British Art News: Newsletter of the British Art Network, November 2024
CONVENOR’S INTRODUCTION
The Emerging Curators Group (ECG) has been a pillar of BAN’s programme since it began –under the rubric of Early Career Curators Group (ECCG) – in 2015. Always intended as a sustained programme of shared learning and visits aimed at connecting and supporting people in the first stages of their curatorial work, the Group has changed significantly over the passing years in its form, duration and focus. To mark 10 years of the ECG, we have invited contributions that reflect this history, and thereby perhaps help illuminate some larger shifts within the curatorial field.
We start with a reflection on the ECG’s formation and development by Pauline de Souza –one of the advisors who, in 2019–2020, helped shift the focus and direction of the Group significantly, and who subsequently joined our Steering Group and continues to have a close involvement with the programme. An interview with one of the original ECCG, Cicely Robinson, follows. With a career which has included roles in a range of different organisations, as well as academic research and freelance curating, Cicely is well placed to reflect on the changing conditions of curatorial practice. Cicely, too, has joined our Steering Group and is helping to inform the further development of the programme.
Two further contributions from members of more recent ECG cohorts follow, reporting on BANsupported activity. Jess Baxter offers reflections on her trip to the Malta Biennale – its aesthetic and political impact certainly, but also striking a more personal note. Chris Duddy reports on his work with another ECG alumnus, Moritz Chung, exploring experimental noise art – starting as a seminar, unfolding as something more like a research project. We are also announcing a podcast series, Art After Devolution, which draws from the 2023 British Art Network conference and is hosted by the conference guest convenor Marcus Jack, an alumnus of ECCG 2019–2020 and former Steering Group member. Between those contributions from members reporting on BANsupported activity and the podcast announcement is a series of short reflections from members of the ECCG and ECG, sharing their memories of the programme, reflecting on their career and creative lives, and offering provocations around the politics of the art world and what they have learned. Finally, BAN Coordinator Jessica Juckes looks at our cover image, taken during an ECG meeting in 2021– as Jess notes, our ‘pandemic’ group only then
Figure 1 Maria Fusco performs a reading from her collection of essays Who Does Not Envy With Us Is Against Us at British Art After Britain, BAN annual conference 2023. 5
Photo by Erika Stevenson
managing to gather in person – and shares her thoughts about our hopes for the programme.
Given the time-span, the range of individuals involved, and the ways the programme itself has changed – as has the art world and the world at large – we might not assume much common ground across these various contributions. These reflections and commentaries reflect a capacious, open idea of a ‘curator’, as someone who may or may not occupy a professional role, may or may not focus on a particular collection or historical period, and equally may also be a creative, a producer, a programmer, a traveller, an observer, a researcher … The interdependence or interplay of research and creativity, collective and individual action, reflection and production, practice and theory may in fact be constants in this context.
There is, too, a recurring sense of displacement – a harsh term for experiences which are clearly often sweet as well as painful – involving intergenerational and geographical dislocations, the schisms and fractures around class and money and time, and assertions of personal identity and belonging in the face of misunderstanding or marginalisation. The assumed linearity of a ‘career’ is barely present here – people have so often moved around and changed roles or worked independently, moved in and out of different identities and switched trajectories. The assumption of such linearity is arguably a socially exclusive property. It is certainly dependent upon resources (cultural, educational, social) which are very unevenly distributed. Sociologically minded readers will perhaps think immediately of the simultaneously generative and fraught experience of the ‘cleft habitus’ (as crafted influentially by Bourdieu), the stretching and division of the self between destined and experienced environments (where your class or identity or education might predictably send you, and where you have actually ended up – how many of us, after all, ever really expected to be ‘a curator’?).
In the context of the ECG workshops and learning sessions, we often hear of fears about ‘imposter syndrome’. Such is the frequency with which those anxieties are shared – across the years, and by people with very different backgrounds and perspectives – that we might have to conclude that such is the norm – not the exception – within the curatorial field. This, at least, has been the case in those corners and junctures of the curatorial field that the British Art Network connects with, where the people who seem most interesting and aware and active seem to be. Perhaps, even, it is a special power of ‘the curatorial’ as a mess of practices and expectations and understandings to permit those anxieties into representation, allow them to play out, and more productively than they might in other settings. The positive sentiments shared in so many of the texts that follow – not simplistically or sentimentally but with an attention to practical and professional realities and politics – may encourage us to believe that is the case, anyway, and forms the foundation for the continuation and further development of the Network itself. We look forward to working with Members on our future programmes, and in particular bringing together the next Emerging Curators Group in 2026look out for more information on that in late 2025.
Martin Myrone
October
2024
NEW TEAM MEMBER
Introducing a member of the British Art Network team from Tate
Chelsea Humado, National Partnerships and Programme Assistant
I’m pleased to be joining the BAN team as the National Partnerships and Programmes Assistant based at Tate Liverpool! I’ll be supporting the team with administration tasks and helping with the coordination and execution of BAN events including the upcoming conference.
Prior to joining BAN, I studied a BA in Architecture at the University of Liverpool. I now have a particular interest in the relationship between space, spirit and journey within the curatorial, and alternative methods of research.
I’m really looking forward to seeing more of you at events in the near future and hearing all that you have to say!
Chelsea
Humado
PAULINE DE SOUZA ON THE EARLY CURATORS GROUP
The ECG group was originally formed in 2015 as the Early Career Curators Group, as a forum intended to support new curatorial ideas and career pathways. It has changed in various ways over the years.
