Posts in Highlights Category

Castlefield Gallery and the University of Salford Art Collection are delighted to announce the new cohort for our annual Graduate Scholarship Programme. 

This year, following a very competitive application process, we have awarded scholarships to five students from the Salford School of Arts, Media and Creative Technology: Katie Aird, BA (Hons) Photography; Daniel Callan, BA (Hons) Fine Art; Jeffrey Knopf, MA Contemporary Fine Art; Henna Mahmood, BA (Hons) Fine Art, and Sara Rawat, BA (Hons) Fine Art.

The Graduate Scholarship Programme is run by the University of Salford Art Collection in collaboration with Castlefield Gallery, and with the support of our local industry partners Hotbed Press, Islington Mill, Paradise Works and Redeye, The Photography Network. It provides a bespoke programme of professional development and real world experiences for a small number of students in the first year after graduation, with one place also offered to an MA student. 

Each artist will receive support tailored to their individual needs and aspirations by Castlefield Gallery including: a 12 month programme of coaching, mentoring, professional development sessions, local and national trips and honorary 12 month membership of Castlefield Gallery Associates, providing further opportunities for professional development and training, plus a bursary of £1,000 to spend on materials or travel; studio space or place on a programme with one of our industry partners; Hot Bed Press, Islington Mill, Paradise Works, and Redeye, The Photography Network.    

Founder of the programme, and Curator of the University Art Collection, Lindsay Taylor says:

“As we enter the 8^th year of the programme, the competition for places was harder than ever. We had some exceptional applications, and I am confident that the successful candidates will make the best use of opportunities offered to them in the year ahead.  Despite the challenges of the last year, the determination, ambition and hard work of our students, and the university staff who taught them has shone through”.

 Director and Artistic Director of Castlefield Gallery, Helen Wewiora says:

“It’s a pleasure to support the University of Salford School of Arts and Media graduates through the scheme. We understand all too well what a difference a programme like Salford Scholars can make to graduates in that important first year out. It is inspiring to see how many of the ‘scholars’ establish themselves as professional practitioners, becoming part of and contributing to artist and creative communities in the city of Salford, the region and beyond.

“Despite the challenges of 2020, the Scholars selected last year demonstrated exceptional promise. We are super excited to see what this new cohort can achieve and are very much looking forward to working with Katie, Daniel, Jeffrey, Henna, and Sara, and once again the University of Salford Art Collection, Hot Bed Press, Islington Mill, Paradise Works and Redeye, The Photography Network.”   

We are delighted to share that our new collaborative exhibition with Salford Museum and Art Gallery is opening to the public from 15th July. You Belong Here: Artists Rediscovering Salford’s Green Spaces includes historic, modern and contemporary works that explore and celebrate our local parks and green spaces. Included are four new commissions by Salford based artists Lizzie King, Hilary Jack, Jack Brown and Cheddar Gorgeous, who have each ‘rediscovered’ Salford in unique ways. Alongside, the augmented reality app ‘The Storm Cone’ by Laura Daly can be downloaded for free from app stores to enjoy in nearby Peel Park.

Find out more at the project website here: you-belong-here.salford.ac.uk
And book your tickets at the Salford Museum and Art Gallery website here.

We are pleased to announce a new co-commission for the collection with UK based artist Seo Hye Lee, for the Vital Capacities online residency programme from 1st June 2021.

Vital Capacities aims to provide an accessible space for artists and audiences who may be limited by resources or physical barriers from participating. The platform supports artists to develop new work, share skills, make new contacts, and reach audiences in the UK and internationally. Working with organisation around the country, especially those with a focus on disability arts, to nominate artists for the programme, three artists have been selected for the June edition of the programme.

Seo Hye Lee, Laura Lulika and Linda Stupart will be in residence throughout June, sharing new work and research in an online ‘studio’ and exhibition space. The artists are supported by University of Salford Art Collection, Film London Artists’ Moving Image Network (FLAMIN) and Phoenix, respectively.

Seo Hye Lee is a Somerset-based South Korean artist who uses the mediums of sound, illustration, and installation to experiment with new forms of narrative, creating playful pieces that challenge the idea of listening. Drawing inspiration from her hearing loss experience, Seo Hye aims to explore the boundaries between hearing and listening; regardless of your hearing skill, one can always listen in a variety of ways. Recent presentations of her work include: Artist Self-Publishers’ Fair (2020) Grundy Art Gallery (2020), School of Art Institute Chicago (2019), London College of Communication (2019), Jip + Olympia (2020), Tate Exchange (2019) and Tanzhaus NRW (2019).Seo Hye graduated from MA Visual Communication at The Royal College of Art in 2017.

