STEPHANIE RADOK reminds us that excellence is not the preserve of the larger state galleries.

Being concerned with the local and what is near to you is not a new idea but has recently become a global mantra of sorts. As people think about food miles and eating locally while continuing to Google and Tweet, on one hand it matters less and less where you actually live and at the same time it matters a lot.

You may not need to live in a megapolis to know what is hot or current or be in touch, you may be able to watch all kinds of things on your computer screen but you still need to know where your local markets are held and when cherries can be bought fresh from the grower. But it is not only food that is produced and bought locally, it’s also culture. To attend to what is made locally and to value it and its connection to a particular place is important. To pay attention to the local as well as the national and the international is perhaps the only way to avoid the so-called ‘provincialism problem’ in which the centre of real life and real culture is always seen as elsewhere.

To read more of this item and others, subscribe now (you will receive the latest issue) or simply order Issue 22 of aAR by clicking here.

Image: Owen Lade, Claire, 1983, oil on board, 91 x 60cm.