In 2022, the group became the Emerging Curators Group (ECG), changing and leading curatorial research in British Art (the term itself referring to a contested category of art), becoming a place to think about future developments in research and practice.
At the beginning, the group was very small, consisting only of nine people whose focus was on the difficult career pathways in curatorial practice and providing peer-to-peer support in navigating well-trodden pathways alongside expert knowledge exchange from institutions connected to Tate’s organisational network. The first group did not receive much funding for their activities but was able to run workshops and other events. The second Early Career Curators Group, running from 2019–2020, had the opportunity to undertake more independent research and this was the group I encountered when they were working on their collaborative project. This project showed the category of British Art had to be questioned. Now was the time to consider who was invited into the forum, whose knowledge would add to the restrictive understanding of British art. Now was the time to evaluate the power behind the terminology plus the expectations of people attending a conference for the first time and the expectations of people hosting the conference.
How was the group and the supportive network going to do this? How was it going to allow outsiders in and how were they going to push the boundaries of British Art? Enter stage left, in 2022, me, Pauline de Souza, Lauren Craig and Tony Heaton.
We were asked to join the BAN Steering Group, which allowed us to engage with the renewed Emerging Curators Group. Here was the chance for the group to further broaden its horizons and to continue expanding the definition of British Art. All three of us challenged the Western Canon by looking at the questions of who identified as British and how they encountered art, and thinking about how art served a purpose. Curators whose approaches and thinking was different, those with hidden and visible disabilities, plus curators from different cultural backgrounds were interviewed and joined the ECG. It was also the time when more freelance curators joined the group, making their presence stronger (as continues to be the case), and making clear to the institutions supporting as well as hosting the group the importance of comprehending their difficult career pathways.
The areas of research and career development for the ECG has expanded to include writing as curatorial practice and curatorship for artist-run spaces, historical collections, class and curatorship, non-diverse engagement and curatorial practice, and the value of ceramics in historical and contemporary environments. The funding for independent research remains a priority and research support will continue to be a feature of the ECG. During COVID-19, online sessions became the normal way to share knowledge and ideas, helping to ensure that the group did not miss out entirely on the close friendships the network created. Online sessions are still part of the research programme.
While plans for the next ECG remain in development, the future is bright. The ECG grows and curatorial practice keeps on questioning not only the terminology of British Art but also the boundaries of what a curator does, and the value of the curator in relation to ever-changing modes of engagement, as new as well as existing audiences question the role of the curator.
Figure 2 British Art Network Emerging Curators Group 2024 at Bluecoat, Liverpool, 5 March 2024
Dr Cicely Robinson is Senior Curator of Paintings, Royal Collection Trust. Having first studied History of Art at the University of Bristol, Cicely completed a collaborative PhD with the University of York and the National Maritime Museum in 2014, specialising in nineteenthcentury exhibition history and naval art. Cicely has worked with varied fine and decorative art collections across the museum, historic house and gallery sector, including serving as Brice Chief Curator at Watts Gallery – Artists’ Village (2018–2021) and curating the opening hang of British sporting art at Palace House, Newmarket (2013–2016). Cicely was a member of the first Early Career Curators Group (2015–2018) and joined the BAN Steering Group in 2023.
You were a member of British Art Network’s first ‘Early Career Curators Group’ in 2015–2018. What was your engagement with curating at that point? What do you recall of the programme of activity, and have there been any lasting impacts of the programme and the group?
I was 18 months into my first curatorial job when I had the opportunity to take part in the Early Career Curators Group. As Assistant Curator at the National Horseracing Museum in Newmarket, I was working as part of a small team on a major Heritage Lottery Fundsupported project to relocate and redevelop the museum. I was tasked with curating the opening hang of British sporting art in the gallery, which sought to re-evaluate this rather niche genre from the early modern through to the contemporary. At a time when I was wrangling with all the complexities of a capital project as well as getting to grips with the curatorial day job, the ECCG was an invaluable source of professional development and peer support.
Participants in this cohort came from a wide range of organisations from across the UK. Many of us were employed on short fixed-term contracts, so we immediately bonded over a shared sense of uncertainty about how to build a curatorial career. We developed the programme as a group, seeking out opportunities to develop specific skills as well as broaden our knowledge of the sector. One surprisingly engaging session was dedicated to project management and workflow methodologies, and I have remained completely committed to David Allen’s Getting Things Done as a result!
We also had a series of in-conversation sessions with industry experts. I will always remember the incredibly inspiring talk that Mary Griffiths (Senior Curator at the Whitworth
Art Gallery at the time) gave about curatorial career progression. She directly challenged the traditional idea that a successful curatorial career has a rather straightforward and linear projection and instead offered a refreshing perspective on just how varied and experimental curatorial careers can be.
When it launched in 2015, the ECCG felt like such a ground-breaking initiative, offering a source of sustained curatorial professional development that just didn’t exist elsewhere, especially for curators at the outset of their careers. Perhaps the longest-lasting legacy of our 2015–2018 cohort is the peer network that we built. Our group WhatsApp chat is still an active platform to share new opportunities and seek advice, so for me the ECCG continues to be a phenomenal means to access curatorial expertise and sector support today.
Over the last decade you have occupied a number of curatorial roles, in quite different settings, as well as working independently. From the vantage point offered by BAN, we might observe that over the last 10 years or so curators are more often occupying multiple roles, moving organisations and indeed moving into freelancing. Does that match your observations, and what’s your sense of the relative benefits – and challenges – of working inside and outside organisational settings?
