Graduate Scholars
In 2014 we launched the annual Graduate Scholarship Programme, with industry partners Castlefield Gallery, and a range of local artist-led studios.
The programme offers graduates a bespoke 12 month period of support to continue their professional practice, including: coaching, mentoring, peer support, professional development sessions, a cash award, and studio membership where appropriate.
Over 50 graduates have completed the programme and have gone on to a range of creative careers. The Art Collection acquires an artwork, (or documentation of practice) from each graduate scholar, after their participation in the programme.
In 2026 the scheme enters it’s 13th year, with studio partners Islington Mill, Paradise Works and Hotbed Press.
Our Graduate Scholars: 2026-27
Jarvis Best
BA Photography
Jarvis is an interdisciplinary artist whose creative practice encompasses photography, moving image, sculpture and installation. His practice explores themes of folklore and the human connection to nature. Utilising analogue methods within his lens-based art, Jarvis favours the more methodical and considered approach of film photography which allows him to become more engaged in the environments that he photographs. Jarvis will be based at Islington Mill studios.
Levi Betts
BA Fine Art
Instagram: @l3vis.art
Levi is a multi-disciplinary artist with a focus on installation using digital projection mapping, combined with a screen printmaking practice. He uses these two
opposing practices to explore the digital sublime and the impact that digitalisation has on human life. Levi’s practice is his interpretation of digitalisation, the growth of the internet and our reliance on modern technology, presented through photography, videography, projection installation, digital editing and screen-printing. Levi will be based at Hotbed Press, accessing their facilities and workshops.
Pavani Chandana
BA Photography
Website
Pavani is a fine art photographer whose creative practice is rooted in using analogue techniques and printmaking. Through her work she explores diverse styles in photography ranging from documentary to landscape and fashion, while experimenting with different media. Her current work explores cultural identity within diasporic contexts, drawing on memory, belonging, and her Indian heritage, using photography as a medium that can move beyond simple documentation, and act as a way of expressing personal and cultural narratives through visual storytelling. Pavani will be based at Hotbed Press, accessing tutorials and facilities.
Eli Clack
BA Fine Art
Instagram: @eli.clack.art
Eli’s practice explores the complex relationship between humans and the natural world, whilst also looking at themes of identity, gender and sense of being. They work with textiles, performance and photography to convey these ideas. Drawing from the New Animism movement, their work aims to highlight the need for environmental preservation whilst demonstrating the societal disconnect from nature.
Kiera Jones
BA Photography
Kiera’s practice explores the
relationship between photographs and memory. She is interested in how identity is constructed and visualised within everyday spaces, considering the domestic setting as a site where class is quietly embedded. Often working with family archives, Kiera reworks vernacular imagery to interrogate the construction of personal histories, approaching the archive not as evidence, but as a partial and active site of memory. Kiera will be based at Paradise Works studios.
William Rowe
BA Photography
Will’s practice is process and experimentation-led, working with found objects and found photography, either inherited personal items or pieces. He finds himself drawn to found material by what it carries before he gets to it. The findings of these found objects informs the evolution of his work. Will states “Though I would broadly align myself with archival practice, I resist the label. The work is less about preservation and more about what happens when pressure is applied to a material.”
Image Credits:
1)Jarvis Best photographed beside his The Living Stones (2026) installation
2) Levi Betts, -all.at.once (2026), screen print
3) Pavani Chandana photographed beside her 2026 degree show installation.
4) Eli Clack, Disconnect (2026), textiles made from weave and felting
5) Kiera Jones, Untitled (2025), laser print and Inkjet print collage
6) Will Rowe, Sailors (2026), CYMK screen print on 1919 roubles.
Our previous years’ Graduate Scholars
Henry Collier
BA FIMS (Fashion Image Making and Styling)
Islington Mill
Henry creates imagery that comments on male vulnerability, self-accountability, and issues of toxicity prevalent in contemporary society. As well as working across photography and fashion image making and styling, his outputs include zines, prints, sculpture and text. His work explores ideas of softness as strength, and aims to help young men and LGBTQIA+ communities to find senses of belonging and reciprocal community.
Image: Self portrait in bathroom mirror in a petrol station, 2025, by Henry James Collier.
Charlie Currid
BA Fine Art
Charlie is a multidisciplinary artist from Bolton, interested in hybridity and the experience of nature in the digital age. His practice is composed largely of painting, video, and installation based pieces. Within his work, there is rarely a fixed end point: the work is “in constant flux, much like a river, continually eroding and depositing. Paintings become videos, become textiles, become sculptures, to return to paintings…”
Image: Charlie Currid in the studio, courtesy the artist.
Andrea Lowe
MA Socially Engaged Arts Practice
New Art Spaces
Andrea is a socially engaged artist and educator based in the North West. Her practice focuses upon arts and health, using creativity as a means to communicate and explore issues for and with people. Her work spans fine art (including drawing, printmaking and sculpture) to socially engaged practices (including creative facilitation and participatory artworks). Overarching themes include health, wellbeing, female empowerment and agency, within a context of social inclusion and experiences of domestic violence.
Image: Andrea Lowe in the studio, courtesy Helen Constantinou.
Portia Wilkins
BA Fine Art
Paradise Works
Portia is a Welsh artist based in Salford, Manchester. Their practice is an extension of the artist’s experiences, folklore, the gothic and gamer culture. their work explores avatars and hybrids that live within a liminal world, with reference to Welsh myth and history.
Image: The Sheep Pilgrim, Portia Wilkins, courtesy the artist.
Anni Kay Wilkinson
BA Photography
Anni is a photographer specialising in social, event and documentary styles. Her practice focuses on capturing underground and minority subcultures in Greater Manchester, as well as documenting different inner city areas. Her long-term project Hulme Loonies documents the communities and characters of the area. Her work has featured in the British Culture Archive, The Face, The Guardian, and Manchester Mill.
Fire Pit, Anni Kay Wilkinson, courtesy the artist.
All previous Graduate Scholars
2021/22
- Henna Mahmood
- Jeffrey Knopf
- Katie Aird
- Sara Rawat
2019/20
- Amy Brown
- Bridget Coderc
- Heather Bell
- Ieva Sedova
- Mollie Balshaw
2018/19
- Alena Ruth Donely
- Jesse Glazzard
- Joshua Turner
- Katie McGuire
- Ovie Ist Kings Iruru
- Sadé Mica
2017/18
2016/17
- Ali Wilson
- Cecily Shrimpton
- Hannah Connor
- Joseph Burton
- Katie Shaw
- Laura Daniels
- Olivia Brittain
2015/16
- Amy Stevenson
- David Taylor
- Hazel Clegg
- Joe Beedles
2014/15
- Lizzie King
- Meg Woods
- Rika Jones
- Willow Rowlands
Our previous Graduate Scholar Mentors
Artist Mentors
- Lubaina Himid
- Jade Montserrat
- Oona Grimes
- Mani Kambo
- Nicola Ellis
- Holly Hendry
- Anna FC Smith
- Nicky Hirst
- Nick Jordan
Curator Mentors
- Mariama Attach – Curator of Metal Culture, Liverpool
- Emma Dean – Curator of BALTIC
- Paulette Brien – Curator of The Grundy, Blackpool
Directors, Collectors, and other mentors
- John E. McGrath – Director of Factory International
- Ed Cross – Founder of Ed Cross Fine Art
