2016 HIGHLIGHTS

A year in review

NAE is a gallery and charity and your support is so important to us – whether you’re attending our events, enjoying our exhibitions or having a drink in our café. In the New Year we will be launching more opportunities for you to get closer to our organisation and support us in new ways- and even better, Arts Council England are doubling all donations made, meaning your generosity will go further, and will have a bigger impact!

Here are our highlights for 2016; we’d love to know yours too!

January

We kicked off 2016 with an exploration of the future through Larissa Sansour’s beautiful sci-fi themed film with, In the Future They Ate from the Finest Porcelain.

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Photo credit: Bartosz Kali

February

Future Perfect? Film Festival
We had a wonderful weekend film-festival with a sci-fi theme. We saw lots of you of fabulous costumes for the screening of Dreamworks’ Home and some fantastic films submitted to our film open.

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Photo credit: Judy Lewis-Jones

March

Hyson Green Workshops
This locally centred exhibition had a great reaction from those who remembered the original flats. We also loved having all the participants of the workshops with us to make everything from pasta to torches!

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Photo credit: Hesham Helmy

April

Leisure Land Golf
April saw us launch our fully-playable 10-hole miniature golf course across the gallery and out on Gregory Boulevard. We saw our highest number of visitors over the season and had tons of fun with all of our mini-golfers!

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Photo credit: Bartosz Kali

May

Our YARD (Youth Arts Research and Development) theatre group performed on the main stage at Nottingham Playhouse as part of the city-wide NEAT Festival. The performance of Iscathulo allowed our ‘yardies’ to experience performing for a huge audience and each of them had an incredible time.

NAE artists delivered Desi Pub signs working with artists Hardeep Pandhal, Sooree Pillay and Andrew Grundon supporting the Creative Black Country launch at Alchemy, South Bank with Parminder Dosanjh and Jude Kelly.

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Photo Credit: Matt Vaughan

June

Community Pathways Mural
NAE launched our first community mural thanks to collaboration with young people from Nottingham communities across Nottingham and the Centre for Research in Race and Rights. The mural was inspired by African print designs and influential figures such as George Africanus and Louise Garvey

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Photo credit: Bartosz Kali


July

Exhibition: Dub Versions by Hurvin Anderson
In June we were honoured to be awarded an Arts Council Collection 70th Anniversary commission in the form of Hurvin Anderson’s painting ‘Is it OK to be Black?’ The piece was shown as part of the exhibition and will take its place in the Arts Council England national collection.

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Photo credit: Bartosz Kali


August

Young Artists’ Studio
Over the summer we transformed part of our gallery into a fun, interactive art space for children and young people. Inspired by our global theme, some wonderful art works were produced by children throughout the summer.

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Photo credit: Bartosz Kali

September

Nottingham Mela
September saw a return of Nottingham Mela – a celebration of South Asian Arts and culture which took place across the city. Nottingham Playhouse, New Art Exchange and Nottingham Castle hosted dance, arts, storytelling, food and music, and over 8,000 of you joined us for the celebrations!

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Photo credit: Bartosz Kali

October

Jimmy Cauty’s ADP
Why was there a graffiti covered shipping container lodged outside the building? Why were people peering inside so intently? The Aftermath Dislocation Principle (ADP) landed with a bang, shown at Banksy’s Dismaland, this surreal model village kept the passers-by of famously rebellious Nottingham entertained for weeks. We also held multiple events for Black History Month which included a panel discussion with Am I Black for Only 31 Days, A live music performance by Feddie Kofi, and a sold out screening of Generation Revolution,

ADP New Art Exchange Nottingham from Dominic Richardson on Vimeo.

 

November

Nottingham Red Project, a collaboration with Nottingham Contemporary, our Mezzazine Gallery exhibition, Cuba in an Era of Digital Change and our Main Gallery exhibition, Fighting Walls + a rebel scene were front and centre for NAE in November. Many of you took part in our talks and events around activism and politics in art – keeping a finger on the pulse of current global events and their effects on people and on art. Karl Ohiri and Sayed Hasan launched their culminating series on My Granddad’s Car after 5 years in the making.

November also saw our Director, Skinder Hundal delivered a key note speech about reinventing ID-entity to create the centre of the world at the annual Artlands Conference in Australia, Dubo.

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December

Craft + Culture Festival
Tis the season to be jolly well impressed at the amazing things our crafty community create! The NAE Craft + Culture Festival featured hand-made festive gifts, street food and music, creating a global celebration that so many of you enjoyed.

As part of the UK-Korea year 2017/18 NAE Director Skinder Hundal delivered a key note speech about art and technology drawing on the NAE Culture Cloud NESTA pilot initiative at Faster Than Thought. NAE also supported Tasawar Bashir to realise ‘Dam Pani’ delivered at Columbo Art Biennial in Sri Lanka.

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Photo credit: Bartosz Kali

These were some of our highlights- and we’d love to hear about your favourite moments at NAE this year. Let us know on Facebook, twitter or comment below, and win a treat from us in the New Year.

Thank you for making 2016 a successful year for local, national, and international art, and for our community. We look forward to making an even bigger 2017, starting with our next exhibition launch on the 13th January- see you then!

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