News feature - Page 5 of 20 - a-n The Artists Information Company

The former director of Southend-on-Sea’s Focal Point Gallery takes up his new role in Eastbourne at a difficult time for the gallery, as local council cuts mean a 50% reduction in funding over the next four years. Judith Alder finds him relishing the challenges ahead, and with a focus on opportunities for the gallery to play a more central role in the life of the East Sussex town.

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.

Serena Korda has for the last two years been based in Newcastle as the Norma Lipman/Baltic Fellow in Ceramic Sculpture at Newcastle University, culminating in a show at Baltic, Gateshead. Laura Robertson talks to her about this and her current exhibition at The Hepworth Wakefield, exploring how she draws on local myths and rites for her ceramic and sound pieces.

For the latest in our ongoing Scene Report series focusing on the visual arts ecology of towns, cities and regions across the UK, artist and writer Wayne Burrows reports from the East Midlands.

Bournemouth-based artist Stuart Semple is aiming to raise awareness of ‘hostile designs’ after he succeeded in getting his local council to remove retrofitted bars from town-centre benches that prevented homeless people from sleeping on them.

Sarah Bodman finds much to be excited about at the forthcoming two-day Artists’ BookMarket event, which this year sees Fruitmarket Gallery partnering with Stills for a focus on photography.

A year after it launched in the Devonshire Ward of the East Sussex town, the Devonshire Collective is hosting its second Digital Weekender as it continues to work with artists to develop and strengthen the local scene. Eastbourne-based artist Judith Alder reports.

Ahead of the deadline on 12 February for a-n members to apply for the 2018 Artist Bursaries, Richard Taylor takes a look at how six members used their 2017 Travel bursaries for research and artistic activity.

Currently featured on the a-n Instagram, the work of a-n member Dr Catherine Baker involves collaborations with clinical science practitioners and patients, and contributes to different fields of study. Richard Taylor finds out more.

The Herefordshire-based painter Clare Woods has developed a series of eight large-scale oil on aluminium works for her new show at Warwick Arts Centre’s Mead Gallery, reflecting an ongoing move away from abstraction towards more figurative paintings. Anneka French talks to the artist about scale, process and her photographic source material.

After a number of short-term pilot schemes, Mother House has partnered with Create London to launch a new studio space for women with children in the London borough of Barking and Dagenham which, if the three-month pilot is successful, will become a permanent fixture. Lydia Ashman reports.

A year on from its Unite Against Dividers weekend, Keep It Complex’s recent Organise With Others event was designed to build on the initial weekend’s aim to equip and activate the arts community after the UK’s EU Referendum. Julie McCalden reports on a productive and informative day.

For the latest dispatch in our ongoing Scene Report series, artist, curator and founding director of the Coventry Biennial of Contemporary Art, Ryan Hughes, offers a snapshot of visual arts activity in the 2021 UK City of Culture.

In our first artists’ books feature for the new year, Sarah Bodman reflects on limited edition letterpress works of artist-in-residence at Salford-based Hot Bed Press, Elizabeth Willow.

Rose Wylie has found critical and commercial success late in life, winning the 2014 John Moores Painting Prize at 80 and her first major exhibition taking place when she was 77. As her show, ‘Quack Quack’, continues at London’s Serpentine Sackler Gallery, the Kent-based artist talks to Fisun Güner about show titles, inspiration and more.

Beginning with a move from East London to Margate, 2017 has been an eventful time for Open School East that has included becoming an Arts Council England National Portfolio Organisation in the 2018-22 funding round. With the accessibility of art education becoming an evermore vital issue for the visual arts, its co-directors look back on their first year by the sea.

Barby Asante started the year with work featured in ‘Untitled’ at New Art Exchange, Nottingham and is currently part of the ‘Starless Midnight’ show at Baltic, Gateshead. The London-based artist, who was also part of the Diaspora Pavilion in Venice, reflects on a year of career highs and the tragedy of Grenfell.

The Birmingham gallery and artists’ studios was added to Arts Council England’s national portfolio this year, marking a new chapter in its development. Programme director Kim McAleese and associate curator Seán Elder map out the before and after of “a pretty incredible year”.

The London-based artist and winner of the 2017 Film London Jarman Award quotes Shelley, Angela Davis, James Baldwin, Gertrude Stein and more as she reflects on the kind of year it’s been.

The director of Manchester’s Castlefield Gallery looks back on her first year in the role, a period which has seen the organisation renew its Arts Council England NPO status enabling it to push forward with its talent development programme for artists.

London-based artist Larry Achiampong has had a busy year, including commissions for Somerset House, the Jerwood Visual Arts 3-Phase programme and the Diaspora Pavilion during the Venice Biennale. He reflects on a “full on” 2017 that has been tainted by the avoidable tragedy of Grenfell.

The director of the Glasgow-based art organisation, which in 2017 celebrated its 10th year, reflects on the achievement of survival in the current funding climate while bemoaning the car crash of contemporary British politics.

The winner of this year’s Turner Prize has had a busy and high-profile 2017, but while the attention has been welcome she explains that her major achievement over the last 12 months has been finding time to make “a serious amount of new paintings”.

With support from a-n, the London-based artist has launched an online store offering high quality, affordable, limited edition works and publications by artists dedicated to exploring place. Jack Hutchinson talks to her about online sales and research beyond the art world.

This month’s featured blogger on the a-n Instagram is Jack Welsh. Richard Taylor talks to the Liverpool-based artist, writer, producer and educator about juggling multiple projects, writing about other people’s work, and his interest in archival research and book making.