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.

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)

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.

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.

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.

Here at The New Art Gallery Walsall, we want to be welcoming, relevant and engaging to all of our communities.  We would like to create a small team of Critical Friends to help evaluate our programmes and communications and to explore ways in which we might do things differently. The team should reflect a variety of perspectives and we appreciate you may experience our work in different ways. We want to reflect the diversity of Walsall and we encourage applications from LGBTQ+, women, people of African or Caribbean heritage, people of South Asian, East Asian and South East Asian heritage and those with disabilities.

We will organise 3 meetings per year to listen to your feedback and discuss resulting actions. You will be paid £50 for each meeting. Prior to the meetings, you will need to engage with some of our programme such as exhibitions, workshops, digital activity and events, at your leisure. Meetings can be attended online.

We would expect each Critical Friend to commit to 12 months.

The Gallery is currently partially open and has social distancing measures in place.  However, we understand that not everyone will be comfortable or able to visit physically in the coming months. The Gallery also offers a wide range of digital projects. Further information can be found on our website.

If you are interested in supporting us to make positive changes, please send an email to stephen.snoddy@walsall.gov.uk and let us know why you would like to become our Critical Friend in less than 300 words. Deadline: 5pm, Friday 30 October 2020.

The New Art Gallery Walsall is delighted to announce it has signed the Walsall for All Pledge, as part of the pledge we declare our support for a more integrated Walsall; to do what we can to help make Walsall fairer for everyone and to connect with other people and organisations that share our goals.

Stephen Snoddy, Gallery Director said ‘The New Art Gallery Walsall is committed to the Walsall for All Pledge to work in partnership to promote cohesion and integration across the communities and equality for all to work, learn and play for a better future. We will strive to make Walsall a fairer place for everyone’.

The Pledge aims to encourage individuals, groups and organisations to sign up to promoting cohesion, equality, inclusion and integration. Within the pledge are learning opportunities to develop an understanding of these key areas.

The Pledge is one of a range of projects being delivered through Walsall for All, a borough-wide, long-term strategy for creating strong and integrated communities in Walsall. It recognises our collective strengths as well as our challenges, and sets out the steps Walsall will take to break down barriers to integration.

For more information please visit https://www.walsallforall.co.uk/pledge