We are delighted to announce the recipients of six awards in Cycle III of Outset’s major arts funding programme, Outset Partners.
Established in 2018, Outset Partners is a dynamic collective of international philanthropists who work together to meet the evolving needs of the global cultural sector. The group is facilitated by a Research and Strategy Lead for each cycle, who crafts a framework for Outset Partners’ decision-making, supporting their uniquely iterative and consensus-driven approach to funding transformation in the arts. Outset Partners are keen to learn what art institutions need, why they need it, and where they want to be tomorrow. Partners are willing to take risks on behalf of genuine innovation and the prospect of meaningful impact.
In its third cycle of funding, the programme has awarded a total of £275,000 across a range of agenda-setting museums, galleries and organisations to support challenging new art projects with a demonstrable transformative aspect for the creative sector.
TRANSFORMATIVE AWARD £150,000
The one-of-a-kind £150,000 Transformative Award, the largest grant from a collective of private individuals in the world, is designed to afford the opportunity for a significant project to radically rethink the art institution of the future.
With this grant, Performa created a new digital platform, archiving over 300 artworks, performances and presenting research produced by a diverse range of curators, producers and scholars, led by art historian and curator RoseLee Goldberg.
Performa
Since launching New York’s first performance biennial, Performa 05, in 2005, the organization has solidified its identity as a commissioning and producing entity. As a "museum without walls", Performa contributes important art historical heft to the field by showing the development of live art in all its forms from many different cultural perspectives, reaching back to the Renaissance. Celebrated worldwide as the first biennial to give special attention to this remarkable history, the Performa Biennial transforms the city of New York into the "world capital of artists’ performance" every other November, attracting a national and international audience of more than 50,000 for three-weeks of live performances. Performa has presented seven international biennials, commissioned and produced nearly 300 performances, worked with more than 700 artists, and toured commissioned performances and exhibitions in nearly 20 countries around the world.
IMPACT AWARDS £25,000
Five additional Impact Awards of £25,000 each are awarded to public institutions for a range of projects that respond to crucial issues for the public, artists and curators. In line with the Outset ethos these can be through enabling innovative exhibitions and artistic productions with an international reach; empowering educational initiatives or providing professional development opportunities; institutions enriching public collections; or projects that enhance the creative infrastructure through providing workspaces and strengthening communities.
‘AiR School Residence Programme’, Artists in Residence, London, UK:
Building on the tremendous success from their previous year, Artists in Residence (AiR) continues to roll out their residency programme, seeking to connect artists with schools across the UK to co-design and carry out bespoke projects with young people and their teachers. These residencies ensure that young people in lower socio-economic areas have the opportunity to work with, collaborate, experience and be inspired by outstanding artists, unleashing their creative ambitions, as well as supporting the school to provide an enriching curriculum.
AiR believes that now more than ever, access to high quality Artistic experience is fundamental for young people, and a human right that in light of this pandemic, needs to be prioritised. AiR is aiming to expand the programme so that 12 more additional state schools can also benefit.
Artists in Residence
Artists in Residence brings high-quality artist residencies to schools across the UK. We are currently working with UK schools, helping them to improve their art curriculum by connecting them with artists to co-design a residency project that meets the needs of individual schools and students. These residencies not only offer the students a chance to develop practical artistic skills but offer an insight into what a career in the arts may look like. Students are not the only ones to benefit from the residencies as they are also a great opportunity for teachers’ professional development and help to raise the profile of the arts within the school.
‘The Remastering Project’, Bold Tendencies, London, UK:
Bold Tendencies, which occupies the rooftop of a former car park in the centre of Peckham in South East London, has sought to transform the building into a truly experimental civic space and place of assembly for the past 14 years. Open to everyone, Bold Tendencies is committed to participation and enjoyment of a rich, experimental Visual Art and Live Programme.
Bold Tendencies’ Live Programme has taken place since 2011 in the project’s unique covered concrete spaces. With Outset’s Impact Award, Bold Tendencies seeks to use the large-scale lower floors to expand the entire project, organising and producing live events that complement the thematic interests of the rooftop sculpture programme.
Bold Tendencies
Since 2007 the rooftop spaces at Peckham Multi-Storey Car Park have been home to not-for-profit organisation Bold Tendencies which is unique in terms of the rich mix of what it does, and where and how it does it. Bold Tendencies supports artists to develop their ideas and to realise site-specific projects. We commission new visual art — 114 works have been shown here to date — and produce a live programme of music, dance and opera. The Live Programme takes place in our covered spaces, deliberately preserving 42,000 sq ft of raw concrete floors and ceilings with panoramic London views. Bold Tendencies has also commissioned new architecture for the site — Frank’s Cafe in 2009, the Straw Auditorium in 2010, and the Peckham Observatory in 2017.
