Recruit-Ability: A Positive Action training initiative for disabled people

Recruit-Ability

A Positive Action training initiative for disabled people

The Recruit-Ability programme provides paid work experience and training placements for people who have a disability. Additionally, participants can expect to receive full support, advice and access to training courses.

Please note:

This opportunity is open to disabled applicants only
Recruit-Ability is a positive action programme aimed at providing targeted training to disabled people who are under-represented in our workforce. Equality Act (Section 158) applies.
You must be new to Walsall Council (no previous/current employed status with this council)
You must be new to this type of positive action programme

Trainee Programme Assistant: Exhibitions and Technical Services – Ref: EE02321
18.5 hours per week – fixed term for 12 months.
Pay: Training Allowance of £17,842 pro rata to hours worked (£9.24 per hour).

The New Art Gallery Walsall

The New Art Gallery Walsall presents, collects and interprets Art in innovative and challenging ways, welcoming visitors from all over the globe as well as our immediate locality. We develop a wide range of activities and events to increase the understanding and enjoyment of arts and culture for a range of audiences including schools, colleges, universities, families and community groups.

We are looking for someone who can provide administrative and practical support to the artistic programme of the venue – in particular by supporting the Technical Services, Exhibitions and Collections teams with tasks including supporting exhibitions and artists projects and building operations.

As well as a familiarity with and an interest in Art, exhibition displays and artist projects, you should be able to use computer packages such as Microsoft Office, be able to provide administrative support and to help to organise and assist with exhibitions and events.

If you have any questions about this placement, please call the Recruitment Team on 01922 655673 or email: recruitment@walsall.gov.uk

Please read the below information before applying:

View Job Description and Employee Specification

View Information for Applicants

Closing Date: 8th August 2021

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Trainee Programme Assistant: Marketing and Learning – Ref: EE02021
18.5 hours per week – fixed term for 12 months.
Pay: Training Allowance of £17,842 pro rata to hours worked (£9.24 per hour).

The New Art Gallery Walsall

We are looking for someone to provide support to the Gallery by offering administrative and practical support to the artistic programme – this will involve assisting the Learning and Engagement Team with workshops and events and assisting the Marketing Team in press and marketing activities. You will also have the opportunity to provide occasional support to other departments as required.

As well as a familiarity with and an interest in Art, you should be able to use computer packages such as Microsoft Office, have an understanding of how to post content on social media platforms and be able to provide administrative support.

If you have any questions about this placement, please call the Recruitment Team on 01922 655673 or email: recruitment@walsall.gov.uk

Please read the information below before applying:

View Job Description and Employee Specification

View Information for Applicants

Closing Date: 8th August 2021

Welcoming you back

Updated: 19 July 2021

The New Art Gallery Walsall is open.

The Gallery is open Tuesday to Saturday 10am-5pm and Sundays 12 noon-4pm.

Free admission. No booking necessary.

Closed Mondays and Bank Holidays

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We want to ensure everyone has an enjoyable and safe visit to The New Art Gallery Walsall. For continued reassurance, the Gallery is keeping the following things in place to help us stay COVID safe:

Hand sanitiser stations will still be available for use
Our Font Desk screen will stay in place to protect visitors and staff
Our staff will continue to wear face coverings
We encourage visitors to still register into the building using the NHS COVID Test & Trace app and QR codes
Visitors are still welcome to wear face coverings within the building

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The following exhibitions are currently on display:

Anj Smith: A Willow Grows Aslant the Brook

Floor 3

18 May – 5 September 2021

We reopen with a major solo exhibition by renowned British painter Anj Smith. The exhibition comprises new and recent works, many of which can be seen for the first time in Walsall. Featuring paintings and prints, this is the largest presentation of the artist’s work in a UK public gallery to date and offers a rare opportunity to view a significant body of work together.

The Living Memory Project: The Black Country

Spring – Autumn 2021

The culmination of a four-year project with residents of Dudley, Sandwell, Walsall and Wolverhampton, celebrating, recording and archiving everyday life stories and personal photographic collections.

Garman Ryan Collection

Floors 1 & 2

The prestigious Collection gifted to the borough of Walsall in 1973 by Lady Kathleen Epstein (née Garman), widow of the great 20th Century sculptor Jacob Epstein. The Collection includes works by renowned artists such as Constable, Degas, Matisse, Monet, Picasso and Van Gogh, as well as friends and family members such as Epstein, Lucian Freud, Theo Garman and Matthew Smith, alongside artworks and artefacts from many cultures around the world.

Summer workshops

Looking to keep your little ones occupied over the Summer holidays? We have organised a range of workshops for all the family, inspired by our Collections and current exhibitions. Find out more.

