Read more about the Cohort 2 Partners and what they are offering as part of the 20/20 residencies.
Birmingham Museums Trust
There has never been a more exciting time to work with Birmingham Museums Trust. BMT is undergoing a radical transformation towards a purpose-driven social museum service under co-CEOs Sara Wajid and Zak Mensah, with a vision to generate hope, social trust and belonging. The people of Birmingham will take a leading role through consultation, collaboration and co-production.
BMT manages Birmingham’s museum collections in 9 sites across the city. Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery is currently closed for renovation, so the key site for the 20/20 artist will be the Museum Collections Centre. It holds over 800,000 objects spanning art and decorative arts, natural science, human history, and science and technology.
We would especially like to host an artist from Birmingham or the wider West Midlands. The artist will be supported by BMT staff to access stored collections and work closely with communities and audiences in the city.
The Box, Plymouth
Contemporary Visual Arts are embedded in the fabric, policies programmes and collections of The Box. Through working with artists we aim to offer relevant and challenging perspectives and fresh connections between history and contemporary life. At The Box we work with artists in many different ways and we particularly look for long term dialogues, which allow for meaningful projects to take place. When inviting artists to look at our collections, local histories and heritage, we make sure thay they really become part of the team in Plymouth. We’ve worked with artists such as Zadie Xa, Alberta Whittle, Kehinda Wiley and Jeffrey Gibson amongst many others. We have also launched open calls and bursaries to support artists in their research and development phase, as well as coordinating meetings with experts and academics in the city to ensure knowledge is shared and stronger connections are made. We’d love to work with you as Artist in Residence and give you the freedom and power to explore, challenge and respond to our collections.
Bristol Museum and Art Gallery
Bristol Museum & Art Gallery looks after multiple collections from Art to World Cultures, Archives and Historic Houses. There is much material for an artist wishing to unpick the colonial strands in the history of Bristol Museums, be it the origins of funding from tobacco wealth, the actual ownership of enslaved people or the histories of Empire.
For your residency we would invite you to visit the museum and access aspects of the collection that you would be interested to engage with. Access would be a combination of in-person and online, and we would offer content material as a point of departure but also give you freedom to develop your practice. The UAL 20/20 project coincides with the bicentenary of our foundation organisation, Bristol Institution for the Advancement of Science and the Arts. We would be thrilled if this commission could form part of our 200th anniversary events in 2023, but we are open to your ideas.
Bradford Museums and Galleries (Cartwright Hall)
Bradford District Museums and Galleries (BDMG) collections have developed over more than 150 years. In 1974, when the city of Bradford Metropolitan District Council was established the main museums of Keighley, Ilkley, Cartwright Memorial Hall, Bolling Hall and Bradford Industrial Museum were united as a single service. Our current collections include over 900,000 objects including fine art, decorative art, industrial heritage, zoology specimens, geology specimens, botany specimens, archaeology, social history, photographs and negatives.
The residency will be based at Cartwright Hall Art Gallery. Today the gallery has a space dedicated to Bradford-born artist David Hockney and is home to the country’s most diverse art collection due to its large and unique representation of British Asian, South Asian and Black artists. The artist in residence will have access to the collections both digitally and in person. Our entire collection is not yet digitised but we will have staff on hand where possible to make them available.
Herbert Art Gallery and Museum, Coventry
The Herbert’s collections include Social and Industrial History, Archaeology, Natural Sciences and Visual Art. We have also developed a special collection of artworks on themes of conflict, peace and reconciliation linked to the bombing of Coventry in WW2. All collections are accessible and available for the artist to work with.
We don’t have a studio space but there are spaces in the building which can be made available at agreed times and we can offer desk space. A balance of onsite and remote working would work best but we hope the artist will be able to spend time here getting to know the collections, the museum and the city itself. The Curatorial Manager will be the nominated point of contact and there will be opportunities to engage with different teams across the museum. We’re keen to work with the artist to explore options for exhibiting the work created.
Kettle's Yard, Cambridge
Kettle’s Yard is a House and gallery that is one of 8 University of Cambridge Museums. Founded in 1957 by Jim and Helen Ede, it was their home until the 1970s and became a permanent home for their collection of mainly British and European modern art, as well as natural objects, furniture and textiles. Most of Kettle’s Yard’s collection is on permanent display in the House, with a separate reserve collection stored on-site. An extensive archive containing Jim Ede’s papers and associated material is also stored on-site.
We hope that the 20/20 residency will be an opportunity for an artist to engage with wider programmes of activity within Kettle’s Yard and the University of Cambridge Museums (UCM), including an ongoing shared UCM project that examines the legacies of empire and enslavement in our collections. Throughout the 20/20 residency there will be opportunities for the resident artist to engage with the collection and archive both in person through site visits and online, working with our curatorial team, and with the possibility of connecting with researchers elsewhere in the wider university. Kettle’s Yard will provide curatorial and practical support throughout, in response to the artist’s requirements and ambition for the residency.
Leeds Art Gallery
Leeds Art Gallery is part of Leeds Museums & Galleries, one of the largest local authority-run museum services in England. The gallery opened in 1888 and the Designated fine art collections have strengths in 18th and early 19th century English watercolours, 20th century British Art, and a modern sculpture collection more extensive than any other regional gallery in the UK. There are significant holdings of late 19th century pictures which are particularly strong in Victorian narrative painting, as well as outstanding examples of artists’ moving image works and contemporary sculpture.
