UAL's 2020 Project offers artist residencies across the UK
06 January 2023
20/20 Project Artist Residency: Herbert Art Galllery & Museum joins call-out from UAL’s Decolonising Arts Institute
Image credit: Say Your Prayers, Eat Your Vitamins & Don’t be Racist by Habib Hajallie (2021) 59x42cm, ballpoint pen. Courtesy the artist.
Following their first call-out in 2022, University of the Arts London's Decolonising Arts Institute are now accepting a second round of expressions of interest in their 20/20 Project. The Herbert Art Gallery & Museum is delighted to be one of 20 museums and galleries offering artist residencies as part of this UK-wide initiative.
Set up in response to the resurgent Black Lives Matter movement and urgent calls for action across the arts and cultural sector, the 20/20 Project is a 3-year programme designed to catalyse artists’ careers, support meaningful change in collections and encourage inclusive engagement between artists, collections and communities.
The project will bring together 20 emerging or mid-career, ethnically diverse artists - who may identify as Black, brown or people of colour - together with 20 public art collections, leading to 20 new permanent acquisitions in museums and galleries across the UK. Successful applicants will be commissioned to research, develop and produce a creative work that engages with their host collection partner. They will undertake a 15-month residency, facilitated by UAL, which explores and responds to the collection’s history and holdings.
Applications for the second round of residencies is open from 6 January until 6 February 2023. Interested artists can find out more and apply via UAL's Call for Artists page.
Funded by Arts Council England’s National Lottery Project Grants programme, Freelands Foundation and UAL, the 20/20 Project will address the often problematic and negative ways in which diverse audiences see themselves reflected in museum and gallery spaces. Artists will be supported to develop their practices, whilst host institutions will be urged to confront how colonial histories and legacies influence collections and marginalise audiences.
20/20 will host a public programme, including an online digital exhibition at the end of each round of residencies, hosted by UAL. These exhibitions will showcase the residency projects and may feature work across diverse media, including digital native work. The programme will culminate in a symposium and e-publication featuring 20 original short essays commissioned in response to the residencies. This will bring artists, curators, and writers into dialogue with local, regional, national, and international audiences.
Each collection partner will also receive a portfolio of 20/20 prints. This means that artists who may have little or no visibility in collections to date will find their work in 20 public collections across the UK – impacting artists, audiences and the collections themselves.
Museums and galleries participating in the project include: Birmingham Museums Trust; The Box, Plymouth; Bradford District Museums and Galleries; Bristol Museum & Art Gallery; Compton Verney, Warwickshire; Harris Museum, Preston; The Hepworth Wakefield; Herbert Art Gallery & Museum, Coventry; Kelvingrove Art Gallery & Museum, Glasgow; Kettle's Yard, Cambridge; Leeds Art Gallery; The Lightbox, Woking; Manchester Art Gallery; MIMA (Middlesbrough Museum of Modern Art); National Disability Arts Collection & Archive (NDACA); National Museums NI (Ulster Museum); Pallant House Gallery, Chichester; Sheffield Museums Trust; Walker Art Gallery, National Museums Liverpool; Wolverhampton Art Gallery.
The 20/20 project is funded by Arts Council England’s National Lottery Project Grants programme, Freelands Foundation and UAL. Find out more and apply online here.