Sep 22

Sep 22 Ask an Artist: Interview with Penny Harris from Parker Harris

Season 5, Episode 11: Interview with Penny Harris from Parker Harris

In this episode, Peter and Tom interview Penny Harris, co-founder and expert mentor at Parker Harris. Emma Parker and Penny Harris created Parker Harris in 1990. Their partnership is now one of the leading visual arts consultancies in the UK. They are a small dynamic team and pride themselves in expert creation and project management of visual arts projects spanning all disciplines and all scales.

In the first part of the episode, Peter and Tom talk to Penny about her background, how she met Emma Parker and how the founding of Parker Harris came about. Penny talks passionately about the strong moral ethos behind the company, how the art world has changed since 1990 and how Parker Harris has evolved with these changes.

Penny explains the importance of providing real opportunities for Artists and how this underpins everything which Parker Harris gets involved with. Having started with The Sunday Times Watercolour Competition they have gone on to work on numerous projects, commissions and competitions, including a 25 year working relationship with Jerwood which included starting the Jerwood Sculpture prize. Other projects include the ING Discerning Eye, Earth Photo and The Derwent Art Prize, to name but a few.

In the second part of the episode, Penny talks about what the mentoring side of the business looks like. Because the mentors at Parker Harris are first and foremost consultants, dealing with funders, museums, galleries and managing projects, their mentoring programme is practice-led; they draw upon their real-world, on-the-ground experience, to help and advise Artists.

Penny describes the mentoring offered by Parker Harris as being wholistic and a “best-practise” guide. She discusses some of the common problems she knows Artists come across, often as a result of working in an industry which is unregulated; there is no clear, step-by-step guide for becoming an Artist, as there would be for most other professions and industries. Some of these issues arise from a lack of parity within arts education and Penny discusses how working with a mentor can help Artists to overcome some of these hurdles, ultimately helping them to develop and run a sustainable, creative business.

This week’s takeaway… Penny sees her role as helping the Artist to get over the - sometimes real, sometimes perceived - “wall”, into the art world. She concludes with some key pieces of advise:

- Be confident and be a part of it - go to exhibitions, art fairs, events etc. You are an Artist so you have license to be there and in the Art world.

- Collaborate: the more you know and the more you share, the more you will get back.

- Have principles and have a plan. You are running a business, so create a 12 month or 24 month plan and stick to it. You should not be waking up and thinking “What should I do today?” because you should already know!

- Be willing to edit the plan; whatever you plan to do, do it well or don’t do it at all. Be realistic in terms of your time and resources. Ask yourself with every opportunity - do you really need to do that? What is it going to bring you?

Find out more about Parker Harris and the opportunities they are involved with on their website: www.parkerharris.co.uk

Find out more about their mentoring programme, The Art Ladder: www.theartladder.com

Earlier this year, Tom and Peter also featured in a Social Media for Artists Course, as part of The Art Ladder. This course is now available to purchase on demand, for a special offer price of £295 until the 16th October 2023. Click here for more details.

Photos courtesy of Parker Harris.