Throughout its history the gallery has collected art of its time and collaborated with contemporary artists. The artist residency will involve access to the collection on display in the galleries and store. The artist will have a named lead who will be available for regular contact, and they will also meet the gallery team. We are open to working with artists from across the UK, however, it is important the selected artist spends time with the collection in person as well as virtually.
Manchester Art Gallery
Manchester Art Gallery has collections of fine art, craft and design and costume/dress – there are over 50,000 items held in trust for the people of Manchester. The collections were formed from purchases, gifts and bequests and are full of surprises and unexpected discoveries. They are wide-ranging and eclectic, shaped over 200 years through shifting ideologies and the competing influences of idealism and realism, opportunity and frustration. Today, the resulting collection represents a creative resource of infinite potential. There are a number of areas which are under researched and may be of interest including the Rutherston Loan Collection, the Old Manchester collection, the furniture collection and flat textiles.
Senior Curator Natasha Howes will be the main point of contact, working closely with the artist to develop the proposal. The artist will have access to other curators' expertise depending on which areas of the collection they are interested in exploring. For the residency, we are anticipating that this will be a mix of digital and in person. We have just begun an ambitious collections moves project where we are doing capital work to repair our historic buildings and improve the storage – we have currently run out of space to store the collection. As the objects will be packed and in transit during much of this period, it is impossible to guarantee physical access to see them all.
Middlesbrough Museum of Modern Art (MIMA)
In recent years, MIMA has prioritised work to research and share stories about obscured and forgotten histories in the Collection. We welcome applications that focus on uncovering and re-animating overlooked voices and stories. MIMA’s work is rooted in the Tees Valley and we invite this commission to connect to the social, economic, historical or environmental context of the Tees Valley.
The Middlesbrough Collection sits at the heart of MIMA’s artistic programme. Comprising over 2,350 works, its strengths are post Second World War British painting, contemporary American drawing, British studio ceramics and European jewellery. We have begun a process of actively addressing gaps in the Collection through prioritising the acquisitioning of artists with protected characteristics and lived experience. MIMA has a dedicated gallery for the presentation of the Collection and a recently opened Study Centre with library and archive and Open Access Collection Store presenting the entire ceramics and jewellery holding.
We are open to developing an approach that will be accessible and flexible for the selected artist. This could comprise 4 or more in-person visits to introduce the Collection, with access to the stores and archive at MIMA and periods of remote research. Our curators can support the artist by proposing works based on areas of interest. We can offer on-site research and study space and potentially access to making facilities as part of the School of Arts & Creative Industries, Teesside University.
National Museums Liverpool (Walker Art Gallery)
A residency with the Walker would be hybrid, with place-based opportunities and virtual. To start, we’d love to see you in Liverpool and show you the collection, stores and conservation studios. This would be a great chance to get an overview of the Walker and meet the team. This would be followed up with online access to our collections and image databases, as well as regular virtual meetings with teams and individuals as your ideas take shape. This would be supported by in person visits to access our collections, archives and library as required. We have hot desk space available for you to work in Liverpool.
A major temporary exhibition, Photie Man: 50 Years of Tom Wood, opens in May 23 and our Medieval, Renaissance and Baroque displays will reopen in July 23. These are likely to be busy periods for both staff and the gallery, so access might be limited during this period.
National Museums NI (Ulster Museum)
The Ulster Museum is a vibrant place, where friends and family can enjoy local and global collections that tell stories of our shared history, artistic expression and the riches of our natural world. It is a place of awe and wonder, but also a safe and trusted space that allows diverse voices to be heard and difficult challenges to be explored.
The art collection represents most major movements in art from the last 500 years. Though in recent years we have become keen to challenge that and redress what art should be represented and the stories that should be told. We have been exploring this through more engaged collecting and exhibition practice. We now want to push this further by inviting creative responses to the collection and creating links between the art, science and natural history collections.
This residency will be working with the Ulster Museum collection and your main contact is Anna Liesching (curator of art). Through Anna you will have the opportunity to connect with other experts within the museum including history and science curators and conservation staff. We are happy to support remote working, though would like a number of in-person visits for you to visit the museum itself, it’s off site stores and archives. The organisation is currently switching collection management systems, a new public version will be available the spring. In the meantime please contact Anna if you would like more specific information on the collection.
Wolverhampton Art Gallery
We’re excited to be part of 20/20. A residency at Wolverhampton Art Gallery will give access to our unique collection of artworks and objects including our extensive Black Art collection, our Georgian and Victorian paintings, our modern and contemporary collections, renowned collections of decorative arts, dolls and toys from across the world, and items relating to the Black Country’s industrial history. The 20/20 artist will have the opportunity to explore items both on display and held in our onsite stores. Although we don’t have a dedicated studio, the team would be delighted to support a hybrid arrangement with a combination of remote and in-person working. Many of our projects involve partnerships with local communities and arts organisations so we would be very willing to make introductions. Our curatorial and collections team look forward to sharing knowledge about the collection, its documentation and interpretation, and ensuring that the 20/20 residency is a great success.