Our commissioning and curatorial activity is centered on producing distinct art that reflects the diversity of 21st-century society. We work with partners in the UK and internationally to co-commission work for exhibition, festivals and touring.
Threshold has, from its inception, questioned the relevance in this digital age of the definitions of Artist, Audience, Curator, Collector and the hierarchies these definitions maintain. Art is not the preserve of the elite. Art is a language like any other that everyone has the right to speak. Some will be more eloquent than others. Threshold see their role to share authorship, to assist voices to become eloquent and to become heard, taking a collective approach to the creation of work in which traditional hierarchies are rejected in favour of a collective authorship, often in partnership with diverse and under- represented communities.
Our work does not engage with the debate about what art is. We focus instead on the debate around who gets to be called an artist, where art is seen, and by whom. Our aspiration is Great Art BY Everyone.
This integrated practice model does not value the commodification of the unique art object, favouring instead the transformation of the everyday landscape by art intervention, knowledge sharing, myth-busting, the collaborative voice, the free dissemination of cultural experience via use of non-traditional spaces, digital distribution and mass production.
Our involvement of communities in the creation of work does not frame them as amateurs led by professionals, but as early career artists working collaboratively with more established creators.
Ours is not an Observation, Documentation, Exposition model of community working, but the facilitation of an active, professional collaborative authorship.