“I like to explore the nature of sound as a deaf individual in different ways. As someone who has frequently worked with audio-visual installation, I would like to push my practice toward creating works within the video installation and moving image format. Due to my deafness, I grew up relying on subtitles in film and media. I have since become interested in subtitles as a nuanced form of communication. This residency will provide a fantastic opportunity for me to explore this in greater depth and allow me to experiment with the context of subtitles more boldly, particularly engaging with other artists and researching in depth. For this residency, I will be experimenting with the language of subtitle, and the inaccuracy of auto-generated captions and transcriptions through the medium of video projection.”
– Seo Hye Lee

“We are excited to work with Seo Hye Lee and Vital Capacities for this online residency. The programme offers an innovative and engaging online platform – we have really enjoyed exploring past programmes and look forward to collaborating on the June edition. Seo Hye Lee’s work carefully interrogates experiences of audio-visual communication (and mis-communication) – a key theme in our ‘About the Digital’ collecting strand – and something which has only increased in resonance for many of us since the pandemic. Her work will be an important addition to our collection.”
– Stephanie Fletcher, Assistant Curator

She joins artists Laura Lulika – a chronically sick and disabled queer artist exploring themes of care, sexuality, labour, sickness, and performativity in the everyday; and Linda Stupart – a South African artist, writer and educator based in Birmingham, interested in objectification, abjection, science fiction and revenge.

Follow the residencies online from 1st June at vitalcapacities.com

Vital Capacities has been created by videoclub in consultation with artists, digital inclusion specialist Sarah Pickthall and website designer Oli Pyle.

The University of Salford Art Collection holds an archive of artists prints from the ‘Manchester Print Workshop’ – founded by Master Printmaker Kip Gresham. The Workshop started in Manchester in 1975 and after a few years moved to the University of Salford, where it ran until the mid 1980s. The prints – including screenprints, lithography and other techniques – exemplify the vibrant and experimental aesthetic of the era. We’re now undertaking some research to find out more about the activities of the Workshop and the artists who worked there, and would like to invite any alumni or members of the local community who have memories from this time to share them with us.

The artists represented in our collection include: Alan Whitehead, Cecile Elstein, Kip Gresham, Matthew Hilton, Michael Green, Pat Eason, Paul Ritchie, Peta Cole, Richard Riley

We’re particularly interested in hearing more about these artists, but welcome all recollections about the Workshop and any of its members, from alumni who may have also made prints there or been taught by members.

If you can help us to find out more, please email researcher Tracy Ireland at artcollection@salford.ac.uk, including “Manchester Print Workshop” in your email subject. (Please avoid sending any large files or attachments with your email, as this may get filtered out).

Click here to find out more about our Print Collection.

Examples from the Collection:

Images: Courtesy the artist and Museum Photography North West. Every effort has been made to trace copyright holders and to obtain their permission for the use of copyright material. 

Commissioned by the University of Salford Art Collection and Metal, The Storm Cone is an immersive artwork by artist Laura Daly with music composed by Lucy Pankhurst, which reveals the lost bandstands in our municipal parks and explores their forgotten histories. At its centre is a journey through music and sound that considers our relationship with the past, while charting the fading away of brass bands during the interwar years (1918 – 1939).  Augmented Reality allows the visitor to witness the ‘skeleton’ of a traditional bandstand as they experience the music.

The Storm Cone, launching 29 May 2021, is experienced in the park setting, through a free app and using headphones. Initially it immerses the visitor in the 360˚ sound of a band performing as a full ensemble in the park. Moving amongst the absent bandsmen, the audience will hear the detail of every instrument, before following the departed musicians into eight spatial sound works, where solo musical phrases merge into new environments. An offsite version will also be available on the project’s dedicated website, making The Storm Cone widely available.

The Storm Cone will be located where the bandstand once stood in Peel Park, Salford. It will also be presented at the site of the lost bandstand in Chalkwell Park, Southend as part of Estuary 2021, and as a new permanent addition to Metal’s NetPark digital project.

The music for The Storm Cone is a newly commissioned composition. Lucy Pankhurst worked closely with Laura Daly to evolve musical themes and phrases that reflect the artist’s ideas and narrative for the overall project. She has created an innovative and contemporary score that utilises sound spatialising technologies to move music around the listener; with instruments calling and responding across the ‘bandstand’. The resulting piece is sculptural in its approach.

