As the final Art Race episode is screened tomorrow night, producer Seb Grant looks back:
Over the last twelve weeks, Sky Arts has broadcast a series that challenges two artists to race each other across the United States, surviving only off their art. The show, Art Race, charts the travails of sculptor Ben Sargent and visual artist Kenny Harris as they trade artworks in return for food, accommodation and travel. The series, commissioned by Gallery HD, was filmed over a year ago, and it has been wonderful to see it premiering in the UK (with our production blog accompanying it here). As the show's producer, I'm too close to it to offer a sensible or even-handed critique but I'd love to share a few reflections on flirting with reality television -- and the actual experience of crossing the United States in this rather extraordinary way.

Overall, I'm still in awe of the two artists, Ben and Kenny. It was an extraordinary risk both professionally and personally for them, and yet they embraced the challenge in good faith and (mostly) good humour. At times, it was absurdly tough -- particularly for Ben on the East Coast and Kenny in the mid-West. An exhausting, endless hustle across 40 days straight -- never knowing where they were going to sleep, never knowing how they'd travel and having little notion of where the money for their next meal would come.

Add to those pressures, the continual presence of a television crew and the responsibility to engage with the cameras -- never mind completing all their artwork under such scrutiny, and I'm amazed that they made it through to the end.

I'm also in awe of the people we encountered along the way -- the folk who helped Ben and Kenny with a bed or a meal or some small change. The crew and I talked endlessly about whether the same format would work in the UK and -- time and time again -- we rejected the idea. Perhaps I've been overly-skewed with metropolitan values but I genuinely don't know how we compare as a nation to collective America's curiosity, generosity, enthusiasm and kindness. Maybe my memories are hazy... perhaps our British accents helped... perhaps there's more excitement about television crews in middle America than the UK -- but we left the United States last August humbled by American kindness.

Inevitably, one remembers snapshots of the trip: spending the night in a bowling alley porch (because Kenny had no money), watching Kenny trade doggy-portraits, bargaining for chips in Las Vegas, flying over the Grand Canyon and ballooning in Aspen (the trades became more ambitious as our confidence grew) but it was a sensational experience -- waking up each morning and genuinely having no idea about what would happen to us, and where our stories for each day would emerge.

Perhaps the absurdities of last summer are all the more exaggerated now that we are in production of our second major Shakespeare performance piece of the year. A crew of four has become a crew of forty and logistics are nearing terrifying proportions -- but I do miss the Art Race's simplicity and singularity of purpose.

As to the reality TV nature of the series, I have to say that I enjoyed it. We didn't need to manufacture drama because the drama was there already (the artists needed to eat, travel and sleep). And nor did we need to create any pantomime villains -- it's impossible not to back Ben and Kenny. We didn't need to cheat and our thoughtful US commissioning editor ensured that we didn't need to embrace any fast-cut sensibilities. I'm proud it it.

Still, enough of this. I'm sure the blogosphere doesn't need another producer becoming misty-eyed over his own shows. It's Art Race. Not Civilisation :)

Our Art Race posts to date:

From sea to shining sea
Producer Seb Grant introduces the series

Art Race 1: the starting line
The story to day 2

Art Race 2: now it's real
The first week on the road

Art Race 3: two for the road
Kenny in Ohio, Ben in Arizona

Art Race 4: further on up the road
Ben in Arizona (still) and Texas; Kenny in Indianapolis and St Louis

Art Race 5: all the miles in between
More adventures in Texas -- and a car crash

Art Race 6: I ain't nothing but tired
Midway in the series (although not the journey); we're still in Texas and Missouri

Art Race 7: lay down your money
Kenny paints a portrait and Ben gets a haircut

Art Race 8: working on the highway
Kenny feels stuck in the mid-west and Ben spends time with a stripper

Art Race 9: days like these
Rides in a balloon and a Lamborghini

Art race 10: down to the river
Hitching a life on a boat and surfing off the East coast

Art Race 11: this land of America
Independence Day close to two coasts

Art Race 12: at the end of the night
The final curtain -- but we don't reveal the winner.

Special thanks to Seb and Clare -- and Jamie -- for the blog entries (and so much else), and to Ian and Clare for the images.