An Arts Council Collection National Partners Programme Exhibition

What does 'home' mean to you?

When the first lockdown was announced on 23 March 2020, our homes and how we lived within them changed completely. ‘Home’ began to take on a new meaning as it became more than just a living space but where all elements of life played out, from schooling and studying to working and socialising – and often the only connection to the outside world came through digital media and video calls. 

This changing relationship with our homes as the weeks and months rolled on is explored in the exhibition - House Share - opening on 26 June at Firstsite, Colchester. Curated by Firstsite’s Young Art Kommunity (YAK) group, working in partnership with Firstsite and the Arts Council Collection, as part of the National Partners Programme 2019-22, House Share responds to the group’s experiences during the three UK lockdowns. 

As arguably the generation most negatively affected by the pandemic and lockdown, the YAK members, all aged 16-25 years old, use the exhibition to examine how their home took on a dual role as a creative and safe space, but also encompassed feelings of being confined.

House Share is the first in a series of exhibitions curated by young people across the three National Partner sites. Newlyn Art Gallery & The Exchange will follow with their exhibition, SEEN, in October 2021, and Sunderland Culture will host their exhibition curated by Young Curators, Celebrate Different, in early 2022. The Young People's Collaborative Exhibitions aim to bring young people together from across the country, connecting them with each other and with the Arts Council Collection.

Artists featured in this exhibition: Andrew Grassie, Andy Holden, Anthony Devas, David Batchelor, Hayley Tompkins, Janice Kerbel, Jean-Luc Vilmouth, Jenny Holzer, Matthew Dalziel & Louise Scullion, and Tracy Mackenna.

An Arts Council Collection National Partners Programme Exhibition

Discover a new view of life in Britain, in an exhibition of artworks chosen by a group of refugees and asylum seekers living in Colchester.

Over the past year a group of refugees and asylum seekers have worked together with Firstsite staff and Refugee Action Colchester to create an exhibition of artworks that includes pieces from the Arts Council Collection. Featuring artists Jananne Al-Ani, Peter Doig, Mona Hatoum, David Shrigley and Rachel Whiteread and more, ‘My name is not Refugee’ invites you to explore ideas and stories that are meaningful to those who selected them.

See landscape paintings, video, sculpture, ceramics and photography that inspire a different way of thinking, alongside scents that are familiar in the regions from which the group have travelled. Explore what it means to find new connections in a different place, and ponder questions about our purpose, choices and morality as human beings.

‘My name is not Refugee’ is the fourth exhibition by Firstsite as part of the Arts Council National Partners Programme, which will continue into 2022.

‘My name is not Refugee’ has been curated by Elizabeth Curry, Münevver Gülsen Ülker, Samia, Diego Robirosa and Mr and Mrs Al-Chahin, working together with many more clients of and volunteers from Refugee Action Colchester.

Refugee Action Colchester is a voluntary organisation working with refugees, asylum seekers and people with no access to public funds. Find out more www.refugeeactioncolchester.org.uk

The artists featured in this exhibition are: Jananne Al-Ani, Adrian Berg, Zarina Bhimji, Christine Borland, Mark Boulos, Lisa Cheung, David Connearn, Diana Cumming, Adam Dade, Jimmie Durham, Leila Faithfull, Elsie Few, Buckminster Fuller, Anya Gallaccio, Charles Ginner, Duncan Grant, Lucy Gunning, Graham Gussin, Allan Gwynne-Jones, Sonia Hanney, Mona Hatoum, Emma Kay, John Kippin, Richard Long, Rachel Lowe, Iain MacMillan, Mike Marshall, David Nash, Mariele Neudecker, Winifred Nicholson, Jacques Nimki, Hirsch Perlman, Ingrid Pollard, Kathy Prendergast, Margaret Fisher Prout, David Robbiliard, Claude Rogers, Shimabuku, David Shrigley , Imogen Stidworthy, Rowland Suddaby, Mark Titchner, Gee Vaucher, Hubert Wellington, Rachel Whiteread, Chris Wilson and Richard Woods.

The calligraphy throughout the exhibition is by İsmail Üzümlü.

Yinka Shonibare (now CBE) curates the Arts Council Collection in a new touring exhibition that opens at Attenborough Arts Centre, Leicester, 21 September-16 December 2018, then tours throughout the UK.

Criminal Ornamentation explores the cultural and social dimensions of the use of pattern in art. The exhibition title refers to Adolf Loos' 'Ornament and Crime' (1908) a strongly worded essay in which Loos ridiculed the use of ornament as an indication of poor taste and the lowest level of cultural development. As a counterblast to Loos’ bombastic text, Yinka Shonibare CBE presents an explosion of pattern and colour bringing together works from across the visual arts including an acidic wallpaper by Glasgow-based designers, Timorous Beasties, the sculptural torso of Tattoo, a subversive work by Edward Lipski and the flowing vegetation of Honeysuckle, a design by May Morris.

Unified by pattern, the exhibition is a personal selection by Yinka Shonibare CBE from the Arts Council Collection’s rich and varied holdings supplemented by key loans from the V&A, Crafts Council, William Morris Society and individual artists based across the UK.  Threading through the patterned surfaces are many challenging themes - from politics and colonialism to gender stereotypes and inequality. Criminal Ornamentation is an exploration of pattern as a genuine expression that breaks away from traditional conceptions of art and seeks to celebrate the radical deviancy of pattern.

