but is it art?

I just posted the link on my FB page

I still can't help feeling that the money would be better spent funding trips to farms for children so they can see what really happens and actually talk to farmers and farm workers. This may be very well intentioned but the pretentious nature of the project will put some people off.

It wouldn't be pretentious when you actually visit it. Just informative. Farm visits are good too of course. As are the farm open days they have nowadays.

There are two city farms in Bristol.
I don't think it is pretentious.

the money would be better spent funding trips to farms for children so they can see what really happens and actually talk to farmers and farm workers
Unless it is a farm set up for the purpose of educating school children then it would not really be feasible to have hordes of school children visiting farms.

There is a dedicated website for farm visits so some farms must be up for 'hordes of school children' www.visitmyfarm.org/
They could probably do with more funding.

They do need to be set up for it - they can't just let the children wander about, they need to have everything organised and explained.

That's what the organisation does- it obviously needs funding. It thanks Waitrose customers for their support. There is also a link to an open farms Sunday event
farmsunday.org/

Surely everyone on here has been to a Farm Sunday farm open day, and taken the grandkids? If not, where have you been living for the past God knows how many years?

(They're really boring but the cake can be good)

The kids love it, of course.

It was quite fun being weighed on a cattle weighing contraption.

And then there's the tractor ride that broke down halfway round.

Busman's holiday for DGS.
He could probably have got that tractor started again

And we go to one with the DGDs (nice )

I,m sorry Jaxie,but the Arts Council are the main sponsors.....no surprise there !!!!
This is a project organised by CAPE FAREWELL,a group comprising creatives,scientists and ecologists with sponsorship from various sources......
Greenpeace,RCA,WWF,Science Museum ,Royal Shakespeare company,and many others,though the Arts Council are the main sponsors.

I have spent more than 40 years as a professional artist/designer and have seen many projects which the Arts Council have sponsored.I share your frustration.
To call this an art installation is nutty ,but I expect that has much to do with the press.

Something far more informative and interesting could have been staged with the money ,where is the butter,cream,cheese?
The cows don,t look too bothered...they,re probably baffled.

Some cows are kept squashed up in sheds and never see a blade of grass so I expect these cows will be better looked after than many farm animals. If she wants to call it art then it is. Art isn't just a pretty picture you can hang on the wall.

Art is many things,but not milking cows.

Nessie studied History of Art and is a very committed environmentalist,which I admire.
Having read as much as I can find about her and this project,it is very obviously a project relating to the food chain.
She spent 18 months visiting the cows to get to know them and talking to farmers...the display in Bristol is a culmination of it.
I suspect it is the press who have dubbed it art and questioned its validity as such ,as she only seems to reference the whole project in relation to milk production.