Incidental Unit (IU) began to form in 2016 following a series of ‘incidental meetings’ with one agenda item, ‘unfinished business’. The aim of these meetings was to informally share information and knowledge about Artist Placement Group (APG) (1966—89), as well as its successor Organisation and Imagination (O+I) (1989—2009).

Artist Placement Group was one of the UK’s most critically acclaimed cultural networks. Conceived by Barbara Steveni in 1966 and co-founded with Barry Flanagan, David Hall, John Latham, Anna Ridley and Jeffrey Shaw in London in the late 1960s, Artist Placement Group sought to reposition the artist in society.

Incidental Unit reprises John Latham’s use of the term ‘incidental’ and seeks to reignite and enrich debates around the role and work of the artist and inspire their critical and creative action. We continue to meet monthly. 2019 marked the start of Incidental Futures, a public touring programme curated to discover the impact of the original APG methods and to consider how they may be learned from and adapted today.

We invite practitioners to submit a project for the Directory that reflects the legacy of Artist Placement Group through a range of techniques and methods that share a commitment to interrupting norms in law, health, industry, education, administration and more.