I’ve worked in curatorial roles in a mix of organisations over the last decade, ranging from small and ambitious independent charitable trusts to complex and colossal multi-site arts organisations. Located in a mix of regional and metropolitan locations, they have also varied in terms of governance, operating models and funding structures. What this experience has taught me perhaps more than anything else is just how varied and wide-ranging curatorial work can be. No two roles ever seem to be the same!
I’d agree with the observation that curators seem to move between roles and organisations more than they did a couple of decades ago. In part, perhaps this is driven by an increase in short-term contracts and project-funded posts, but it also offers a means for people to broaden their curatorial experience and pursue alternative opportunities for career progression. In more recent years, there’s also been a rise in portfolio careers with people blending curatorial work with other part-time roles or freelance work, utilising the wide range of transferable curatorial skills to secure opportunities within or beyond the museum and gallery sector.
When I was freelance, I spent time working in the film industry, using the experience I’d gained project managing exhibition installations and collection decants to support the coordination of large - scale production filming at historic locations. A side hus tle certainly helps to navigate the precarity of freelance curatorial work but, if you can achieve this, you potentially gain the freedom to pursue the research and projects that you really care about. Equally, for me, working outside of an organisationa l setting meant losing that direct contact with collections (as well as colleagues), which is something I really value in my curatorial work and rather missed at the time.
There are arguably benefits to all these approaches and I hope the sector continues to develop as a place that enables people to adapt and move between them. The more agile the industry can become, the more accessible it will be hopefully, allowing everyone to find a mode of working that enables them build successful and fulfilling curatorial careers, that work for them both personally and professionally.
You undertook a collaborative doctoral project, involving the National Maritime Museum, which focused on the display histories of naval art. Your subsequent curatorial roles have not, I think, focused particularly on maritime collections, however. What do you think is the value of doctoral research in relation to curatorial research and work? Would you recommend it, and has your thinking on this point changed over time?
It’s fair to say my thesis topic was pretty niche! As a result, I didn’t necessarily expect to find many curatorial jobs that might draw on it, which enabled me to cast quite a wide net when I first started looking for curatorial roles. I really enjoyed the doctoral process, and it certainly enabled me to develop my research and writing skills as well as gain some experience of presenting at conferences, all of which I use on quite regular basis in a curatorial capacity. However, a PhD is just one of the many ways to develop the transferable skills and experience that curatorial work might utilise and the routes that people take into the sector can be really varied as a result.
Compared to doctoral research, which is a very independent type of study, I’d argue curatorial research is much more collaborative. It’s often conducted with a specific output in mind, whether that’s to scope out an exhibition idea, inform which artworks to prioritise for conservation, or explore new ways to interpret an object. It’s an essential aspect of the job but curatorial research, much like curatorial practice more broadly, is equally about enabling others to access and engage with the collections in your care – that’s really at the heart of the job.
Your research and curatorial work has ranged widely, but has focused on historic artists and collections. There’s often a perception that historic art – perhaps British art especially – presents a particular challenge, in terms of its accessibility and sense of relevance. Has that been your experience and, if so, what’s your perspective on addressing the issue?
I completely accept the observation that historic art (British art perhaps in particular) can appear inaccessible, slightly obscure and even irrelevant. However, for a curator working with historic collections, that’s exactly what makes them so interesting and challenging to work with. The past, after all, is inherently linked to the present moment.
Historic art offers up the visual clues that enable us to engage with and interpret the past, to build an understanding and reflect on the values and belief systems of a particular moment and place in time. Equally the way in which we engage with historic art – this process of looking at and re-evaluating the past – also shapes and reflects our understanding of the present moment (which is ever changing). Finding new ways to explore these points of connection (or disconnect) between the historic and contemporary is perhaps what enables some of the most timely and thought-provoking conversations to take place.
We were delighted when in 2023 you agreed to join our Steering Group and help shape BAN’s future programmes and activities. What do you think BAN should be focusing on particularly at this point?
I have engaged with BAN activities in lots of different ways since its foundation. The network is a fantastic place to connect with a broad range of arts professionals from across and beyond the UK, all collectively engaging with British art in varied and exciting ways. However, the way in which BAN has had the greatest and most sustained impact on my curatorial practice began back in 2015, through the Early Career Curators Group (or Emerging Curators Group as it is today).
A decade later, funding for curatorial professional development is still not in great shape and it continues to be challenging for both individuals and institutions to access opportunities and resources. In response to the ongoing pressures on the arts and the everexpanding remit of curators, both within and outside of institutions, I would like to see the network continue to build on the success of its ECG programme, identifying new ways to broaden the reach and impact of the invaluable curatorial support that BAN already offers and championing the need for and benefit of this within the wider sector.
JESS BAXTER ON THE MALTA BIENNALE
I wasn’t too sure at first about Malta having its first biennale. Malta, my maternal homeland, country of rock and overindulgent tourism and my numerous great-aunts.
Truthfully, I have never been to a Biennale, Venice or otherwise, but I could imagine the art world descending, glitzy and uncaring, to treat the country as a cutesy holiday destination. Fortunately, it was not like that, or at least not for the week I visited.
