Go On Being So

14 February 2020 - 12 September 2020

An Arts Council Collection National Partners Programme Exhibition.

Go On Being So is curated by the MBA Collective, a group of art, photography and graphics students from Mounts Bay Academy aged between 12 and 16 years. 

An incidental conversation between the 14 students around what it means to be a global citizen was the starting point for their exploration of the Arts Council Collection, bringing together an intriguing selection of works that say something about the world today and their place in it. 

Artists include Larry Achiampong & David Blandy, Claudette Johnson, Young In Hong, and Ross Sinclair.

MBA Collective looked for works which resonated with them, while also considering pieces that illustrated issues other young people in different parts of the world may be facing.

We chose works that said something about big issues for us personally, and are universal to people of our age, such as mental health and equality,” explained the Collective.

The title Go On Being So refers to their quest for strength and resilience; “things might not be too good but there’s still life, you’re still living, there’s still beauty in it”, as demonstrated in works such as Karl Ohiri’s How to Mend A Broken Heart, and Rod Dickinson’s Egg Bag. The title also acts as a provocation, reflected in works such as Gavin Jantjes’ Freedom Hunters and Donald Rodney’s Self Portrait: 'Black Men Public Enemy'; “it then becomes a challenge: Go On Being So – Can we? Should we?” - MBA Collective, Nov 2019

 

Newlyn Art Gallery's Exhibition Page.

Venue: Newlyn Art Gallery

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Watch: MBA Collective Discuss Why They Chose The Works In Go On Being So

Listen to Art Pod

In the first of an occassional series of recorded interviews with artists, curators and other creatives for the Newlyn Art Gallery & The Exchange podcast Art Pod,, we listen to a spoken letter from artist Gavin Jantjes to the curators of Go On Being So, which includes his work Freedom Hunters.

 

In the podcast Jantjes says “..the students were about your age, they protested and marched and shut their schools down and the state’s reply was to shoot them …if the poem appears rather angry, you can understand why.”

In this episode of the Newlyn Art Gallery & The Exchange podcast Art Pod, artists Young In Hong and Michelle Williams Gamaker are in conversation about their artistic practices and respective works in Newlyn Art Gallery’s 2020 exhibition Go On Being So. The work was selected from the Arts Council Collection by The MBA Collective, a group of art, photography and graphics students from Mounts Bay Academy.

 

In addition, two members of the MBA Collective, Florence Silby and Josie Miles, conducted Q&A interviews with Young In Hong and Michelle Williams Gamaker respectively. You can read their responses here:

 

Q&A: Florence Silby with Young In Hong 

 

Q&A: Josie Miles & Michelle Williams Gamaker

Featured Works

Blue Pietà

Joanna Price
Burning Love

Young In Hong
Untitled

Joanna Piotrowska
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The Arts Council Collection is the UK's most widely seen collection of modern and contemporary art.

With more than 8,000 works by over 2,000 artists, it can be seen in exhibitions and public displays across the country and beyond. This website offers unprecedented access to the Collection, and information about each work can be found on this site.