The DOM Manifesto (more or less)
 DOM aims to serve contemporary European culture, alert to the need for artists, writers, musicians, composers and filmmakers to assume greater responsibility for the destiny of the arts as a whole.
DOM means "home" in Russian. This reflects our efforts to bring together works which are at home with each other and to present these works in a spirit which allows people to feel at home with art. In today's materialist world, art can offer the spiritually-starved soul a sustenance totally free of religious doctrine. It is art of this ilk that DOM seeks to introduce to the public.
Threads of a Particular Creativity.
DOM provides a platform for artists working in a particular spirit, a mode of creativity which is ascendant within the grassroots of European art today. That creativity owes very little to self-expression, to the meanderings of the subconscious or to the contortions of the intellect. As the artists work, they heed the quiet guidance of influences that transcend the artists' own deliberations. The flow of creativity has a source beyond the artist. This metaphysical impulse is what many artists, musicians, composers, writers and filmmakers are being drawn towards. This impulse tends to imply a healthy respect for artistic traditions both recent and distant and a love for the spirit of innovation that animates these traditions.
 Weaving the Threads
Those artists affiliated to DOM tend to work outside of any mainstream, concerned to pursue the solitary demands of their work. What DOM can offer are opportunities for these often isolated characters to gather together and celebrate the wealth of kindred creativity. Through staging events and exhibitions, DOM introduces new audiences to this powerful undercurrent in European creativity today.
Undoing the Public's Exile.
Many people today feel remote from the contemporary arts. This is due more to shyness than to a lack of interest. Many who wish to cross the threshold step back from it, professing to "know nothing about art" by way of apology.
To help audiences feel free to discover new work, artists and musicians are paying greater heed to the spirit in which that work is presented. The conventions of display and performance are saturated with the history of snobbishness. Because of this people wrongly dismiss artworks and the enjoyment of art as something odorous. For DOM and like minded projects, the challenge is to undo this centuries old straitjacket. The future of artistic vigour relies entirely on the embrace of good people. Its not so great a challenge in fact. When exhibitions and performances are themselves approached as opportunities for the imagination, the formalities of old give way to an atmosphere of innovation and welcome in which works can be beheld without inhibition. From the comments books at DOM"s permanent exhibition space in Edinburgh's Old Town, and the reaction of audiences to DOM concerts, it is apparent that this approach succeeds and moreover is welcomed with profound gratitude. |
DOM is an arts project which was established in 1996 by a group of artists, musicians and writers working across Europe. In 1999 it established a gallery in Edinburgh's oldest house in Advocate's Close off the Royal Mile where it maintained an ever evolving exhibition of works by DOM artists open to the public throughout the year. This well-loved gallery remained open until 2004. Between 1997 and 2003, DOM also put on festivals of art, music and animation in various buildings in Edinburgh and Glasgow, including Edinburgh's St. Giles' Cathedral in 2002 where over four weeks, its exhibition attracted 70,000 visitors. 
Any pioneering arts project is likely to be financially loss-making, so to keep going, funds have to be derived from some source. Given the waning support of patronage, sponsorship and state funding across Europe, artists are accepting the need to carry more of the financial burden for the arts upon their own shoulders. Grassroots arts organisations are beginning to face the challenge of self-funding and an economy for the arts is emerging. The DOM artists established KINDOM give DOM long-term viability and to prove that this could be done. KINDOM is a brand that brings artistic imagination and values to the marketplace in a profitable way. These profits can be used to cross-subsidise the work of DOM and enable it to have long-term plans that would otherwise be unthinkable. As KINDOM grows, so will DOM's ability to pursue its non-commercial aims increase proportionally. 
