Artists from across the West Midlands will have the opportunity to exhibit and sell their art within mac birmingham’s prestigious first floor art gallery.
Anticurate Exhibition at mac birmingham 2011 Photo: Joey Vivo
WE WANT YOUR ART is the clarion call for the ‘The Open Project’ (TOP), which invites artists of any age and art discipline to share their work.
Curating the art – making decisions about how the work is selected and displayed – will be the responsibility of emerging young creatives (aged 18-24 years) through mac birmingham’s Next Generation programme. They will have the enormous task of curating four exibitions, leading to a final ‘salon’ exhibition’ where every piece of art will be revealed.
All artists have to do is submit and present their work to the Young Curators on Saturday 29 June 11am – 6pm. Artists will be asked to donate £5 per piece of art, which will go towards extending mac birmingham’s Next Generation programme, which supports young people to forge a creative career.
TOP is a multi-faceted event. Successful artists will be supported to develop their careers, from pitiching to pricing and promoting their art, while at the same time the Young Curators will work alongside industry professionals, learning the many skills needed to produce an engaging exhibition. In addition TOP will demystify the curating process, as storage of the art will be ‘on show’ within the cleverly designed gallery spaces conceived by Juneau Projects.
The Open Project will have four ‘micro exhibitions’, each on show for four days. The fifth and final ‘salon’ exhibition (22 August – 8 September) will display all the art, enabling the artists and the public to enjoy the exhibition in its entirety.
Trevor Pitt, Artist and Curator said: ‘The Open Project is just that – an open invitation to artists across the West Midlands to show their work at mac birmingham, while at the same to receive help to develop a career as successful artists. We aim to break down the barriers and the often closed institutional world of the curator and offer visitors to the gallery a welcoming insight into the world of making art shows. Who knows, we may even help discover the next Grayson Perry or Tracey Emin of the West Midlands, while at the same time skilling up the next generation of curators!’
Artists can find out more and register their art here.