Students, staff and friends of The University of Salford performed and recorded the commission. For many of the younger musicians it was their first recording session. It was the only live music performance at the University, during a year of Covid restrictions. The sound works bring together vocal contributions from a wide range of people including the University’s drama and music students and Manchester choir, Chorus of Others.

The title of the work comes from Rudyard Kipling’s 1932 poem that forewarned of the Second World War. It considers key aspects of the interwar period and the ensuing break-up and reshaping of communities. Serving as warning shot, The Storm Cone contemplates the residual impact of this time and the cyclical nature of history in terms of current events, including the economic downturn and rise of populism, extremism, racism and antisemitism; problems now seemingly exacerbated by the Covid-19 pandemic. It is also a commemoration of creative legacy. The resulting experience is an artwork that is imbued with a sense of both loss and celebration, underlining human strength and fragility.

In Salford, The Storm Cone is presented at Peel Park as part of Rediscovering Salford, a city-wide programme which highlights and celebrates Salford’s green spaces – inspired by the launch of RHS Garden Bridgewater in May 2021– The Storm Cone is presented alongside You Belong Here: Artists Rediscovering Salford’s Green Spaces, a new exhibition at Salford Museum & Art Gallery which will show four new artists’ commissions alongside original archive material, photographs and historic artworks from the Museum, University of Salford and The Lowry. Together, they rediscover some of the city’s unique history – and overlooked stories – as well as offering new narratives about our local environments.

The Storm Cone is commissioned through a partnership between University of Salford Art Collection and Metal in collaboration with Salford Culture and Place Partnership on the occasion of Rediscovering Salford. Generously supported using public funding by the National Lottery through Arts Council England. Also supported by PN Daly Ltd and Zinc and Copper Roofing.

For all press office enquiries please email communications@salford.ac.uk.

The University of Salford Art Collection and Salford Museum & Art Gallery have commissioned four Salford-based artists Jack Brown, Cheddar Gorgeous, Hilary Jack and Lizzie King to make work for You Belong Here: Artists Rediscovering Salford’s Green Spaces, a new exhibition and events programme.

Visit the new project website – You Belong Here – or find out more below.

Part of Rediscovering Salford, a city-wide programme which highlights and celebrates Salford’s green spaces – inspired by the launch of RHS Garden Bridgewater in May 2021 – the exhibition at Salford Museum & Art Gallery presents the four new artist commissions alongside original archive material, photographs and historic artworks from the Museum and Local History Library, the University of Salford and The Lowry collections. Together, they rediscover some of the city’s unique history – and overlooked or forgotten stories – as well as offering new narratives about our local environments.

Presented at the same time The Storm Cone by Laura Daly with music composed by Lucy Pankhurst, is an immersive artwork located in Salford’s Peel Park, that reveals lost park bandstands and their forgotten histories. At its centre will be a journey through music and sound that considers our relationship with the past, while charting the fading away of a brass band during the interwar years (1918 – 1939). 

The exhibition displays historical photographs and artworks highlighting some of Salford’s parks and ‘lost’ halls. Included are works by two of Salford’s most well-known artists, L.S. Lowry and Harold Riley. Over the years Lowry produced various sketches and paintings of Peel Park, established in 1846, making it one of the UK’s oldest public parks, and a selection are on display here.

The new artists’ commissions build on existing partnerships with artist-led spaces Paradise Works and Islington Mill in Salford, demonstrating a shared, ongoing commitment to supporting emerging, established and early-career practitioners based in the city.

Selected in collaboration with the studios are Hilary Jack and Jack Brown from Paradise Works and Cheddar Gorgeous and Lizzie King from Islington Mill’s creative community. Working variously across sculpture, installation, video, printmaking, photography, and drag performance, the selected artists exemplify the breadth of practice and talent to be found in Salford’s rich arts ecology. As a legacy of the project, elements of all four new commissions will be acquired into the University’s permanent collection.

Jack Brown‘s installation and video-based works explore the more playful or mischevious uses of public spaces – following the ‘desire lines, tracks through the brambles and holes in the fence’ to explore ‘rope swings, secret dens, secluded corners and drinking spots’.

Inspired by local memories, rumours and history, Cheddar Gorgeous uses the art of drag to explore the story of 18th century figure, Madam Mort aka ‘the grey lady’ – now said to haunt the woodland in Little Hulton as a ghostly apparition. 

Lizzie King responds to Peel Park – somewhere she has enjoyed visiting since childhood. Her printmaking and photography based work focuses on the park bench as a symbol of rest, relaxation and belonging in public spaces: “the bench doesn’t ask us to do anything, it just asks us to be”

Hilary Jack explores the changing architecture of the city – from the historic mansions and mills to contemporary towerblocks and terraces. Her series of sculptural birdboxes question the impact of city growth on the local environment and wildlife populations.

