[artinfo] Artists' Lottery Syndicate

[Janos Sugar]

The Artists' Lottery Syndicate is a forty-strong collective of UK 
based artists who are joining forces to play The National Lottery 
over the course of a year, with the hope of hitting the jackpot. The 
Syndicate will run from 1 July 2010 - 1 July 2011.

As a reaction to the recession and its knock-on effect on arts 
funding, the Artists' Lottery Syndicate is a speculative new scheme 
for acquiring funds for artists. By utilising the element of 'luck', 
which plays such a central role in an artist's career, the Syndicate 
aims to explore the prevalent 'winner-takes-all' market of the arts, 
described by Hans Abbing in his book Why Are Artists Poor? 
(http://books.google.hu/books?id=DukoxJd3SZ0C&dq=Hans+Abbing+in+his+book+Why+Are+Artists+Poor%3F&printsec=frontcover&source=bn&hl=en&ei=Co0bTJzZG9ygONyLrboK&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=4&ved=0CCMQ6AEwAw#v=onepage&q&f=false)

As well as these cynical undertones, playing on the 'lucky break' 
aspirations of many artists, the Syndicate also has a collective 
spirit. Inspired by the definition of a 'syndicate' as a group of 
people 'joining forces', working together for a common goal, it aims 
to be a social coming-together of a group of aspirational artists 
supporting each other into the new 'age of austerity'.

Just imagine if we won! Forty artists in press shots; smiling, 
holding a giant cheque and spraying champagne in the air! Would that 
not be the greatest artwork ever made?

http://www.artistslotterysyndicate.co.uk/