‘Graphic Cultures of Dissent’, Centre Pompidou, Paris, France:
A joint initiative with Centre Pompidou and Bibliothèque Kandinsky aims to bring together international experts to create the exhibition ‘Graphic Cultures of Dissent’, which seeks to question how to build a collection of military documentary sources and artworks to understand the relationship between such publications and today’s artistic and graphic practice. The project rereads activist practices in art at the height of decolonisation processes, liberation struggles of the '60s and tricontinental ambitions investigating and exploring militant graphics, periodical magazines, posters, zines and propaganda ephemera.
Centre Pompidou
The Centre Pompidou is a centre for art and culture capable of housing both the French National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, with an international dimension, a large public library (the future Bpi), a centre for industrial creation and a centre for musical research and creation (Ircam), all together in one and the same building situated in the heart of the capital. As great art lovers, the president and his wife were also ardent advocates of the democratisation of art. For Claude and Georges Pompidou, the Centre Pompidou had to be a place where all disciplines could meet, where artists could converse with the public. It also had to support emerging scenes and introduce and provoke debate. The titanic construction works began in May 1972 with two young architects, Renzo Piano and Richard Rogers, at the helm. Alas, the president died in 1974 before he could see the Centre Pompidou completed. It was inaugurated by his successor Valery Giscard d'Estaing in the presence of his wife Claude Pompidou on 31 January 1977.
‘Shri Vishayas Project’, Green Papaya Art Projects, Quezon City, The Philippines:
The Shri Vishayas Project seeks to create an art platform for intersections of indigenous, rural, and contemporary cultures. The project uses artists and art to bring together these cultures to create information exchange dialogues and community immersions for the purpose of creating the Indigenous Peoples Cultural Center, launching with a Mountain Festival.
Green Papaya Art Projects
GREEN PAPAYA ART PROJECTS is an independent initiative that supports and organises actions and propositions that explore tactical approaches to the production, dissemination, research and presentation of contemporary practices in varied artistic and scholarly fields. It endeavours to provide a platform for intellectual exchange, sharing of information, critical dialogue and creative / practical collaboration among the artistic community. Founded in 2000, it is the longest running independently run multidisciplinary platform in the Philippines.
‘DIASPORA PAVILION II’ International Curator’s Forum, International:
As part of the Outset Partners Grants Programme Cycle I (2019), the International Curators Forum (ICF) was awarded £25,000 per annum for three years towards the development and execution of the Diaspora Pavilion 2 project. After a year of research and development, ICF curated the first Diaspora Pavilion 2 exhibition, in partnership with 4A Centre for Contemporary Asian Art in Sydney, Australia titledI am a heart beating in the world: Diaspora Pavilion 2, Sydney. The exhibition presented the navigations, imaginings and lived experiences of diasporic subjectivities through the works of six artists based in Australia, the UK and the Caribbean: Abdul-Rahman Abdullah, Kashif Nadim Chaudry, Lindy Lee, Leyla Stevens, Zadie Xa and Daniela Yohannes.
With Outset Partners’ support in this Cycle III, the Diaspora Pavillion II will be taken to Venice Biennale, and three further exhibitions in Whitechapel Gallery and block 336 in Brixton.
International Curators Forum
The International Curators Forum (ICF) is a London-based organisation focused on presenting professional development programmes for emerging arts practitioners, curating exhibitions and events that address diasporic culture in a global context, as well as connecting professionals around the world through organised international trips and residencies. Past projects include ‘Black Jacobins: The Caribbean Pavilion' at the 2010 Liverpool Biennial, the 2012 symposium and exhibition programme ‘Black Diaspora Visual Art’ in Barbados and Martinique, the 2016-2017 international knowledge-sharing platform ‘Curating the International Diaspora,’ and the 2016-2018 professional development programmes ‘Diaspora Pavilion and Beyond the Frame.’ ICF-curated film and performance events include ‘Island and Monster’ by artist Sheena Rose at the Royal Academy in 2016, 'Sensational Bodies’ as part of the 2018 Jerwood Staging Series and ‘Migrating Cities’ at Tai Kwun Art Centre in Hong Kong commissioned by UAL in 2019.
"Each Cycle, Outset Partners witness shifts across the arts and culture sector, from a push to work more sustainably, to turning to new and innovative models in an increasingly ‘phygital world’. In this Cycle, we saw artists and institutions striving forward towards this digital future. Outset Partners are committed to supporting institutions’ projects that dream beyond the confines they are so often placed in, utilising art as a powerful tool from which to initiate societal change.
Across the broad span of awarded applications, there is an ongoing consideration of how artistic projects and initiatives can have a social impact. From continuing to strive for art access for all, to placing artists in schools across the country, to connecting indigenous communities, to generating infrastructural permanence, to creating exhibitions which challenge and provide diasporic recognition, and of course, to moving towards a phygital future.
Outset Partners believe that the six award recipients will make powerful and transformational societal changes with art at their very core."Candida Gertler OBE, Co-founder & Co-Director, and Nicolette Cavaleros, Co-Director, Outset Contemporary Art Fund, on behalf of the Outset Partners