You Belong Here: Artists Rediscovering Salford’s Green Spaces is led by the University of Salford Art Collection and Salford Museum & Art Gallery, on behalf of Salford Culture and Place Partnership. It is part of the wider Rediscovering Salford programme which is generously supported using public funding by the National Lottery through Arts Council England.

All press enquiries: communications@salford.ac.uk
All project enquiries: artcollection@salford.ac.uk

Image: Cheddar Gorgeous. Courtesy the artist

The World Photography Organisation is delighted to announce esteemed documentarian and Salford alumnus Craig Easton has been named Photographer of the Year in the prestigious Sony World Photography Awards 2021 for his series Bank Top.

Bank Top, a collaboration with writer and academic Abdul Aziz Hafiz, examines the representation and misrepresentation of communities in northern England, focusing on the tightknit neighbourhood of Bank Top in Blackburn.

The work is a result of the Blackburn Museum & Art Gallery initiative Kick Down the Barriers, a project instigated in response to media reports portraying the town as the ‘the most segregated in Britain’. Seeking to challenge this narrative, the museum invited artists and writers to collaborate with residents of various neighbourhoods and create a robust and authentic representation of their communities.

Over the course of a year the pair worked closely with local inhabitants to explore their stories and experiences through a series of black & white portraits and accompanying texts. These highlight issues around social deprivation, housing, unemployment, immigration and representation, as well as the impact of past and present foreign policy. Their work counters simplistic generalisations and aims to provide context as to how these communities came together and a better understanding of how they thrive together now.

The project forms part of Craig’s wider work in the region including Thatcher’s Children (2nd place, Documentary Projects, 2021 Professional competition), an investigation into the chronic nature of poverty as experienced by three generations of one family and Sixteen, an ambitious project exploring the fears, hopes and dreams of sixteen-year olds across the UK. In 2019 and in partnership with the University of Salford Art Collection, Sixteen’s touring exhibition visited the New Adelphi Exhibition Gallery and Atrium on campus and two of Craig’s works were acquired for the University Art Collection.

Mike Trow, Chair of the 2021 Professional competition says: “What is so impressive about this project is the intent, dedication and understanding Craig brings to it. He has worked closely with the writer Abdul Aziz Hafiz to create a complete piece, tacitly acknowledging that for a project as sensitive as this, words matter. These are not people who necessarily asked to be photographed but Craig gained their trust. They look frankly to camera and we see a mutual understanding between documenter and subject. It is the moral weight behind this work that makes it so important and deserving of this prize.”

Craig studied Physics at The University of Salford in the 1980s but fell in love with photography when he joined the camera society in his spare time, regularly satisfying his interest in politics by shooting social issues.

“I went to university to study physics and came out as a photographer,” he said. “For me, photography became my passion and I really didn’t want to do anything else. It was somewhat of a university of life.”

He fully embraced his student days, taking the opportunity to meet people with varying interests. This included former Minister of State for Employment Alok Sharma, who was his “best friend all through university”.

After leaving Salford Craig went to live in London for a long while, kick-starting his career as a photographer for The Independent, before moving back to the North years later. Much of his work is still commissioned from London, as well as further afield in Paris and New York.

Photographer of the Year Craig reveals the past year has been both a challenge and a blessing, as it has given him time to pause and do valued research.  He also thinks this moment in history is an extremely monumental time.

“Coming out of Brexit and the pandemic, the social impact of the last three or four years is going to be phenomenal,” he said. “It is critical that people are out there photographing how we emerge out of this as a society. There are all sorts of things I feel are desperately important to record.”

Winners of the Sony World Photography Awards 2021 are revealed in a celebratory announcement video hosted by CEO of the World Photography Organisation Scott Gray and TV and radio presenter and author Konnie Huq. The video features interviews, behind-the-scenes clips and reactions from winning photographers and is available to view via worldphoto.org/ceremony-2021

Lindsay Taylor, Curator at Salford Art Collection, was also delighted to be a judge in categories aside from Photographer of the Year – you can see her interview in the announcement video.

“I am delighted on so many levels that Craig was selected as Photographer of the Year.  As one of the judges I had to declare a conflict of interest so can’t take any credit for him receiving the award!  However it is so well deserved.  Having worked closely with Craig on the Sixteen Project in 2019 I know how important it is to him to really get under the skin of his subjects, and I love his portraits of Maizi and Awais that now belong in our collection.  Quite apart from the fact he is an alumni of the University, what makes Craig special is that he is a photographer based in the North of England, whose work resonates across the globe.  He shows the world the reality of life for many people living here, but with a sensitivity and deep respect for his subjects that I feel is rather exceptional.” – Lindsay Taylor, Curator.

