Community-curated exhibitions shine a light on well-being and local experiences of Covid-19 as part of Arts Council Collection's National Partners Programme

24 June 2021

As our National Partners Programme (2019-22) enters its final year, the partner galleries, Firstsite, Sunderland Culture and Newlyn Art Gallery & The Exchange, will present a series of exhibitions and collaborations which, co-curated by NHS key workers, local communities and social prescribing groups, look back at the past year to explore the effects of the Covid-19 pandemic. Displaying works from the Collection alongside new commissions and community-sourced creations, these exhibitions will explore themes from isolation and illness to family and self-care. 

Embracing the positive effects of art, Newlyn Art Gallery & The Exchange in Cornwall will explore the potential of the Arts Council Collection to offer health and well-being benefits to local people in a new Social Prescribing Programme. Drawing on recent findings that participatory art has the potential to reduce drop-in GP consultations and hospital admission rates by 37% and 27% respectively*, an exhibition opening at Newlyn Art Gallery this autumn will see a core group of 10 participants, referred to the project by link workers in local GP practices, collaborate with artists and select from over 8000 works in the Arts Council Collection.

James Green, Director, Newlyn Art Gallery & The Exchange, says: “It’s well understood that participation in cultural activities can make people happier and more content. Here at Newlyn Art Gallery & The Exchange, we are now building evidence that shows these tangible health benefits. Our involvement in the Arts Council Collection’s National Partners Programme has given us the resource and support to explore these benefits, hopefully paving a way for galleries and public collections to take a little pressure off the NHS as it continues to battle the consequences of the pandemic.

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The Arts Council Collection : Community-curated exhibitions shine a light on well-being and local experiences of Covid-19 as part of Arts Council Collection's National Partners Programme
The Arts Council Collection : Community-curated exhibitions shine a light on well-being and local experiences of Covid-19 as part of Arts Council Collection's National Partners Programme

Sunderland Culture have taken a similar approach. Developed in collaboration with a range of community groups, Where We Are Now explores the experiences of the last year through artwork, community response and photographs taken by Sunderland residents. The exhibition will include works from the Arts Council Collection by artists such as David Hockney, Elizabeth Frink, Marc Quinn, Grace Schwindt and Hardeep Pandhal. Selected and interpreted by local participants, the loans will be exhibited alongside community-sourced photographs from Sunderland Museum & Winter Gardens’ ‘Collecting Covid-19’ project and artworks produced during, and in response to, the pandemic. Together, these works will invite visitors to consider themes including isolation, community, family, nature, systems of care, self-care, illness and loss.

Featuring specially-selected loans from the Arts Council Collection, Art for Life at Firstsite is the result of a number of workshops between artists and people in frontline roles in the healthcare sector. Co-curated by NHS key workers from across Essex, the exhibition examines personal experiences of the pandemic and the subsequent effects on their lives, providing a creative record of this significant moment in our collective history. Arts Council Collection works, by artists including Barbara Walker, Alejandra Carles-Torla and Hamish Fulton, are displayed alongside new artistic commissions from contemporary artists such as Alec Finlay, EVEWRIGHT and Roland Carline. Together, they reflect life under lockdown and the experiences which connected us all – from the importance of family and missing human touch, to the significance of nature and longing for a haircut.

Also at the forefront of upcoming programming will be a series of exhibitions curated by young people. These exhibitions, displayed consecutively between June 2021 and March 2022, are the result of an ambitious project aimed at bringing together 11-25 year olds from across the country, connecting them with each other and the Arts Council Collection. From capturing young people’s experiences during the three UK lockdowns to asking important questions around representation and diversity within the arts, this initiative seeks to give a new generation the chance to interpret works from the Arts Council Collection in fresh ways that offer new perspectives.

Launching the series will be Firstsite’s House Share, an exhibition produced by young curators from the gallery's Young Art Kommunity (YAK). Alongside loans from the Arts Council Collection by artists including Jenny Holzer, Andy Holden, Hayley Tompkins and David Batchelor, a highlight of the exhibition is a digital sampler that will play sounds taken from the homes of young people working across each partner organisation. Documenting daily comings and goings, the hubbub of family conversation and moments of quiet, this collaborative artwork captures the group’s experiences during the three UK lockdowns and their changing relationship to home during this time. 

The Arts Council Collection : Community-curated exhibitions shine a light on well-being and local experiences of Covid-19 as part of Arts Council Collection's National Partners Programme
The Arts Council Collection : Community-curated exhibitions shine a light on well-being and local experiences of Covid-19 as part of Arts Council Collection's National Partners Programme

In the autumn, The Exchange will present SEEN, an exhibition co-curated by The SEEN Collective made up of young LGBTQIA+ people from Cornwall aged 11-19. The SEEN collective was formed over lockdown in partnership with LGBT+ charity The Intercom Trust. Through workshops about contemporary art, these young people and older LGBTQIA+ youth workers have selected works from the Arts Council Collection, exploring the importance of representation within arts and culture and the many sides of what it means to be seen. Loans from the Collection include works by Francis Bacon, Evan Ifekoya, Wolfgang Tillmans, Flo Brooks, P. Staff and Maggi Hambling.

