Project Art Works and MK Gallery collaborated on a project developing practice-led investigations of built space and perceptual impairment. Through a series of events and inclusive workshops that promote self-advocacy we are building lasting partnerships between the gallery and social care providers in Milton Keynes.
The central theme of the project referenced the urban grid of Milton Keynes, built space, perception and visibility in the city. Events 1 through 4 were as follows:
Event 1: 7 February 2011
MK Gallery staff visited Project Art Works in Hastings and took part in a workshop day with some of our participants.
Event 2: 5-8 April 2011
The Project Art Works artist team transformed the MK long gallery space to collaborate with 36 local people with complex and/or high support needs, making art in the space. The workshops were dynamic and multi-sensory and employed light, sound, construction and physical media to collaboratively engage people and those that support them. A camera was flown from a blimp anchored to the roof of the gallery and its view beamed into the workshop.
Event 3: June 2011
A series of pedestrian journeys with selected participants from event 2 investigated certain areas of the city, recorded by the artist team.
Exhibition: States & Spaces
The collaboration culminated in our first major survey exhibition in a mainstream gallery. It offered insights into the worlds of people who have neurological impairment and their very particular ways of experiencing different spaces. Video, painting, drawing, etching, sound and immersive installations were selected from a huge body of work produced by Project Art Works over the past decade.
