Corridor8 Art Writing Residency Programme 2017
Corridor8 is delighted to announce two new writing residency programmes with partner institutions Castlefield Gallery & Agency and The International 3 in Manchester, and Humber Street Gallery in Hull. Following on from the successful 2016/17 pilot residency at The Tetley and further support from Arts Council England, Corridor8 is extending its partnership model across the North of England. This year, early-career writers will be selected from an open call to respond to artist Andrew McDonald’s solo exhibition (Castlefield Gallery, 28 April – 11 June), and to the exhibition programme Hull 2017: A portrait of a city in transition (Humber Street Gallery, 14 October – 31 December).
A resident writer at each organisation will work alongside established writers, participating artists, editors and designers at dust, with their final piece published in a bespoke, limitededition publication and on Corridor8’s new website (recently redesigned by SB-PH). As part of each residency, galleries will host events programmes that explore the value and role of art writing in our current artistic and political climate, and offer professional development opportunities for emerging artists and writers.
In addition to these two main programmes, Corridor8 will be offering a series of paid commissions for writers based in the North, as well as opportunities for smaller organisations and university/college departments to host micro residencies throughout the year. Through these collaborations and activities, and by generating fresh and relevant content, Corridor8 will continue to promote, profile and create dialogue around visual arts and culture in the Northern regions.
Reflections on The Tetley writing residency programme:
Bryony Bond, Director, The Tetley: “The collaboration with Corridor8 was a fantastic partnership, enabling us to achieve much more than we could do alone. At the end of the project we have a fantastic publication that records a very important exhibition for us, Abi Mitchell our writer-in-residence has seen her work in print for the first time, and we have a great relationship with an independent platform for writing on contemporary art in the North. This was a truly symbiotic partnership, with Corridor8 and The Tetley each bringing vital resources and skills and creating a project for which I’m sure we’ll continue to see the benefits from. This relationship between a publisher and a gallery makes a huge amount of sense and is an exciting model that I am delighted to see rolled out across the North.”
Abi Mitchell, writer-in-residence: “The writing residency gave me the opportunity to find out what writing meant to me and how I want to develop my writing practice further. Without the dedicated time I was able to give it I wouldn’t have had such a good experience. This was helped by the fee that allowed me time off work and to focus my mind on one thing. The residency gave me many opportunities that weren’t included in the call out, including meeting an expanded network of writers and publishers in the North and finding out about further opportunities. The mentoring was extremely useful and invaluable, this type of one-on-one experience is not easy to come by and is something that could really benefit those like me who were struggling to work out how to develop and become professional. Undertaking the residency has given me a greater confidence in my writing and inspired me to look for more opportunities in the coming year.”
Colin Perry, participating writer: “This was a significant contribution to the development of a critical debate on art writing in Northern England. The 2016 residency at The Tetley provided young writers with a wonderful opportunity to spill some ink in public, and to meet experienced writers. There’s a surprisingly vast appetite for arts writing throughout the UK. If art is to remain a critical and regionally diverse force, these kinds of opportunities are vital.”
Sally O’Reilly, participating writer: “The Corridor8 critical writing programme is a valuable means by which writers are brought together. While I know several writers working in my own region, I had no idea about practitioners elsewhere around the country, and so meeting to discuss the methods and intentions of critical writing was the most immediate and productive way of overcoming that lack. Mentoring is also a rare and important aspect of the programme, since face-to-face discussion of work in progress so seldom occurs for writers, who are otherwise working with (often anonymous) editors at a distance. For the mentor, it is a way of discovering the concerns of emerging writers; and for the recipient of mentorship, a powerful way of reassessing one’s own practice.”
Contact Lara Eggleton at le@corridor8.co.uk for further information.
http://corridor8.co.uk/
http://www.castlefieldgallery.co.uk/
http://www.international3.com/
http://www.humberstreetgallery.co.uk/