Your safety is our priority

We’re committed to making your visit safe. We are following health and safety advice with additional measures and standards in place. Please note the following before you plan your visit:

There is no need to book. On entry we kindly request visitors provide their details in accordance with NHS Test and Trace.
Hand sanitiser will be available on entry and at stations positioned across the building.
Please observe Government guidelines on face coverings, and adhere to social distancing throughout the Gallery.
As usual, our informed and friendly team will be on hand to ensure you have a great visit. They will also regularly sanitise frequently touched areas such as door handles and lift buttons.
An accessible toilet will be available and cleaned frequently.

We look forward to welcoming you back when you are ready.

Call for artist educators

The New Art Gallery Walsall would like to recruit two creative practitioners to join our existing group of talented artist educators who facilitate workshops for our family audiences, schools and the wider community.

We are looking to diversify our group’s demographic, to better represent our audiences and the communities living in Walsall; making our workshops even more relevant, rich and vibrant. We would like to hear from artists under-represented in our current group; artists of different heritages, communities and ages (particularly ages 18-30) or who identify as having a disability, long term condition, LGBTQIA+ or belonging to any other protected characteristic group and are passionate about having their voice heard.

If you are a freelance creative practitioner with experience working with groups of children and/or adults, we would love to hear from you! For more information and to apply, email Alex Jolly, Learning and Engagement Coordinator: alex.jolly@walsall.gov.uk

On application, please tell us why you would like to be considered for this opportunity, and attach your CV.

Deadline for applications: Monday 31 May 2021.

The New Art Gallery Walsall acquires works by West Midlands’ artists for Twenty Twenty Collection

Following an open call, which received 220 submissions, The New Art Gallery Walsall has acquired 33 works by 31 West Midlands-based artists, to create the new Twenty Twenty Collection. This closed, capsule collection represents the significant events of the past 12 months, and commemorates this important historical moment which has impacted on everyone’s lives.

The works, spanning a variety of media from collage and photography to drawings and paintings, respond to world events over the last tumultuous year; from the pandemic and lockdown, to the Black Lives Matter movement and Brexit.

The chosen artists’ work will be profiled on the Gallery’s website and social media channels during this year, and be exhibited at the Gallery in a dedicated exhibition in our Community Gallery in early 2022. This will coincide with a solo exhibition by Keith Piper (whose work Surveillance: Tagging the Other, was also acquired with funding from Contemporary Art Society, in response to the events of last year) and the British Art Show taking place in Wolverhampton, bringing significant attention to the region, and further increasing the profile of West Midlands artists.

In addition, over the last year the Gallery has supported 5 artists through remote residencies. A work produced from each of the 2020 ‘Stay At Home’ residencies is being acquired, including a sufra (or prayer mat) made by Birmingham-based artist Farwa Moledina. We are currently working with national charity Outside In, which supports artists who face significant barriers in participating in the arts, through disability or social circumstance, on providing two residencies to artists they support. The Gallery remains committed to continuing to support West Midlands’ artists, creatives and freelancers during this difficult period.

Director, Stephen Snoddy said, “It is important for The New Art Gallery Walsall to acquire this collection to leave a legacy for future generations to document the events of the past year and also at the same time support artists in the West Midlands during this very difficult time.”

Sherrie Edgar, Isolation Series 11, 18 April 2020, photograph (image courtesy the artist)

“Isolation Series is a reflection of people’s thoughts and experiences during the first lockdown. My approach was to reconnect with others, capturing the essence of how we coped during a difficult time. To be selected as part of this call out means this work can help others to identify and understand what we went through.” – Sherrie Edgar.

Adele Mary Reed, Instant Dreamscapes in Isolation, Easter Day, 12 April 2020, instant photograph (series of 32, image courtesy the artist)

“It means a great deal to me that NAGW have acquired my body of work around cycling, solitariness and spatial exploration locally. There was a very particular feeling in the air at the start of the pandemic which felt very meaningful to capture somehow, and for the work to now be part of the permanent Twenty Twenty Collection is a perfect conclusion. As a mother of a young child during lockdown, partaking in daily exercise and finding space in the city was absolutely crucial to my mental wellbeing and creative thought and I hope this resonates with people who view the work.” – Adele Mary Reed.

Rachel Magdeburg, Expired, 2020, Acrylic on Ipad insert card (image courtesy the artist)

“It is hard to express how delighted I am that my painting will be part of this new collection. I have long since admired the exhibition programme at the NAGW and its rich collections, and the space and building are truly inspirational.

My painting Expired was initially triggered by the wrangles of the Brexit debate, but also became more and more about travel and the complexities of this during the pandemic.” – Rachel Magdeburg.

Vincent Louis Stokes, A Family under Lockdown, 2021, pencil on paper (image courtesy the artist)

“As a visual artist and resident of Walsall, to have my work belong to such a prestigious and renowned institution is truly a great honour. These past twelve months have been incredibly arduous and wearing, though through art I believe we all have the opportunity to escape, if only for a moment, and discover a world of comfort, solace and intrigue.” – Vincent Louis Stokes.