Celebrate Different, which opens at Sunderland Museum and Winter Gardens in January 2022 will round off the series. Curated by Sunderland Cultures’ young ambassadors, Celebrate Different focuses on ideas around representation and diversity. Prompted by inequalities heightened and highlighted by the Covid-19 pandemic, the participants, aged 13-25, ask the questions – who isn’t represented in Sunderland Museum’s stories? Can art change the world for the better? Who has the power to decide what art is?

Deborah Smith, Director, Arts Council Collections, says: “Working collaboratively has been key in the success of our national partners programme. All three partners have worked with individuals, organisations and community groups in their local area, and have welcomed new voices to curate and produce exhibitions and projects that ensure galleries and museums reflect the richness of our communities. During our 75th anniversary year, Arts Council Collection is delighted to continue working with our partners to share the Nation’s arts collection.

Throughout the pandemic the partners continued to develop and deliver and exciting and innovative range of exhibitions and online projects, ranging from Firstsite’s My Name is not Refugee, an exhibition of artworks chosen by a group of refugees and asylum seekers living in Colchester, to Go On Being So at Newlyn Art Gallery, a schools curated collection exhibition. Exploring the potential of digital technology to diversify engagement with art, Sunderland Culture developed a brand-new app Art Crush which lets audiences discover works from the Arts Council Collection through a Tinder-inspired activity of swiping left and right. Collaboration has been at the heart of each of these initiatives, helping to fulfil Arts Council England’s ambition to create deeper relationships with audiences across the country.

 

The Arts Council Collection : Community-curated exhibitions shine a light on well-being and local experiences of Covid-19 as part of Arts Council Collection's National Partners Programme

Arts Council Collection National Partners Programme - Key Dates 2021/22

  • Art for Life (Firstsite, Colchester) 17 May – 5 September 2021

  • House Share (Firstsite, Colchester) 26 June – 5 September 2021

  • Field for the British Isles (Northern Gallery for Contemporary Art, Sunderland), 24 July – 25 September 2021

  • Where We Are Now (Sunderland Museum & Winter Gardens) 21 August – 14 November 2021

  • Social Prescribing Programme Exhibition (Newlyn Art Gallery) 23 October 2021 - 8 January 2022

  • SEEN (The Exchange, Penzance) 23 October 2021  – 8 January 2022 

  • Celebrate Different (Sunderland Museum & Winter Gardens) 10 January – 13 March 2022

  • Holiday Fun exhibition (Firstsite, Colchester) January 2022 (final dates and title to be announced later this year)

 


*The recent All-Party Parliamentary Group for Arts, Health & Wellbeing: Arts on Prescription Gloucestershire showed that programmes across four cultural organisations in the county resulted in a 37% drop-in GP consultation rates and a 27% reduction in hospital admissions. A social return on investment of between £4 and £11 has been calculated for every £1 invested in arts on prescription.

Artwork credits: 

 

Patrick Hughes, Leaning on a Landscape, 1978. Arts Council Collection, Southbank Centre, London © the artist. 

Abigail Reynolds, Universal Now: St Michaels Mount 1928 |1949, 2020. Arts Council Collection, Southbank Centre, London © the artist. Image courtesy of the artist

 

<p>Andy Holden, <em>Totem for Thingly Time (5)</em>, 2014. Arts Council Collection, Southbank Centre, London © the artist. </p><p>Jean-Luc Vilmouth, <em>Five Heads</em>, 1981. Arts Council Collection, Southbank Centre, London © the artist. </p><p>Antony Gormley,<em> Field for the British Isles</em>, 1993. Arts Council Collection, Southbank Centre, London © the artist. Acquired in 1995 with the assistance of the Art Fund and The Henry Moore Foundation</p>

Related Exhibitions

Art for Life

This exhibition at Firstsite is the result of a number of workshops with artists and key workers in the health and care sectors, examining their experiences of the pandemic and the subsequent effects on their lives.
Palace of Culture

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

This online exhibition by Sunderland Culture explores the timeless relationship between art and music, and the direct links forged between musicians and artists.
House Share

Curated by Firstsite’s Young Art Kommunity (YAK) group, House Share responds to the group’s experiences during the three UK lockdown
Antony Gormley: Field For the British Isles

The largest single artwork in the Arts Council Collection will be on display at the Northern Gallery for Contemporary Art, the first time Gormley has exhibited in Sunderland.
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