Author: Tilly Craig

Leading arts organisations based in Plymouth have secured a £100,000 grant from Arts Council England to support the city’s hosting of British Art Show 9 (BAS9). The funding award comes just as the twelve month countdown to the prestigious exhibition begins.

The British Art Show is a landmark touring exhibition that celebrates the vitality of recent art made in Britain. Organised every five years by Hayward Gallery Touring, the exhibition brings the work of artists who are defining new directions in contemporary art to four different cities across the UK. Working in
partnership with Plymouth Culture, BAS9 will be shown across four city venues – The Box, KARST, The Levinsky Gallery at the University of Plymouth and MIRROR at Plymouth College of Art from 8 October – 23 December 2022.

When British Art Show 7 came to Plymouth in 2011 it was the first time the city had staged a multi-site exhibition on such a large scale. It received more than 75,000 visits, with a further 15,000 people taking part in events, education activities and Fringe programmes.

The new £100,000 grant will enable the partners to carry out some detailed audience research in the run up to BAS9, support a series of artist-led engagement activities with schools, fund invigilators to enhance the visitor experience once the exhibition is on display, and create talent development opportunities for local artists as well as a talks and events programme.

Councillor Mark Deacon, Cabinet Member for Customer Services, Culture, Leisure and Sport said: “We want BAS9 to be more than an exhibition – a project that develops audiences across the city, gives people multiple opportunities to get involved and collaborate and which leaves a legacy. Contemporary art should be an accessible and rewarding experience for everyone, especially as we continue to move on from a global pandemic when so many people were unable to engage with the arts. The one-year countdown to BAS9 is on and this grant is a great boost to Plymouth’s second hosting of this major national event.”

47 artists have been selected for BAS9 by curators Irene Aristizábal and Hammad Nasar. They include Turner Prize winners and Venice Biennale participants. Works on display will include sculpture, film, installation, performance, painting and photography.

Phil Gibby, Arts Council England, South West, Area Director, said: “We’re extremely pleased to make a significant investment of £100,000 through our National Lottery Projects Grants funding programme towards British Art Show 9 in Plymouth next year. With a focus on diversifying audiences for contemporary art and nurturing local talent, the prestigious event will bolster cultural engagement in the city whilst also generating professional development and employment opportunities for artists. Culture and creativity will play a vital role in helping the country recover from the effects of the pandemic, so we are thrilled to support this major contemporary art event in Plymouth, thanks to National Lottery
players, which will bring a mass of creative activity to the city and further develop its reputation as a cultural destination.”

British Art Show 9 is a Hayward Gallery Touring exhibition presented in collaboration with the cities of Aberdeen, Wolverhampton, Manchester and Plymouth. You can find out more at britishartshow9.co.uk.

From October, three new artists will be joining the studio community at KARST. Two artists are Plymouth-based and will join KARST on an ongoing basis. The third is a BA Fine Art graduate from Bath Spa University joining us for a five month residency.

Annie Shrosbree, a recent graduate, multimedia artist and sculptor has been selected for the Bath Spa residency. Annie makes works inspired by the comedy and mundanity of everyday life. 

Annie says: “my practice challenges the classically accepted notions of ‘sophisticated art’ by experimenting with scale, medium and colour. Ultimately, my practice exudes a longing to spark joy in audiences; making satirical pieces which celebrate a deep appreciation for anything and everything ‘silly’, in an increasingly busy, consumerist and heavy world. I am so blessed to have been given the opportunity to have my first residency at KARST, and am excited to see how a new city and studio away from a university setting will adapt my work in all aspects. Let’s go!!!”

The artists who will be taking on studios at KARST on an ongoing basis are multimedia artist Molly McCarthy and artist/producer Rhys Morgan. 

Molly works predominantly with 3D and digital media. Her practice considers how the information we absorb and platform shapes the worlds we exist within. Story-telling and world-building are key tools she uses to explore these realities, to understand, challenge and re-shape them.

Molly says: “With this new studio I’m excited to start taking my practice in a new direction, I’m going to be focusing on small scale model making and 3D scanning, as well as continuing to further my coding skills. I can’t wait to be part of the studio community also, and I hope the other artists are ready to help play-test my work!”

 

Molly received a First Class BA (Hons) in Fine Art from Plymouth College of Art in 2020. Alongside her practice she has  worked with organisations such as Plymouth Art Weekender, KARST Contemporary Arts & MIRROR. She is currently a Co-Director of the member-led creative network CAMP.

Rhys Morgan has been working and exhibiting around the South West and the wider UK since 2014. His work often explores ideas around information and power structures, the interaction of this with queer experience and how this affects the expected norms of day-to-day queer existence. He studied at Falmouth University and is currently undertaking a part-time MFA in Fine Art at Goldsmiths, London. 

