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Friday

May032013

Surreptitious Networks - North East Contemporary Visual Arts Network event

Friday, May 3, 2013 at 6:13PM

Monday, 20 May 2013, 11am - 6pm
Tyneside Cinema, Figgis Room,
10 Pilgrim Street, Newcastle upon Tyne, NE1 6QG

North East Contemporary Visual Arts Network is funding 3 critical writing bursaries on offer for emerging artist/writers in the Greater North to reflect and respond to academic research undertaken by CRUMB research associate Isabella Streffen as part of her fellowship through the AHRC Cultural Engagement Scheme. This is the first of a number of pilot projects that North East Contemporary Visual Arts Network is a partner in to explore how artists’ academic research within Universities is disseminated and explored within the visual arts sector for mutual benefit and by doing so, seed new connections and test new partnerships.

This artist-led workshop will be led by CRUMB post doctoral research associate Isabella Streffen and co-chaired by Dr. Sarah Cook of CRUMB and will focus on the “surreptitious networks” operating within artistic practices. The aim is to reveal how artists expose, work with, critique and create inadvertent or hidden networks in the development of their practices. The workshop will share knowledge from the practices, strategies and critical perspectives of four artists working with digital and non-digital networks:

Graham Harwood

Lise Autogena and Joshua Portway

Joanna Griffin

Isabella Streffen

Information about the contributors can be found here.

Discussion will touch upon methods and meaning of network creation, both deliberate and accidental and the relationship between the human and non human with questions likely to arise such as:

What other types of network emerge as the by-products of digitally networked practices?

How can the exploration of networks most usefully seed other networks?

What strategies do artists use to navigate and manage networks in their practice and how do the “echo networks” of digitally networked practices differ from those of non-digital practices?

Morning presentations will be broadcast by basicfm, while the afternoon workshops will offer a chance for participants to engage more closely with each of the artists to discuss strategies.

Details of the bursary can be found here. Bursary applicants are invited to apply for one of three bursaries by emailing A CV and a piece of written text to [email protected] by May 13th and will need to be available to attend the event on 20th May in Newcastle. Selected applicants will be sent a briefing pack. Bursary recipients will have their articles co published by CRUMB and a-n.

If you would like to attend the event, potential delegates are asked to apply by email to [email protected] with a Biography a short (200w) statement about what they would make of the opportunity by 15th May. Selection will be done by CRUMB and delegates will be notified by 16th/17th May so please hold the date until confirmation.

This project is a CRUMB Professional Development Workshop in collaboration with Pixel Palace and in partnership North East Contemporary Visual Arts Network and A-N.

Winners announced as New Art West Midlands celebrates region’s emerging artistic talent

Annabel Clarke

Monday, March 25, 2013 at 10:02AM

An altar featuring felt budgies and foil-wrapped ‘turds’ and a bicycle wrapped in wool are among the varied exhibits now on show in three Birmingham galleries as part of the award exhibition New Art West Midlands.

The best new work produced by recent graduates from the region’s five university art colleges was celebrated on Thursday 7 March in a prize-giving at the Barber Institute of Fine Arts, University of Birmingham.

Rafal Zar, a graduate of Birmingham City University, was awarded the £1,000 first prize following a unanimous decision by judging panel Nicola Kalinsky, Director of the Barber Institute; Simon Cane, Acting Director of Birmingham Museums Trust and Wendy Law, Director of Turning Point West Midlands, part of the national Contemporary Visual Arts Network supported by Arts Council England and hosted by Birmingham City University.

Rafal Zar - awarded the £1000 first prize

Runner-up prizes of £500 each were awarded to Corey Hayman, a graduate of Coventry University and Stuart Layton, who studied at the University of Worcester. These graduates also received bursaries to make new work for the exhibition.

This year’s New Art West Midlands project, part funded by Arts Council England and Birmingham City University via Turning Point West Midlands, is the first in an annual competition and exhibition initiative that promotes and encourages the region’s emerging artistic talent.

