Constellations ° Cohort
Announcement
2022
The Constellations ° Cohort is a group of artists, curators, producers, and practitioners active and/or interested in the expanded field of public art. The cohort will take part in Constellations, a free, nine month learning and development programme, curated and delivered by UP Projects, working in partnership with Flat Time House and Liverpool Biennial. By ‘the expanded field of public art’, we mean the work that happens at the intersection of contemporary art and culture, social practice, and the public realm.
We are pleased to announce this years cohort are Amina Lawal Agoro, Benedict Rutherford, Jordan Rowe, Kate Mahony, Laura Eldret, Manon Awst, Monica Tolia, Nisha Duggal, Rebecca Moss and Taey Iohe.
The programme explores issues and best practice in relation to this field and supports a diverse cohort of ten practitioners, selected through an open call, to develop their practice, collaborate with others, access new networks, and contribute to critical debate surrounding the future of public practice.
The cohort will take part in two strands of activity, taking place between March and November 2022:
- Six online Assemblies - events that explore urgent lines of enquiry relating to contemporary public art and social practice, involving a range of UK and international speakers.
- Fifteen in-depth seminars, workshops and mentoring sessions which underpin and unpick the discussions above, devised specifically for a cohort of ten early-mid career practitioners from across the country.
The programme will explore several urgent lines of enquiry around the following questions: Is context only half the work? How can socially engaged practice inspire structural change? What is the role of democracy in social practice - can all voices be heard? How can we move beyond sustainability? How can we rethink the memorial? The cohort will explore these questions in relation to their own practices and approaches to making work.
All Assemblies will take place within UP Projects’ digital participation space, The Hall, along with the majority of the workshops, seminars and mentoring sessions attended by the cohort. However, the cohort will meet in person, together with the programme organisers and partners, at the launch and closing of the programme at Liverpool Biennial’s offices and Flat Time House, London, respectively.
Constellations is generously supported by Art Fund, Arts Council England, The Barrington Hibbert Associates Access Fund, and the Constellations Patrons and UP Supporters. Constellations is directed by Emma Underhill, curated by Elisabeth Del Prete and delivered by Jack Newbury at UP Projects. Independent curator and writer Jes Fernie, Gareth Bell Jones and Mary Vettise at Flat Time House, and Sam Lackey, Lily Mellor and Aimee Harrison at Liverpool Biennial are also contributing to the curatorial development of the programme.