u201cThe point of Cardiff Contemporary was to create a situation in which art is everyday and has potential for things that you wouldn\u2019t necessarily see normally.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe agenda this year was to embed the festival in the psyche of the local authority and to get them to realise the benefits of free access to the visual arts. [It gives] the opportunity for people to think creatively as part of a general plan to make Cardiff better.\u201d<\/p>\n

No wonder Cardiff Contemporary has become part of the annual cultural furniture of the city. It proved popular with both the arts community and the wider spread of residents and visitors. However, when asked about how the festival was executed Higlett stated, \u201cIf anything there was too much work, too much going on, too many things to see. But it\u2019s all a learning curve.\u201d<\/p>\n

Regardless, Cardiff Contemporary has an economic payoff, as Richard explained: \u201cFor a relatively small Arts Council Wales investment, compared to other costly events in the city – like fireworks and hanging baskets – you get something that had a massive impact on tourism and animated a community.\u201d<\/p>\n

Funding is guaranteed until 2017 and planning has commenced for #CC2015. \u201cCardiff Contemporary has a ripple effect,\u201d Richard proclaimed. \u201cIt\u2019s a very small stone but it\u2019s a very dense stone. The weight of it positively affects the way the city is perceived.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Local artist gives his verdict on Cardiff Contemporary<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":252,"featured_media":24007,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[181,3818,1249,4115,3743,219,4116,4117],"coauthors":[],"class_list":["post-23986","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-culture","tag-arts-council-wales","tag-arts-funding","tag-cardiff-art","tag-cardiff-artist","tag-cardiff-contemporary","tag-local-art","tag-outsider-art","tag-richard-higlett"],"yoast_head":"\nCardiff Character: Richard Higlett - alt.cardiff<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/cardiffjournalism.co.uk\/altcardiff\/2014\/11\/17\/cardiff-character-richard-higlett\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_GB\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Cardiff Character: Richard Higlett - 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