Merry Christmas and a very happy 2020!
End of Year Message from Kate Adams, Artist Director and CEO,
Project Art Works
This is a special moment for Project Art Works and all our collaborators. It marks both an end to 2019 and another exceptional year of art and activism, and the beginning of all that is to come. In 2020 Project Art Works will open a new gallery and event space in partnership with Heart of Hastings, Community Land Trust; begin a raft of ambitious programmes that build on EXPLORERS and PROPEL and that pilot new approaches to art and social care. We will continue to walk beside people who very often struggle to thrive in a way that most take for granted. Their resilience and creativity enhance all our lives and we will advocate for their unique perspectives to be included and equally valued in art and culture.
This year we have collaborated with many different artists and organisations to develop co-commissions that place neurodivergent artists and makers at the heart of cultural programming. We congratulate and thank them all and look forward to the solo exhibition by Sharif Persaud at AUTOGRAPH opening on 28 February 2020 that will be a radical tribute to other ways of being in and seeing the world.
Some 2019 highlights include: the first solo exhibition of work by Siddarth Gadiyar (pictured) – a remarkable achievement. This and In Focus, the unique installation by Anna Farley and Photoworks, could not have happened without the support of families, associated artists and curators and the brilliant Phoenix Gallery, Brighton. Neville Jermyn, artist with the Project Art Works supported studios programme, presented his work for the first time in front of an audience and now wishes to do this again. The new Liverpool project collective was formed as a consequence of Illuminating the Wilderness at Tate Liverpool in April; and Ellen Prebble’s landscape painting, Glen Affric, was chosen for the OutsideIn. Mikhail Karikis opened his powerful installation, I Hear You, at the De La Warr Pavilion by including Magda Pata, Doreen Sexton, Sarah Dunn and Dan Marshall to talk about the importance of love and active listening to support those who do not use language to communicate. Ntiense Eno-Amooquaye’s, IntoArt, quietly powerful poetry, art and performance, Andrew Omoding’s, ActionSpace, procession with the audience and the enthusiasm for change that charged the last conversations of the recent EXPLORERS conference at MK Gallery.
A clear message to Resist. Act. Hope. Love as we head into 2020 and all that may transpire.
I would like to thank the Project Art Works team for their commitment and hard work including Tim Corrigan, Creative Director; Wendy Routley, Head of Finance and Operations; Helen Charlton, Head of Development; Patricia Finnegan, Lead Artist and Creative Programme Manager; Georgiana Scott, Photographer and Artist Facilitator; Jessica Courtney Bennet, Communications and Project Manager; Annis Joslin, Lead Artist, Tuesday studios; Rachel Hine, Lead artist, Parachute Club; Sara Dare, Lead Artist and Programme Administrator; Artist, Neville Jermyn; Artist, Siddarth Gadyar; Artists, Andrew and Eden Kötting; Sally Bourner, Gallery and Project Coordinator; Katie Taylor, Creative Programme Manager; Jane Caley, Community Networks Coordinator; Leila McMillan, Archivist; Tom Lepora, Artist Facilitator; Artist, Lucy Walker; Artist, Phoebe Green; Paul Colley, Dan Marshall and Jonathan Kelly for their photobooth at our recent conference and an exceptional thanks to Martin Swan the EXPLORERS programme Co-ordinator who has contributed so much to the vision and realisation of the project in all its many facets.
A special thanks to our board members for their encouragement and support.
We thank and acknowledge the Big Lottery Fund, Paul Hamlyn Foundation and Arts Council England for their generous support for our programmes as well as many other funders who commit their resources to further social justice including: Arts Work Bridge, East Sussex County Council Short Breaks, East Sussex County Council Hastings Enrichment Funding, BBC Children in Need, 29th May 1961 Charitable Trust, Magdalen and Lasher Charity, Chalk Hill Trust, Three Guineas Trust, Drapers Charitable Fund, Daytrippers Foundation, Kleinwort Benson Charitable Trust, The Baily Thomas Foundation and Sussex Community Foundation.