Project Art Works. The Turner Prize 2021 Exhibition at The Herbert Art Museum and Gallery, Coventry. Photograph by David Levene 24/9/21. Project Art Works collaborates with people who have complex support needs. Their work is at the intersection of art and care, and takes multiple forms. Their studios provide the conditions for a broad range of independent and collaborative practices with neurodivergent artists, who take part on their own terms to produce paintings, drawings, sculptural objects and film. Alongside the studios, the Support Collective brings together those who care for people with complex support needs to share experience and protect rights through training, resources and advocacy. Project Art Works organise events and projects that work towards greater visibility and understanding of neurodiversity in culture.
At the heart of their presentation for Turner Prize 2021 is a constructed space that holds a physical and digital archive of over 4,000 works produced by neurodivergent artists and makers over two decades. The archive embodies a visible trace of people who are otherwise hidden in the world. A newly edited film of the whole archive sits within the central structure and a small number of works have been selected for exhibition in collaboration with the Herbert’s curatorial team.
There is a studio set up for making work at the far end of the gallery. This is a place for conversation as well as collaborative and independent practice by artists who benefit from supported environments, so that they can represent themselves within the exhibition.
Ideas of interdependence and structures of support provide the context for a range of workshops, creative events and dialogues facilitated by the Project Art Works’ artistic team over the course of the exhibition.
Project Art Works’ ways of working are established and explored through collaborative processes with individuals, families and communities. As an integral part of the exhibition, they will be sharing their practice across 25 days of the exhibition period, through artist residencies, community collaboration and public conversations about art and care.