Artists featured in the show include Timorous Beasties, Boyle Family, Susan Derges, Joe Fletcher Orr, Laura Ford, Edward Lipski, Alexander McQueen, Milena Dragicevic, Lis Rhodes, Bridget Riley, Yinka Shonibare CBE, Caragh Thuring and Bedwyr Williams.

SEE BELOW FOR FULL TOUR DATES

An Arts Council Collection National Partners Programme Exhibition.

Paint the Town in Sound, an online exhibition exploring the timeless relationship between art and music and the direct links forged between musicians and artists.

The exhibition has been curated in collaboration with Mercury Prize nominated Sunderland band Field Music and takes their own collaborations as a starting point to explore wider themes.

Featuring artwork by artists including Helen Cammock, Jeremy Deller, Anthea Hamilton, Evan Ifekoya and Susan Philipsz, Paint the Town in Sound questions how we engage in acts of self-portraiture through music, be this through songwriting, use of visual art or associations to music subcultures. The artworks in the exhibition offer a fascinating insight into the musical heritage of the region providing a route to examine our own cultural identity and its relationship to class, politics and place.

Artists included in the exhibition: Simeon Barclay, Peter Blake, The Bunker, Helen Cammock, Martin Creed, Jeremy Deller, Anthea Hamilton, Iain Hetherington, Graeme Hopper, Evan Ifekoya, Bob Jardine, Steve Johnson, Laura Lancaster, Mark Leckey, Andy Martin, Pauline Murray, Vinca Petersen, Susan Phillipsz, Narbi Price, Splash Addict (Susie Green and Simon Bayliss) and Bob and Roberta Smith.

Sunderland Culture's exhibition webpage.

An Arts Council Collection National Partners Programme Exhibition.

Seen is co-curated by young LGBTQIA+ people from Cornwall aged between 11 – 19 working in partnership with LGBT+ charity The Intercom Trust, and SHARP, Programme Producer.

Through workshops and conversation about contemporary art the young people have explored the importance of representation within art and culture and the many sides of what it means to be seen. The expanding subject of Queer art involves an important history of reclamation, resistance, love and freedom and often explores personal experiences as well as depictions of LGBTQIA+ cultures.

This exhibition increases young LGBTQIA+ people’s engagement with contemporary art, allows them to create a platform that speaks to them, for new voices to be heard and for them to be seen.

Featured artists: Francis Bacon, Flo Brooks, Duncan Grant, Sunil Gupta, Maggi Hambling, David Hockney, Howard Hodgkin, Evan Ifekoya, Michael Craig Martin, David Robilliard, P Staff, and Wolfgang Tillmans

Seen is the second in a series of exhibitions curated by young people across the three Arts Council Collection National Partners 19-22 sites. House Share curated by Young Art Kommunity (YAK) at Firstsite, Colchester is on view from 26 June - 5 September 2021 and Sunderland Culture located in Tyne and Wear will host their exhibition curated by Young Curators, Celebrate Different, in early 2022.

The Exchange's exhibition page.

An Arts Council Collection National Partners Programme Exhibition

In collaboration with V21 Artspace, Newlyn Art Gallery & The Exchange and Arts Council Collection have created a virtual Palace using the latest computer-generated imagery.

Step inside and explore the set created by artists Tony Crosby and Laura Drayson with 10 artworks selected by children at Newlyn School.

Participate in any one of the 11, artist-led workshops designed to stimulate both body and mind, from offset drawing with Naomi Frears or dance with Rosie Taylor-Hingston, to creative writing with Olivia Lowry. Suitable for all ages and abilities.

Newlyn Art Gallery & The Exchange's Exhibition Page.

Be the first to hear about our new exhibitions and content, sign up to the Arts Council Collection newsletter.

An Arts Council Collection Touring Exhibition

A major new touring exhibition challenging the male-dominated narratives of post-war British sculpture by presenting a diverse and significant range of ambitious work by women.

Breaking the Mould is the first survey of post-war British sculpture by women. This exhibition provides a radical recalibration, addressing the many accounts of British sculpture that have marginalised women or airbrushed their work from art history altogether.

The exhibition surveys seventy-five years and explores the work of over forty sculptors. All of the works have been selected from the Arts Council Collection, which holds more than 250 sculptures by over 150 women. The exhibition features a number of sculptures on public display for the first time since they were purchased for the nation.

Breaking the Mould represents the strength and diversity of a wide range of practices. Many of the represented artists have challenged widespread notions of sculpture as a ‘male occupation’ by embracing new materials, subjects and approaches. Others have avoided institutional bias by producing work for alternative spaces or public sites.

Featured artists include Barbara Hepworth, Elisabeth Frink, Kim Lim, Cornelia Parker, Veronica Ryan, Rachel Whiteread and Anthea Hamilton. 

Breaking the Mould is an Arts Council Collection Touring Exhibition initiated in response to Women Working in Sculpture from 1960 to the Present Day: Towards a New Lexicon, a research project led by Catherine George (University of Coventry) and Hilary Gresty (independent).