Navigating the ancient Valletta alleyways, pastizz pastry in hand, I met with two of the Biennale curators, Sofia Baldi Pighi and Emma Mattei. I just emailed them, out of the blue, and they were kind enough to accept this request from a stranger to talk about the Biennale’s design. A realisation broke for me that morning, one I experience regularly but seem to forget in the frenzied pace of London’s art scene: that there is a way of life for creatives and curators outside of metropolises, which involves being sustainable, life-confirming, and full of care for each other, despite the bondage of budget cuts and ceaseless classism. Going to Middlesborough with my year’s ECG cohort is a previous example of such a realisation.
In Valletta, I spent the rest of the time bouncing between venues to soak up the art. I cringe to think about it now, but really, I was so excited to see these amazing artists’ work in new, unexpected places, outside of the white cube we all know and love to hate. A particular favourite was one of Guadalupe Maravilla’s series of Disease Throwers installed in the apse, the holiest area, of a seventeenth-church – a huge headdress/sculpture/shrine evoking healing, Indigenous knowledge systems, and the artist’s recovery from cancer. In the church’s backroom was Dew Kim’s The Enchanting Offering, a queer and sexy video work showing pink, pulsing relics of body parts (stigmata of hand and foot, and also asshole?)
overlaid with ravey music and K-pop poses. Definitely risky to show in a capital soaked to the bone with Roman Catholicism. Loved it all.
I also met with artists Romeo Roxman Gatt and Charlie Cauchi, who co-founded Rosa Kwir, an archive and gallery space for trans men, non-binary and LBQI masculine-presenting people in Malta. Our conversation reminded me that, yes, London can be a corporatesodden hellscape, but, realistically, there are funding streams and opportunities and boundary-pushing spaces, that are worth hanging on to.
Last stop was the Armoury of the Knights of Malta in Birgu, its exterior draped with Tania Bruguera’s provocative flag work (well, provocative to the far- and centreright, obvious to others). Here I was really gallery-texted out. The writing was dense and wordy, more suited to a glossy catalogue. How were people new to contemporary art meant to know what was in front of them, let alone get excited about it? But, at the very least, it was good to see the writing in Maltese as well as in English. I stared at the Arabic-rooted words, the dashes and dots and recurring x’s and z’s, wishing I could read it, willing myself to magically grasp the knowledge lost in the gap between my mother and I. ‘Why didn’t you teach me Maltese growing up?’ I asked her. ‘It just didn’t seem useful! When would you have needed it?’ she said.
CHRIS DUDDY ON THE EXPERIMENTAL NOISE ARTIST SEMINAR
– WHAT IS IT, HOW IT STARTED, WHERE IT’S GOING
The Experimental Noise Artists Seminar (ENAS) has evolved into a research and curatorial project, mapping and exploring the genre and culture of experimental sound artists in the UK. ENAS is an offshoot of, and runs parallel to, my own curation project and passion project, the experimental sound artist platform, Four Track Nights.
ENAS is hosted by Moritz Cheung and myself (Chris Duddy). We met through the BAN Emerging Curators Group (ECG) in 2022. With a shared interest in experimental arts and the application of technologies in the arts, we found common ground. At the end of our year with the ECG, we were offered a further bursary to pursue a research path of our choosing, along with funds to cover a seminar, roundtable or workshop – thus, ENAS was born!
In 2023, we canvassed live sound artists across the UK, seeking individuals from both rural and metropolitan areas to contrast their experiences. We asked about the platforms they use to reach audiences, whether rural-based artists can showcase their work locally or must travel to major cities, and if they have a supportive artistic community for their work in their area.
Moritz and I then hosted the first ENAS as an in-person and live-streamed seminar in a disused supermarket in Paisley. We invited five artists – one online and four in-person – to discuss their work and reflect on the survey questions. This was interspersed with three individual performances by the in-person artists.
This year, we were given the opportunity to produce another ENAS, and we were drawn to Newcastle for its underground and DIY music scene. Our research topic for this event was diversity and opportunity within the scene. The survey included a general diversity
Figure 7: ENAS 2023 panel. Image courtesy Chris Duddy
questionnaire and also asked what opportunities are available, and what could be done to support artists starting out in the genre.
Upgrading from the abandoned supermarket vibe, we booked The Lubber Fiend, an independent, communityfocused venue that has previously hosted local experimental artists. Once again, we welcomed a mixed audience of live and online participants who had the chance to see our four guest artists speak and perform. To highlight Newcastle's offerings, three of the panellists were local artists.
Both the Paisley and Newcastle ENAS roundtable sessions, along with the performances, are available in full on the Four Track Nights YouTube channel.
I’m very proud of what we managed to achieve in both sessions. Not only were we able to showcase some outstanding artists, but we also made new connections, hopefully fostering links between artists who might not have met otherwise. Additionally, we gained valuable insights into this under-publicised scene. I believe this shows how opportunities like the ECG can lead to exciting developments and help support the wider artist community.
The BAN team invited members of the original Early Career Curators Groups (2015–2018, 2019–2020 and 2020–2021) and the Emerging Curators Groups (2022, 2023 and 2024) to reflect on their experience and their careers and curatorial engagements since. The personal statements that follow reflect a range of individual perspectives and experiences, touching on an array of professional, personal and political issues.
Emalee Beddoes-Davis
I was a member of what was then called the Early Career Curators Group from 2015–2018. At the time, I had just completed a Skills for the Future traineeship at Museums Worcestershire and was working there as Curator of Art and Exhibitions, as well as doing some freelance curating with Division of Labour, a contemporary art gallery based in Worcester.
