EXPLORERS 2019 goes on tour to leading art galleries in the UK and Australia with a programme of film, exhibition and workshops that challenge and enhance representation in curatorial programming.
EXPLORERS is a series of inclusive cultural actions and partnerships nationally and internationally over three years culminating in a year-long programme of exhibitions, installations and new cultural commissioning models that place neurodiverse communities, artists and makers at the heart of civic and cultural life.
The 2019 EXPLORERS programme launches with Illuminating the Wilderness a new film and installation by Kate Adams and Tim Corrigan. This work made in collaboration with artists Ben Rivers, Margaret Salmon and Project Art Works’ artists and makers, reveals time spent together investigating a remote Scottish glen in collaboration with a group of people who are highly sensitive to the sensory stimuli of the world around them. The expedition unfolds in and around the landscape and weather systems of the mountains revealing the subtle fluidity of roles and interactions between this unique and itinerant community and the environment.
Neurodiverse perceptions of ‘wilderness’ provide a metaphor for discourse on cultural inclusion that is central to the wider EXPLORERS programme of attitudinal change through art.
EXPLORERS CO-COMMISSIONS
Six co-commissions with partners and collaborators have been developed through two years of collaborative working, awareness raising and ‘encounter’ events, sharing knowledge and encouraging new ways of commissioning artists and content that reflects and presents neurodiverse perceptions of the world in mainstream curatorial programmes. Art that references the experience of people who have complex needs is rarely exhibited or featured in the main curatorial programmes of galleries. There may be many human, social and cultural reasons for this. EXPLORERS 2019 is a year-long celebration of diverse ways of experiencing and being in the world that will leave a legacy of newly engaged audiences artists and attitudinal and cultural change.
EXPLORERS 2019 will unfold in stark contrast to the devastating impact of cuts on the lives of thousands of disabled children, young people and adults and their families and carers in the UK. Project Art Works are supporting the cultural sector to understand and connect with members of their audiences and communities who experience social and cultural marginalisation and conversely the social care sector to experience the range and depth of cultural programming that is on offer and that might enhance their lives.
Quote from Kate Adams
“Through EXPLORERS we have worked to increase the visibility and representation of people with disability in culture. Why is this important? Because art is enriched by diverse voices and artists, organisations and institutions have a critical role to play in social cohesion. The people and organisations involved in the work have been extraordinary and have fully embraced the relationships that have emerged through collaborative working. Relationships that will endure long after the EXPLORERS programme – nurturing and promoting art that truly reflects different ways of living in and experiencing the world.”
EXPLORERS 2019 programme:
Mk Gallery, Milton Keynes: 16 March – 26 May
Illuminating the Wilderness,a major new Project Art Works film work, will be premiered in The Lie Of The Land – opening exhibition of the new gallery
Tate Liverpool: 4 – 28 April
Illuminating the Wilderness installation and exhibition as workshopin Tate Liverpool’s top floor gallery
Photoworks, Brighton: April – September
Inclusive Photography Clubs
Fabrica, Brighton: July-August
Co-commission exhibition
De La Warr Pavilion, Bexhill-on-sea: 28 September 2019 – 19 January 2020
Mikhail Karikis Co-commission exhibition
Sydney, Australia: October
Illuminating the Wilderness opens at UNSW / Museum of Contemporary Art, Sydney with an exhibition and workshops
Photoworks, Brighton: 19 October – 3 November
Programme Showcase at Phoenix Brighton
MK Gallery, Milton Keynes: 20 & 21 November
Explorers 2019 Conference
Autograph, London: December
Autograph solo exhibition with a person with complex needs
For information about EXPLORERS please contact Martin Swan at [email protected].
Visit explorersproject.org.
