CURATORIAL PROJECTS
A complete list of curatorial projects (including selected exhibitions, related work experience, and residencies) are listed in the CV section of the website.
NewBridge ‘Open’ Open embodied radical inclusivity, welcoming all those who identified as artists as well as those who did not. By dismantling traditional hierarchies of art-making, the exhibition undermined the myth of the lone artistic genius and instead celebrated the interconnectedness of all creative processes.
NewBridge ‘Open’ Open was co-curated and set up by all 120+ exhibitors and collaborators, from studio holders to chefs-in-residence to members of our Youth Programme. For the exhibition, I invited Jenny Alderson to create an installation, Making Space, that referenced the context of The NewBridge Project by incorporating a rich mix of materials, textures, and colours taken from its building and the surrounding Shieldfield area.
MAKING SPACE served both as an artwork and a structure for exhibitors to present their works on, in, and around. Its design facilitated and encouraged interactions with and between artworks, embodying the collaborative spirit of NewBridge ‘Open’ Open. Through this, every artwork, object, process, and person within the exhibition, was connected to at least one other artwork, object, process, or person within the exhibition, mirroring the diverse and communal nature of The NewBridge Project.
PHOTO CREDIT: Matt Denham
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NOW THAT’S WHAT I CALL ART
I co-developed and co-curated (with The Spaghetti Factory) three iterations of a process-led exhibition called ‘Now That’s What I Call Art,’ held at The Newcastle Contemporary Art (NTWICA 1 and NTWICA 2) and The Auxiliary (NTWICA 3). These exhibitions were conceptualized as ‘open invitations’ rather than ‘open calls,’ inviting artists to simply ‘turn up.’ Through this initiative, I supported, connected with, and enthused over 250 artists with a broad range of experiences and from a wide-range of backgrounds.
PHOTO CREDIT: Mark Duffy
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DAN DAN THE SYSTEM MAN was the final exposition of my my practice-based PhD in Fine Art at Newcastle University. My thesis is entitled ‘System Gallery: What’s the Point? A Practice-Based Study of Value Generation in Artist-Run Initiatives’.
Through the PhD I explore how questions of value intertwine with lived experience and self-narrative to inform understandings of what it potentially means to be part of the complex social worlds of artist-run initiatives. This practice-based research centred around my experiences of running System - a Newcastle-based artist-run gallery that I have curated and managed for 7 years. As the research site, I developed System into a model for practising collaborative, informal, and reactive forms of pedagogy centred around exhibition making.
Though self-titled this exhibition was collaborative as it forefronted the social world behind System through collaborative karaoke featuring the music (mostly Tommy Keenan) and images of exhibiting artists, previous collaborators, and events. The System RPG video was co-produced with Meaghan Stewart. The exhibition also featured items referencing previous iterations of System i.e. beer boxes, ceiling tiles, and a wall built from salvaged plaster from a previous System venue that was cleared for demolition.
PHOTO CREDIT: Colin Davison
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System Gallery is a Newcastle-based artist-run gallery that I curated and managed since 2016. For much of this time System was based above a bar then a former high-street bank and then as a nomadic platform utlising a variety of meanwhile spaces. In this time, I developed System into a model for practising collaborative, informal, and reactive forms of pedagogy centred around exhibition making.
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NE14NE1 was a series of large-scale participatory public artwork that took the form of a wheat-pasted collage installed across two sites in Newcastle — Charlotte’s Square and the outside of Alphabetti Theatre.
There was no selection process. This was an “open invitation” rather than an “open call”. This led to NE1 4 NE1 featuring a diverse range of finished and unfinished artwork of various forms — including paintings, sketches, rubbings, doodles, and poems — from 40+ professional and amateur (and everything in between!) artists.
NE14NE1 was acompanied by a zine containing poetry and texts from particpants as well as images taken from the collages.
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