I came into the room of our first meeting intimidated by my peers, my selfconfidence shaped by an internalised
belief that my experience was parochial. Within the first session, we came to realise that we all felt similar fears – regardless of education, experience or privilege, we were all exhausted, frustrated and riddled with imposter syndrome. Over time, coming together as a support group and meeting with industry leaders, we completed our tenure confident in our capabilities, the value of our work and the opportunities we could create for ourselves.
We led a conference called Curating Now at Ferens Gallery, Leeds in 2017. Delegates filled in drawings of heads with words that made up a good curator. These included thoughts such as ‘public good’, ‘facilitation’ and ‘hosting’, which signalled the turn towards co-production and social engagement that was emerging within curatorial practice at that time.
Shortly after this, I moved to Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery and began work on a number of projects with social justice and co-production at their heart, working closely with artists and communities, all of whom have forever changed how I work and who I am as a person.
In May this year, I came to my current role at Hereford Museums Service, where I have the incredible opportunity to lead on the arts programme for an enormous redevelopment project creating a worldclass museum in Herefordshire. I am a curator of both collections and engagement, with community and collaboration integral to how I programme, collect, interpret and care for collections.
At the beginning of my career, curating art in the three counties was a fairly lonely
I was a member of the British Art Network’s Emerging Curators Group for the year 2023.
When I look around to my friends who work in other sectors, it makes me realise some of the specificities of the curatorial field. Early career curators aren’t trained together in large graduate programmes or cohorts; instead, we find ourselves dispersed across many institutions and freelance roles. And unlike some
experience and I saw it as a stepping stone to a career in a prestigious national institution. Working with artists, communities and curatorial peers across the country has dismantled many of the hierarchies that I had internalised around class, regional and national, vernacular and fine art. I now see the value of my role as a regional curator and am excited by the opportunities it offers for experimentation, creativity and community.
professions, there is no set career path for a curator: get fifteen curators in a room and each of their paths will likely be different.
Getting fifteen curators in a room is, of course, exactly what the ECG programme does. Being around people who are at a similar stage in their career, but nonetheless who have very different experience to you, has two major effects. First, it shows you that your own route, however unconventional or convoluted, isn’t as strange as you might sometimes think. The ECG programme helps to dispel any lingering feelings of impostor syndrome because it shows you that there is no single way of doing curatorial work. It also brings together early career curators in a single forum – something that is often hard to do in a sector where we are spread across institutions and geographies. I have learnt so much from my peers in the ECG, who all bring such different experience and expertise to the table, and I don’t think it’s an exaggeration to say that without the programme the fifteen of us may have never met each other.
Surya Bowyer
The key theme that emerged from our ECG meetings was ‘slow curating’, the idea that by slowing down and being more discerning of what work is actually essential we might end up doing better, more meaningful work. Slow curating also has a bearing on care, both of ourselves and our planet, by potentially improving our work–life balance and the climate impact of our work.
As part of the ECG, there was a funding opportunity to conduct small group projects. I was involved in one of these projects, when four of us visited Leeds to investigate the city’s arts infrastructure and ecology. The project was very openended, designed to expose us to a new area of the UK so that we might learn from its arts sector. BAN’s focus on professional development was a refreshing approach to funding in a sector that can get overly fixated on ostensibly measurable ‘outputs’.
Each member of the ECG worked on an individual research project. Mine
developed into the recent exhibition Paper Cuts: Art, Bureaucracy, and Silenced Histories in Colonial India at Peltz Gallery, University of London. The exhibition was a success, receiving very positive reviews. As part of the exhibition, I ran a corresponding events programme that included an artist’s talk, an expert panel, and an early career event that aimed to re-curate the show. These proved to be valuable forums for discussing the ideas raised by the exhibition. Both the exhibition and events programme were greatly shaped by discussions during my time on the ECG –not to mention the ECG funding, which contributed to the exhibition’s budget. Without my involvement with the ECG, I simply do not think Paper Cuts would have been the success that it was.
I still talk regularly to the friends I made on the ECG, and I think that will ultimately be the most important and long-lasting legacy of the programme.
I was part of the British Art Network’s Emerging Curator’s Group (ECG) in 2020–2021, which was an incredibly affirming and rewarding experience for me. During this period, when galleries and museums were closed due to lockdown restrictions and I had lost most of my work, being part of the group gave me a connection to others who were also navigating similar challenges. Curatorial practice is an incredibly challenging industry to enter, but it was really affirming to see how others were navigating a career in curation – from more grassroots and collective organising methods, through to more traditional institutional approaches. I think this really inspired me to become more imaginative and more ambitious with how I nurture and widen the scope of my practice. This means that I now work through multiple channels – through residencies, solo and group commissions, with archives, arts festivals and galleries.
Although I am not currently working in curatorial practice, many of the things that I learnt (particularly from the other members of the cohort) during my time in the group have been helpful. Since my time in the ECG, I have graduated with an MA in African Literature from Wits University in Johannesburg, South Africa. I now work as a freelance writer and editor, particularly in the field of visual and contemporary art.
I also concurrently try to maintain an artistic and programming practice, which can be challenging but is something I enjoy nonetheless. Recent commissions include an event for Glasgow International Festival of Visual Art titled slippery logics, entangled memories (2024) and an exhibition in response to Magnetic North’s production of Walden at Fruitmarket, Edinburgh (2023).
