Eight early career artists have been commissioned to create new work by the Arts Council of Wales in the latest project of Celf ar y Cyd.
Five leading artists who have work in Wales’ national art collection, cared for by Amgueddfa Cymru, have been invited to nominate and mentor eight early career artists in Wales. These early career artists are at a pivotal point in the development of their artistic practice and will benefit from support to their development.
“In this latest joint project eight artists are being commissioned for a period of six months to develop work while being mentored by the five exceptional artists,” explained Sian Tomos, Director Arts Development of the Arts Council of Wales. “We consider it so important that we invest in this way in early career artists from across Wales, representing a diversity of practice and experience to develop the potential of their artistic practice.”
The five artist mentors are Bev Bell-Hughes, Michal Iwanowski, Daniel Trivedy, Sue Williams and Bedwyr Williams. Together, they selected Jo-Anna Duncalf, Toni Osuji, Dafydd Williams, Emily Laurens, Geraint Ross Evans, João Saramago, M Roberts and Philip Cheater as their eight mentees.
The practice of the eight commissioned artists includes photography, film, installation, print making, ceramics, socially engaged practice and performance. Flexibility is built into this unique programme in relation to what can be achieved now in a developmental context, making the process as important as the final artworks to be produced.
“What is truly innovative is that the artists are exploring their current practice, and have the opportunity to respond artistically to the collections of Amgueddfa Cymru as well as explore the relationship between that collection and contemporary art practice,” said Kath Davies, Director of Collections and Research at Amgueddfa Cymru.
The programme will also provide an opportunity for the public to learn more about the artists’ processes and share their progress, experiments and the new work they create, both digitally (across Arts Council of Wales and Amgueddfa Cymru social media channels and in Cynfas) and physically, where possible to do so.
Each of the eight artists will receive a grant of £10,000 with 50% allocated to the artist fee for participating in the programme. The project is produced collaboratively by Arts Council of Wales Arts Associates, Louise Hobson and Elen Roberts.
To find out more about Celf ar y Cyd, visit the Amgueddfa Cymru website here and follow @celfcymruarts, @celfarycyd and @wales.museum on Instagram.