The Twenty Twenty Collection Artists

Adele Mary Reed

Alex Billingham

Andrew Roberts

Bailey Nock

Charlotte Moore

Corinne

Cristina Celestini

Crow Dillon-Parkin

Edgington

Helen Grundy

Jessica Ladkin

Joanne Masding

Laura Onions

Lindsay Pritchard

Lucy Fiona Morrison

Mark Murphy

Matt Greenhill

Michele Harris

Neil McNaught

Paul Newman

Rachel Magdeburg

Rupi Dhillon

Ruth Spencer

Ryan Christopher

Sally Butcher

Sally Claire Payen

Sherrie Edgar

Sinéad Patching

Sophia Moffa

Vincent Louis Stokes

Yasmin Agilah-Hood

This year marks The New Art Gallery Walsall’s 21st birthday

Although we cannot welcome you to the Gallery at the moment, we look forward to celebrating with you when we are able.

The New Art Gallery Walsall receives overwhelming response to its Call Out to West Midlands artists

The New Art Gallery Walsall has had an overwhelming response to its Call Out to West Midlands artists for proposals for acquisition in reaction to events since 23 March 2020.

Please bear with us while we look through the proposals. We will respond as soon as we can and thank you to every artist for submitting.

The New Art Gallery Walsall and Outside In artist residency collaboration

Outside In supports artists who face significant barriers to the art world due to heath, disability, isolation or social circumstances. The New Art Gallery has partnered with them to offer two online residency opportunities.

We are delighted to announce that following open submission, the two artists selected for remote residences are Tess Radcliffe and Corinne. Both will be supported to create new work from home, sharing their practices with online audiences.

Tess Radcliffe

15 February – 28 March 2021

Tess Radcliffe is interested in the overlooked aspects of the everyday and the sense of surprise, surrealism, comedy, beauty, pathos, absurdity and tragedy found all around us. She creates digital films and animations with electronic music where layers of editing, distortion and repetition accentuate a mesmerising, otherworldly quality. She is particularly drawn to areas where the urban and the rural or natural world intersect.

Tess proposes to use the residency to research and identify works from The New Art Gallery’s Garman Ryan Collection which will inspire a new body of work incorporating photographic images, films and sounds recorded on daily walks. The outcome will be a body of work created specifically to share on social media, forming a visual diary of the residency.

Corinne

29 March – 9 May 2021

Corinne’s distinctly dark and evocative self-portraits reflect her ongoing struggles with mental health. As she rarely leaves home, her work is created from the safety of her bedroom. Her life and art have become inextricably entwined. Through her use of art as therapy, she is able to find a cathartic release.

Corinne proposes to use the residency to share her art and her experiences of mental illness with an online audience. She plans to engage with audiences in a dialogue around mental health in the context of Covid-19 and draw on contributions to create an installation in her bedroom, using her bedsheets, pillow and nightdress.

Each artist will receive a fee, ongoing support from both organisations and a virtual studio visit from an external artist or curator.

We would like to thank all of the applicants for their thoughtful and considered applications.

Tess Radcliffe, Startled Crows, video still (2020)

Corinne, Dear Voices, video still (2020)

Call out to West Midlands’ Artists for the acquisition of works for The New Art Gallery Walsall’s Permanent Collection made in response to events since 23 March 2020

The New Art Gallery Walsall wishes to support artists currently based in the West Midlands through acquisitions of works made in response to world events over the last year (in particular, the impact of COVID-19 and Black Lives Matter). Artists are invited to submit proposals for existing paintings, drawings, photographs or prints to be acquired for the Permanent Collection of The New Art Gallery Walsall. As well as acquiring works, we will profile the selected artists on our website and social media platforms and eventually through display.

Criteria.

Artists must be currently living and working in the West Midlands region
Submissions must have been made since 23 March 2020
Submissions must have been made in response to events over the past year
Works must be of a modest domestic scale, preferably under approximately 50 x 50 cm
Each proposed work must be priced (up to a maximum of £500)

Your application should include the following information:

Your name

Postal address

Email address

Telephone number

Website (if applicable)

Social media handles (if applicable)

A brief biography of no more than 250 words

A statement of no more than 250 words about the work/s

Title, medium, size, date and price of each proposed work

A Jpeg of the work, at least 1MB and no larger than 5MB

No more than 3 works can be proposed for acquisition. (No more than one image for each work).

The Gallery’s Collections Policy can be found here; https://thenewartgallerywalsall.org.uk/collections-library/

Please send your application to nagwsubmissions@gmail.com by 5pm on Friday 12 February 2021.