During my time in the ECG, there were global uprisings organised by Black Lives Matter and other groups in response to horrific state and police-sponsored antiBlack violence in Europe and America. During this time, we saw some arts institutions rush to offer solidarity with little to no action to accompany it – in 2024, it’s evident that this solidarity was solely performative. Now, we are seeing the same institutions failing to show solidarity with Palestinians – and refusing to boycott and divest from funding bodies and investments firms that are directly implicated in Israel’s genocide in the Occupied Palestinian Territories.
Becky Gee
When I joined the ECG in 2019, I had just begun my role as Curator of Fine Art at York Art Gallery. I left this position in August 2024, and it feels pertinent to reflect on career progression, research and the role of the British Art Network during a period of rest and transition ahead of embarking on my next steps.
It can be difficult to dedicate time to research while working in a multifaceted job for a multi-site regional organisation, where curators are required to juggle complex projects and competing priorities. When curating transhistorical exhibitions, my research can involve extensive reading, often ‘against the grain’ to create a more detailed picture of historic accounts. However, for directing programmes, the focus of my role at Artlink Hull, seeing art, meeting artists and gaining a broader understanding of the UK’s contemporary art landscape are essential forms of research. Over the last five years research has creeped its way into early mornings, evenings and weekends as a means of survival, impacting
the work–life balance that many of us struggle to achieve. The ECG legacy fund has enabled me to carve out time for valuable engagement with art which has enhanced my research-led exhibitions and knowledge of the sector.
An example of how this has intersected was in 2021, when I was curating the exhibition Beyond Bloomsbury: Life, Love and Legacy in partnership with the National Portrait Gallery and Sheffield Museums. With a focus on broadening ideas around craft, making and networks in early twentieth-century Britain, it felt ingenuine to have not seen the work of the artists that I was dissecting, particularly Charleston Farmhouse, which is widely considered to be the epitome of rural Bloomsbury life in Sussex. In October of that year, an ECG bursary from BAN enabled me to visit Charleston, and other homes and sites associated with Bloomsbury artists. Not only had I not visited these sites before, but I had never been to Sussex, and I utilised this opportunity to visit as many places as possible as part of the trip, including galleries in Brighton, Bexhill-on-Sea, Eastbourne and Hastings. I can rarely travel this far for research and I am grateful to have been able to expand my knowledge of modern and contemporary art in this region. I have also enjoyed similar opportunities to reconnect with ECG cohorts, such as at Liverpool Biennial in 2023, where it was important to find time among networking for solo exhibition visits, which I find energising.
In October 2024, I will be starting a collaborative PhD with Teesside University and MIMA, which I hope will enable me to prioritise similar learning methods.
Madeleine Kennedy
I’m sure my colleagues from other cohorts of the Early Career Curators Group have shared reflections on the pivotal support of the programme itself and the long-term networks it has helped forge. The same was certainly true for me, especially as the opportunity came at a critical time in my curatorial development, shortly after I entered my first full-time curator role in my early twenties, feeling honoured to be leading the delivery of a gallery-wide exhibition programme and contributing to the artistic vision for a major redevelopment, but equally daunted by that level of responsibility so early in my career. The bonds created through the extended duration and residential components of the ECCG programme established a safe space to voice those anxieties and feel supported by a network of accomplished peers, building relationships that we’ve sustained for what’s now been nearly a decade.
But on reflection, another key impact that the ECCG had on my career was perhaps more meta, in that it initiated what has become a long-standing fascination with what precisely creates the conditions to facilitate solidarity between curators working in different contexts; what empowers them to nurture their skills as thinkers as well as project-managers despite the day-to-day pressures of the job, and to reach out to each other as sounding boards for new ideas in ways that can mitigate some of the risk-aversion we sometimes see in the sector. That’s what the ECCG did for me but I’m aware not all Continuing Professional Development programmes manage to. This is what led me to my Fellowship with Independent Curators International in New York, interviewing a truly global network of alumni from their prestigious Curatorial Intensive programme, trying to ascertain what specific design elements of that programme, like the ECCG, enabled curators to come together, learn from each other in unguarded ways, and improve their practice in community.
My experience of the peer-to-peer mentoring central to the ECCG has also deeply informed how I mentor and train junior curatorial colleagues when I have the privilege of doing so, aiming to re-create on a 1:1 scale some of the beauties of what was modelled for me by the generous support of my peers in the ECCG. This, in turn, has influenced my teaching and the collaborative curatorial methods I developed through my PhD, and I remain eternally thankful to my peers in the programme and those who devised it for those formative experiences of what trust and collectivity can create.
Jacqui McIntosh
I applied to be part of the Emerging Curators Group at a pivotal time in my career. Although I had been working within exhibitions at a public institution for a long time and researched and curated within my role, it was always on top of my Exhibitions Management job title which felt inconsistent, unsustainable and often exhausting. By the end of 2021, when I applied to be part of ECG, I had spent most of the previous two years working from home due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The pandemic highlighted and exasperated many inequalities existing within our society. From my own perspective, it revealed clearly the difficulties faced by parents, particularly women, working within the cultural sector and the barriers to progression and pay parity. As a mother of a young child, I felt limited by lack of time, headspace and energy and couldn’t see a way forward to develop as a curator. Being part of ECG gave me the space to explore difference routes at a time when I
lacked confidence and was uncertain how to build on previous experiences and develop further. The 2022 ECG cohort consisted of a great collection of thoughtful, creative and passionate people from a range of diverse backgrounds, with different experiences and expectations of working in the arts. I learnt a huge amount from these brilliant people and through many conversations saw more clearly the range of barriers that people face within our sector. Most importantly, we discussed, debated and tried to envision what a fairer and more inclusive art world might look like. Increasingly, these are conversations that are happening in the art world much more in the open which is very positive. There is, however, still much more work to be done, particularly related to underpaid and unpaid labour for both art workers and artists.
