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With a practice that conducts ‘non-expert’ skilling-up to streamline execution, Nicola Ellis is able to engage with the problems and solutions of sculpture in relation to material choice and the subversion of industrial processes. Richard Taylor finds out more.

For the latest in our ongoing series looking at the visual arts across the UK, Cardiff-based artist Freya Dooley provides a tour of her home city’s lively and supportive scene.

Artists, curators and arts organisations are getting involved with a one-day Women’s Strike on 8 March to coincide with International Women’s Day. Lydia Ashman speaks to the women behind the planned strike and explores the need to make unseen female labour more visible in the art world and beyond.

This year’s Engage International Conference took place in Hull and was titled ‘The Whole Picture: Rethinking Diversity’. Hull-based artist Paul Collinson reports from the two-day event.

Arts Council England’s National Portfolio for 2018-22 includes an overall increase in the number of visual arts organisations receiving funding from 121 to 149. We highlight six organisations who will be joining the portfolio and find out what their new status will mean to them.

As conflict and war continues across the world, artists are exploring ways to cut through the mainstream news narrative in order to highlight the ongoing refugee crisis. Lydia Ashman looks at current projects, artworks, and exhibitions that are tackling this urgent humanitarian and political issue.

The key themes on the agenda at this year’s No Boundaries conference, supported by Arts Council England and the British Council, emerged as community, inclusivity and socially responsible citizenship. Sophia Crilly reports.

London-based artist Zoe Childerley has been walking the English-Scottish border as part of a residency with Visual Arts in Rural Communities in Northumberland. Pippa Koszerek talks to her in the lead up to an end of residency exhibition

A recent symposium held in Glasgow and organised jointly by Glasgow School of Art and Q-Art saw fine art staff, students and industry professionals examine the role of art schools and how they prepare students for life after university. Laura Campbell reports on the issues raised and the possible solutions.

As cuts continue to bite, arts organisations are plugging the funding gap by replacing paid staff – such as gallery invigilators – with unpaid volunteers. We look at three galleries in Liverpool and Bristol that have done just that, and assess what this growing trend could mean for both individual artists and the UK’s arts ecology.

Hotel Elephant’s recent move from the Heygate Estate to Newington Causeway in South London sees the launch of its first shop and café, along with studios, a gallery and projection room within 15,000 square feet of warehouse space.

As the debate continues around Margaret Thatcher’s legacy ahead of her all-but state funeral, one thing is sure – the influence of her actions and ideas continues to be felt across the UK. Formed in the midst of her first term, a-n is no exception. Here, Director Susan Jones remembers the dawn of Thatcherism and trawls the a-n archive for pertinent references to the Iron Lady and her policies.