Visit Craig Easton’s website here: www.craigeaston.com 

Image: Craig Easton

• Up to £1000 cash
• Studio space for up to 12 months
• Mentor support, coaching and guidance
• Professional development opportunities
• Opportunity to have work permanently acquired into the University of Salford Art Collection

The Graduate Scholarship Programme, now in its seventh year, is open for applications for the 2021 cohort.

The 12 month scheme, managed by the University of Salford Art Collection in collaboration with Castlefield Gallery, supports artists in the crucial first year after graduation – providing time, space and resources to continue developing a professional contemporary practice.

The bespoke programme includes: studio space in Salford with one of our partners: Hot Bed Press, Islington Mill, Paradise Works,  support from Redeye The Photography Network – alongside mentoring and cash for materials, travel, or other costs.

Eligibility:
The scheme is only open to University of Salford final year undergraduates from the School of Arts and Media (who are due to graduate or complete their studies in July 2021) – plus there will be a maximum of one scholarship open to an MA graduate (due to graduate or complete in September 2021).

Please note: some details of the scheme are subject to changes in COVID-19 restrictions. Full guidance is included on the application form (below).

Read more about the scheme here, and find out more about our previous scholars here.

APPLY NOW:
Deadline 9.00am 4th May 2021
To apply: Send in your completed application form, plus your CV (up to 2 pages) and image, video or sound files of your work (up to 4 files).
Full details & contact info in the application form:
Click here to download: 2021 Application form

Please contact artcollection@salford.ac.uk for any issues or questions.

We are delighted to share a new article by writer Sara Jaspan, which takes a journey through the radical history of one of the first public parks in the UK – Peel Park – via a new commission by artist and UOS alumni Lizzie King for Rediscovering Salford. The city-wide cultural programme will highlight and celebrate Salford’s green spaces and unique history throughout 2021.

Click here to visit the Fourdrinier website – and don’t forget to share your thoughts on social media using the hashtag #RediscoveringSalford.

For more information about the project and further artist commissions, click here.

From the series ‘Rooted’ (2021), Lizzie King. (c) the artist.

In collaboration with Open Eye Gallery, we are delighted to announce that Stephanie Wynne and Steve McCoy of the photography partnership McCoy Wynne have been awarded a residency in collaboration with Salford Energy House to explore positive solutions to the climate crisis. Much of their work considers aspects of representation of the landscape and built environments.

“Having a lifelong interest in the environment and issues around sustainability, we are so pleased to have been selected as the Artist in Residence with University of Salford Energy House Project. We are eager to collaborate with the researchers and scientists at the university to interpret their work. Photography is the most suitable art form to represent this project, as it is an artform born of and refined by technology. It is both an art and a science; it appreciates the methodical, with the form of energy, light, at its essence.”
– McCoy Wynne

Salford Energy House is the world’s first full sized, two bedroom, brick built terraced house constructed inside an environmentally controllable chamber. Collaborating with specialist staff in the solution-focused Energy House, the residency will explore how effective common energy
efficient solutions actually are.

Dr Richard Fitton, says:
“We are delighted to welcome Stephanie and Steve to Energy House and look forward to them bringing new perspectives to the work that we do. Their ongoing passion about the environment makes them the perfect choice to help us communicate our work to a wider public.”

Energy House Laboratories have been awarded a major research contract addressing the problem of sustainable retrofit of existing housing, looking at how we can improve energy consumption and internal conditions of our existing homes. Energy House is fully furnished and packed with a vast array of sensors that can monitor a wide range of variables, this unique facility allows rain, snow, wind and temperature to be specified to precise levels, enabling our research team and their industry partners to thoroughly test products designed to improve the energy efficiency of our homes.

From 2021 onwards the work of the University of Salford Art Collection team will focus on environmental sustainability, artist development and placemaking. This Energy House residency is a pilot project, sitting within the existing framework of working with artists from the North and digital technologies, and building on previous work of pairing academics with artists.

Over the next two years Open Eye Gallery is working with a range of partners to develop a programme of residencies looking at climate change. This work will contribute to LOOK Photo Biennial 2022 which has a focus on climate change explored via cultural exchange with countries
including Australia. Across this programme they hope to work with some of the complexities of this agenda, recognising that many people feel impotent in the face of mainstream ‘disaster focused’ media coverage and that this has a negative effect on public engagement with positive change.