The bursary that I received through ECG helped me to justify taking time to prioritise research. It was time very well spent which has ultimately led to the development of a research focus around feminist, mediumistic and esoteric histories. Being part of ECG also gave me the confidence to apply for a Curatorial Research Grant with Drawing Room from the Paul Mellon Centre for Studies in British Art. The grant led to researching and curating the exhibition The Time of Our Lives (Drawing Room, 2024), which looked at the pioneering drawing practices of women artists and the ways that drawing has been used to raise consciousness around social and political issues, such as reproductive justice, sexism, racism and other forms of oppression.
Through the experiences of the past two years, I have developed an intersectional feminist approach to research and curation, one which I take with me as I embark on my new role at the College of Psychic Studies as
Tor Scott
My experience with the Emerging Curators Group (ECG) started in 2019. I applied to be part of the scheme with the hopes of expanding my knowledge of curatorial practice and meeting researchers and creatives at the same stage in their career as me. My project on the British surrealist artist Edith Rimmington was then in its early stages. The ECG bursary facilitated travel to archives and collections across the UK to gain a better understanding of Rimmington’s life and career, and to begin to build a profile on a little-known but important artist. I was able to visit the few collectors that owned Rimmington works, connect with people who knew her (or who knew those close to her), start to get a better understanding of the circles
Curator and Archivist. Being part of ECG has played an important role in this career progression, stimulating fresh thinking and approaches to curating alongside new connections and opportunities to develop.
Rimmington was part of, and gain a clearer insight into her role in the British Surrealist Group.
As a result, I developed a database tracking the (known) works Rimmington had produced, those still surviving in public and private collections, and the exhibitions she participated in. This allowed me to start building a body of research on Rimmington’s oeuvre. I then applied for a funded collaborative PhD on the artist in 2020, for which (to my great surprise!) I was successful. Taking on a part-time PhD has been challenging but has allowed me to gain confidence in my writing and research as someone with little academic experience. Since then, I have published and lectured on British Surrealism and assisted on developing surrealist exhibitions. It has been truly invaluable, not only for my career development, but also in building confidence in myself and my research specialism.
In the last five years, there has been a swell of interest in the work of surrealist artists, with several new exhibitions and publications highlighting the importance of feminist, queer, intersectional and transnational approaches to surrealism as a movement. Many of these have included Rimmington’s paintings and drawings. In 2020, two exhibitions – Fantastic Women: Surreal Worlds from Meret Oppenheim to
Frida Kahlo at the Schirn Kunsthalle in Frankfurt and British Surrealism at Dulwich Picture Gallery – both featured important works by Rimmington. In 2022, Rimmington’s oil painting The Decoy (1947) was shown at the Venice Biennale. In 2021, Phantoms of Surrealism opened at Whitechapel Gallery and highlighted the significance of female surrealist artists
I wasn’t sure what to expect when I first applied to join the 2023 Emerging Curators Group (ECG). At the time, I was trying to carve out a professional path in the art and culture sector. Having graduated with a degree in Architecture and Planning just before the pandemic, this proved challenging. As an artist at heart, I’ve always had a deep interest in contemporary art and design, constantly seeking opportunities to engage with cultural activities, events and practitioners I found intriguing.
working in Britain during the twentieth century. It included a drawing by Rimmington that, to my knowledge, had never been exhibited before. I hope this interest in Rimmington’s work continues to grow, and that other forgotten artists are brought to light and new surrealist stories unearthed.
Although I didn’t know much about curation at first, I found myself involved in several curatorial projects over the years. I loved attending exhibitions, participating in public programmes and became particularly fascinated by cultural festivals. I wanted to contribute to this vibrant environment. In 2021, I worked as a creative producer and curator on Houses of Wisdom, an audio-visual exhibition and event celebrating Muslim art and creativity as part of a multi-arts festival. This experience cemented my desire to pursue a career in curation. I first encountered the ECG through the Black Curatorial, a creative agency that supports Black curators and creatives in developing curatorial projects. Reflecting on the cultural activities that sparked my interest, I knew ECG would be the perfect platform to learn more about curation. Over the nine months, I participated in a mix of workshops, events and field trips, where we explored key issues such as art handling, ethical practices in cultural production, fair compensation for artists and the evolving role of curators in today’s world.
With the support of a bursary, I attended the 2023 Venice Architecture Biennale,
Hanifah Sogbanmu
studying the artistic direction of Lesley Lokko and the British Pavilion, Dancing Before the Moon. I also attended the Liverpool Biennial’s Sector Day, an incredible networking experience where I witnessed uMoya: The Sacred Return of Lost Things, curated by Khanyisile Mbongwa. These experiences have deeply shaped my practice and research interests. They align directly with my curatorial practice, which centres on exploring Indigenous ways of living, making, sharing knowledge and storytelling. Through experimental writing, painting, exhibitionmaking and live programming, I investigate how contemporary art and design can honour the people, places and practices that shape our world.