Rhys says: “After a brief period away from Plymouth, I am looking forward to re-establishing my practice in an artistically innovative, challenging and contemporary environment. I am looking forward to the opportunity of expanding my practice at KARST into different forms, and utilising the unique opportunities the studios and it’s network offer.”

A review of a selection of Rhys’ work will be exhibited at the inaugural First Thursday event this evening, an exciting new monthly exhibition devised by the Queer Quarter Collective to promote the work of queer people and allies from Plymouth and beyond.

KARST has received a grant of £42000 from the Government’s £1.57 billion Culture Recovery Fund to help the organisation recover and reopen.

More than £300 million has been awarded to thousands of cultural organisations across the country including KARST in the latest round of support from the Culture Recovery Fund, the Culture Secretary announced today. Plymouth’s latest cultural offering, The Box, is among the other recipients in the city.

Alongside providing increased financial stability for KARST, the grant will contribute towards increasing physical access to the gallery by enabling the installation of a contactless entry system. The system will help to reduce any future risk of COVID-19 transmission as KARST reopens to the public.

Additionally, a proportion of the grant will support an ongoing reduction in studio hire fees to help KARST studio artists emerge from the pandemic. The grant will also be used to engage a consultant to develop and implement a post-COVID fundraising strategy and campaign.

More than £800 million in grants and loans has already been awarded to support almost 3,800 cinemas, performance venues, museums, heritage sites and other cultural organisations dealing with the immediate challenges of the coronavirus pandemic.

The second round of awards made today will help organisations to look ahead to the spring and summer and plan for reopening and recovery. After months of closures and cancellations to contain the virus and save lives, this funding will be a much-needed helping hand for organisations transitioning back to normal in the months ahead.

Culture Secretary, Oliver Dowden, said:

“Our record breaking Culture Recovery Fund has already helped thousands of culture and heritage organisations across the country survive the biggest crisis they’ve ever faced.

Now we’re staying by their side as they prepare to welcome the public back through their doors – helping our cultural gems plan for reopening and thrive in the better times ahead.”

Donna Howard, Executive Director, said:

“We are delighted to receive this support from the Culture Recovery Fund. As well as contributing to ongoing operating costs which would ordinarily have been met through income generated, a significant amount of this grant will be used to create a reserves fund, giving KARST financial security for the first time as we continue to grow.

The grant will also support fundraising generation which will be essential for KARST’s sustainability in the run-up to British Art Show 9 and beyond.”

Sir Nicholas Serota, Chair, Arts Council England, said:

“Investing in a thriving cultural sector at the heart of communities is a vital part of helping the whole country to recover from the pandemic. These grants will help to re-open theatres, concert halls, and museums and will give artists and companies the opportunity to begin making new work.

We are grateful to the Government for this support and for recognising the paramount importance of culture to our sense of belonging and identity as individuals and as a society.”

The funding awarded today is from a £400 million pot which was held back last year to ensure the Culture Recovery Fund could continue to help organisations in need as the public health picture changed. The funding has been awarded by Arts Council England, as well as Historic England and National Lottery Heritage Fund and the British Film Institute.

KARST has been awarded funding to research a digital solution to international artistic collaboration restrictions because of the Covid-19 epidemic.

KARST will receive money from the British Council Arts Digital Collaboration Fund to research the development of a collaborative digital platform that aims to preserve and interpret Highlife’s legacy, reinventing it for a new generation of musicians and audiences in Ghana and internationally.

Highlife is a music genre that originated in the early 20th century in present-day Ghana. It uses traditional Akan music’s melodic and main rhythmic structures but is played with Western instruments. Characterised by horns and multiple guitars, in the 1970s it acquired an uptempo, synth-driven sound.

Through the project Mogya Na Nsuo (Blood and Water), KARST will work with UK artist Larry Achiampong and Julia Greenway, a curator focussing on how digital media influences the aesthetic presentation of gender, economics, and environment. It is a collaboration with the Bokoor African Popular Music Archive Foundation in Ghana.

Continue reading “KARST awarded funding for international digital collaboration”

New dates for the UK’s most influential contemporary art exhibition, British Art Show 9 (BAS 9), have been confirmed today. The nationwide tour will culminate in Plymouth from 8 October to 23 December 2022. Prior to this, the exhibition will be displayed in Aberdeen, Wolverhampton and Manchester.

Held every five years to showcase the work of British artists who have made a significant contribution to international contemporary art, BAS9 will be shown across four city venues – KARST, The Box, The Levinsky Gallery at the University of Plymouth and The Gallery at Plymouth College of Art.

Continue reading “New dates announced for British Art Show 9”