Interview with Artist/Curator Tim Mills

Will Whatley: Tim, would you like to briefly introduce yourself and tell us about your work?

I am an artist, curator, and producer based in Birmingham. Sometimes I might be the artist. Sometimes I am the artist and the curator, and occasionally I am the artist, curator and producer. Ideally, I’d be all those things on my own terms. The artist part is about generating ideas and how to conceptualise those ideas. The curator role traditionally would be a keeper of a collection. I work a lot with archives, so it might be caring for and nurturing a collection, but equally it’s about caring for a community, an individual and a project at large. Then the producer part is all about problem solving and how to make things work. The optimum outcome is where all these disciplines align. In many ways, they are one and the same thing in my mind. 

WW: So, on your own terms, does that imply you have an end goal in mind from the get-go, and you want to get there, or is it freer flowing when you’re working on a project?

TM: It’s about lots of things really, but I think it’s mostly about trust. Ideally you would work with a commissioner who trusts you to do the things that you do, and that trust extends to all sorts of areas. Trust is super important in the work that we make, particularly the reciprocal trust of the communities and people involved in the work. It’s also about a creative freedom and being able to make choices and decisions, because you’re always working within – to an extent – the confines of an organisation and funders, but also the needs and wishes of participants. It’s about sticking to your guns and trusting the process, then hoping it all lands. 

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