One of the most valuable aspects of ECG was the diversity within the cohort in terms of experience, background and location. Engaging with my peers broadened my
understanding of contemporary art practices across the UK. It was through conversations with them that I discovered a master’s programme in Scotland, leading me to complete an MFA in Curatorial Practice (Art and Design). The ECG provided the space to connect with diverse cultural perspectives, reinforcing my commitment to cultural integrity and thoughtful representation in my curatorial practice.
Being part of the ECG has been pivotal in my professional development. I now have the skills, knowledge and a network of talented practitioners to help me continue to nurture my growth as a curator. I am immensely grateful for the experience and recommend it to anyone seeking a space to explore, while gaining practical and valuable insights into the cultural environment of British art.
ART AFTER DEVOLUTION PODCAST ANNOUNCEMENT
We are delighted to invite you to listen to Art After Devolution, a podcast series from the British Art Network that examines the manifestations of devolutionary politics on contemporary culture in the UK.
The podcast is hosted by Marcus Jack, who convened last year’s BAN conference, British Art after Britain. Art After Devolution advances upon the conversations had at this conference, which brought together artists and art workers to consider the influence of regionalisation since the historic moment of the Good Friday Agreement, 10 April 1998, and founding of parliaments in Scotland, Northern Ireland and founding of parliaments in Scotland, Northern Ireland and Wales, between July – December 1999. It is a provocation which calls to return our understanding of contemporary art, its production, and exhibition, to the immediate political and economic contexts of our time.
As questions about statehood, democracy and (dis)unity ramp up in this year of changing government, Art After Devolution revisits this conversation with new interviews and recorded materials from the conference.
Episodes include:
1. ‘The practice in the politics’ – a look at the ways in which the complex and often violent societies produced by devolution have functioned as both a subject and working context for artists, with a reading from Belfast-born artist Maria Fusco, a discussion with Irish artist Ursula Burke, and an extract form Glasgow-based artist Michelle Hannah’s 2023 performance Burnout.
2. ‘Infrastructure needs data’ – Abigail Gilmore, professor of cultural policy at the University of Manchester, currently seconded as a policy fellow at the Department for Culture, Media and Sport of the UK Government, discusses the arc of devolution since the late 1990s, tracing the many ways in which macro-level shifts in politics have altered the terrain for culture at a local level.
3. ‘Organisational inheritance’ – a roundtable from the British Art after Britain conference with three directors: Beth Bate of Dundee Contemporary Arts, Sepake Angiama of Iniva, and Nigel Prince of Artes Mundi, chaired by Kirsteen Macdonald. While the ideas, assets and personnel that comprise our public infrastructure are tested anew by austerity thinking, this discussion shares strategies for navigating the decentralisation project.
The first episode has just been released, and episodes two and three will follow on Monday 11 November and Monday 18 November 2024. Subscribe now wherever you get your podcasts.
Figure 10: Art After Devolution podcast art, featuring Ursula Burke, Balaclava Bust, 2014
ABOUT THE COVER IMAGE
It was late 2021, when neon Post-its might complement neon face masks.
This was the first Emerging Curators Group that I saw through all the way from vision to legacy. We’d done a big piece of work with critical friends to reach people curating in different contexts, and it had been really successful. We’d been bowled over by the response to the call-out and the many amazing people and projects we learned about through applications, interviews and the eventual selected group.
This was also our ‘pandemic group’ – and these pictures show the only time we were able to assemble them in the flesh during their ECG year. I’m remembering those early days, fumbling through holding meetings and workshops on Zoom. We did all sorts of things online that felt fairly experimental at the time but, in the end, nothing beats that consolidated time together in person. Since this group, we have been increasing the number of in-person meets year upon year.
It's about being around the table (with Post-its key to the visual identity of the ECG), but also the spaces in-between: the quiet moments and the conversations that take place when moving from one location to the next.
We held this two-day workshop at Tate Liverpool and the Bluecoat, at a time when Tate’s National
Partnerships team had only recently moved up to Liverpool. Spaces and people that were quite new to me at the time now are familiar faces. Bryan Biggs was a great champion of the ECG from this first encounter and ever since: he has since joined BAN’s Steering Group, hosted the 2024 group at Bluecoat, and offered specifically to ECG and alumni an
opportunity for three Curatorial Advisers to support their project The Bluecoat: A Cultural Heritage for Liverpool in 2024.
This is the group that created the Who Gets to Be a Curator and Slow Reflections on Precarity videos that continue to speak to and make traction among the membership and beyond, and are a great legacy for their time together, alongside the individual projects supported through bursary awards and advice, encouragement and inspiration from their ECG peers.
I’m struck looking at the cover image by the fact that the BAN team has had contact with all these individuals round the table during the past six months –through legacy funding opportunities specifically for the ECG, other BAN bursary strands such as seminar support, newsletter contributions and catch-up conversations.
There’s one particular phrase that came up several times with this Group that I always remember: ‘pathway to power’. I hope, as we continue to refine and develop this programme and the ways in which we promote continuity and sustain relationships, that we are getting closer to supporting ECG alumni on that path.
Jessica Juckes, Coordinator, British Art Network, Tate Liverpool
CONTACTING BAN
For comments, suggestions and proposals for the British Art Network Newsletter, and for events or news for our Noticeboard, you can email BritishArtNews@paul-melloncentre.ac.uk.
If you would like to become a BAN Member, please complete our Membership form. For general enquiries, you can email BritishArtNetwork@tate.org.uk
You can also contact the British Art Network team directly: for contact details, see here. For more information on the British Art Network, visit the BAN website.
Cover Image: Emerging Curators Group members in Liverpool.