Exhibitions now open to the public at Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery, the Barber Institute of Fine Arts and Grand Union in Digbeth display the work of some 22 emerging artists, chosen from a long list of applicants by selectors Jeremy Millar, artist and tutor in Art Criticism at the Royal College of Art; Lynda Morris, Chair of Curation and Art History at Norwich University College of the Arts and Keith Piper, artist and Programme Leader of the MA Fine Art programme at Middlesex University.

The exhibiting artists all graduated in the last three years from Birmingham City University, Coventry University, Staffordshire University, University of Wolverhampton and University of Worcester.

New Art West Midlands catalogue - available from all exhibiting venues

Wendy Law said judges had been impressed by the wide range of subject matter and media. “The artists selected displayed an awareness not only of what is going on in contemporary art today - they are working with and commenting on political, historical and social issues,” said Wendy. “There is a real maturity across the work in terms of the ideas and their execution.”

Nicola Kalinsky said that all three winners had displayed not only maturity and professionalism, but also potential for growth as artists.

“Rafal Zar’s work is very coherent and assured: It’s visually very striking, and creates resonances drawn from popular culture that are both familiar and also alien. There was an ambition to his work which interested us all. Corey Hayman and Stuart Layton’s pieces were also very individual, very urban, and had a remarkably assured quality and authenticity about them.”

Simon Cane added:

‘This was a remarkable opening year for the New Art West Midlands project and the culmination of a hugely worthwhile collaborative project between the three galleries, Turning Point West Midlands and the five universities. It certainly augurs well for the future of New Art West Midlands – and is a revelation of the immense artistic talent and creativity being nurtured in – and by – the region and its art schools.’

New Art West Midlands continues at Birmingham Museum & Art Gallery and The Barber Institute of Fine Arts until 19 May 2013, and at Grand Union, Digbeth, until 16 March 2013.

The New Art West Midlands catalogue is available at all exhibiting venues for £10.

Collaborative Acts - Thursday 14th March 2.30pm – Scratch Night from 6.30pm, MK GALLERY

Louise Thirlwall

Wednesday, March 13, 2013 at 1:37PM

Artists and curators from across the east and south east regions of England, are invited to attend Collaborative Acts - a space to hear more about opportunities to work together with others and how groups of artists are doing this already - either as informal networks or as collectives.

MK Gallery will provide an informative, informal environment to meet other artists, hear about diverse ways of working and seeing the outcomes of collaborative practice.

Speakers include: Gareth Bell-Jones, Artists and Programmes Curator at Wysing Arts Centre, will introduce the Escalator Visual Arts Programme with Escalator artist Florian Roithmayr, before contributions from Emma Jayne Taylor from Artworks MK and Carousel art collective.

From 6.30pm join us for a special MK Gallery Scratch Night Introduced by artists Jamie George and Fiona James. Artists Jamie George and Fiona James, who each participated in the most recent Escalator artists’ retreat; Space of Attention at Wysing Arts Centre will introduce an evening of overlapping and interrelated video and sound with contributions from their fellow retreat participants Jenny Chamarette, Annie Davey, Natasha Hoare, Sidsel Meineche Hansen, Stephanie Misa, David Morris, Rosalie Schweiker and Khadija von Zinnenburg Carroll.

Tickets are free and event attendees will be provided with dinner (5.30pm and 6.30pm, with a pay-bar) and are invited to stay for a special MK Gallery Scratch Night from 6.30pm, programmed by artists from the most recent retreat at Wysing Arts Centre.

Book your ticket now via eventbrite http://collaborativeacts.eventbrite.co.uk/

Collaborative Acts is part of a programme of events hosted by Contemporary Visual Arts Network East and South East to generate collaboration across the wide range of artists groups, networks and projects active in their regions. www.cvan.org.uk Collaborative Acts is funded by the Arts Council, England Knowledge Sharing Project.