Photo credit: Installation view, 20:20, Twenty Years of Collecting Contemporary Art. Photo: Mark Hinton.

The New Art Gallery Walsall to remain temporarily closed until further notice

Following updates from the Government this week, The New Art Gallery Walsall will remain temporarily closed to the public until further notice.

More so than ever, it is important to be able to access arts and culture. We will continue to share content about our collections and exhibitions online. Please visit our social media channels or subscribe to our newsletter for the latest workshops, virtual tours, artist’s films, throwbacks and updates.

Thank you for your continued support. We look forward to welcoming you back. Until then, stay safe, take care of yourselves and your loved ones.

Open-call: Residency opportunities with The New Art Gallery Walsall and Outside In, February-May 2021

Outside In is delighted to collaborate with The New Art Gallery Walsall for the first time to invite applications for two remote residencies intended to support participating artists in the West Midlands to develop their practice and explore the benefits and possibilities of engaging with an online audience.

ABOUT THE PARTNERS

The New Art Gallery Walsall is an award-winning gallery in the heart of the West Midlands that presents, collects and interprets historic, modern and contemporary art through a dynamic exhibitions, learning and events programme. The Gallery houses a purpose-built Artists’ Studio, which provides a base for its long-standing and respected residency programme. This programme exists primarily to support emerging and mid-career artists based in the region to test ideas and develop new work within a public-facing studio context. Curatorial guidance and critical conversation, often with external studio visitors, is a vital part of this work.

In the wake of the Coronavirus pandemic the Gallery adapted its studio programme to support artists remotely, encouraging them, in particular, to find creative approaches to sharing work, and connecting, with an online audience. The programme currently offers a mix of onsite and remote/virtual residency opportunities intended to support a broad cross section of practices and artists, some of whom may face additional barriers to accessing the building and working in the mainstream.

Outside In is an established national charity, founded in 2006. It aims to provide a platform for artists who face significant barriers to the art world due to health, disability, social circumstance or isolation. Outside In’s work covers three main areas: artist development, exhibitions and training. These activities, supported by fundraising and communications, all aim to create a fairer art world by supporting artists, creating opportunities and influencing arts organisations.

ABOUT THE RESIDENCY OPPORTUNITY

This opportunity will support two artists to develop work from home over a 6- week period with support and guidance from both participating organisations and a virtual studio visit from an artist or curator.

We are asking artists to complete an application form with a proposal outlining how they would like to use the residency.

The successful artists will receive:

£1500 fee (inclusive of materials)
in kind support (virtual studio visits, curatorial guidance, advocacy and a presence across TNAGW online platforms )
access to remote technical advice, as appropriate

Residencies will take place remotely and we anticipate that artists will produce work from home or their usual place of work. Reasonable access costs will be considered.

Who can apply?

This opportunity is open to visual artists, working in any medium, who are based in the UK and meet the Outside In criteria. Outside In supports artists who face a significant barrier to the art world due to health, disability, isolation or social circumstances.

The selection panel particularly welcome applications from Black and African/Caribbean artists and artists who self-identify as disabled whose practices and experiences are currently underrepresented in mainstream galleries.

Additionally, you must be:

not in full-time education (part-time students may apply)
actively engaged in developing your practice with a demonstrable existing body of work
willing to generate work that can be shared online/made accessible to a virtual audience from your home ‘studio’
able to commit time to the project each week over a 6-week period
willing and flexible to accommodate a virtual artist/curator studio visit
committed to sharing and enabling archiving of residency outcomes and experiences via TNAGW website and other platforms, as directed.

Residency dates:

The residencies will take place between February and May 2021.

Residency 1: 15 February – 28 March 2021
Virtual artist/curator studio visit: w/c 8 March 2021 TBC

Residency 2: 29 March – 9 May 2021
Virtual artist/curator studio visit: w/c 19 April 2021 TBC

Key dates:
Submissions open: 30 November 2020
Applications close: 10 January 2021, 10am
Shortlisting and selection: w/c 11 January 2021
Announcement (for both residencies): 8 February 2021

HOW TO APPLY

To apply for this opportunity, please fill out the application form, which is available to download here:

Application form for TNAGW+Outside In collaboration

Artists can submit in different formats, including audio, film or text. Please get in touch for details by emailing: jose.forrest@outsidein.org.uk or call 07496 997 333.

Do you need some support applying?

Artist support sessions can be booked by artists who would like help with applying for this opportunity. Support sessions will take place over the telephone or via Zoom on the following dates:

Tuesday 8 December 2020

Tuesday 15 December 2020

Wednesday 16 December 2020

To find out more or to book onto a session, please contact José Forrest, Regional Artist Development Coordinator, Outside In, Midlands Hub: jose.forrest@outsidein.org.uk or call: 07496 997 333.