Art Fund Grant

New Art Exchange has been awarded £35,000 by Art Fund’s Respond & Re-imagine grant to tackle racial inequality and overcome challenges created by COVID-19.

New Art Exchange has been awarded £35,000 by Art Fund’s Respond & Re-imagine grant to tackle racial inequality and overcome challenges created by COVID-19

The grant will enable New Art Exchange (NAE) to deliver Change Makers Rising, an experimental arts programme for families, communities, and young people. A range of arts-based activities will focus on overcoming the challenges experienced by many communities over the course of 2020, including the impact of COVID-19, and it will address the need to galvanise anti-racist practice.

The programme will tackle trauma and isolation. It will explore ways of re-building opportunities for socialisation and community togetherness, as well as stimulating community activism and empowerment.

“We are delighted by the financial support provided by Art Fund. Their grant will support projects designed to continue engagement with audiences during the COVID-19 pandemic. This includes a new digital engagement strand as well as an offsite working strategy that responds to the needs of Nottingham’s culturally diverse communities and our local neighbourhoods.

Over the coming year, we will focus on mental wellbeing and the impact of COVID-19, as well as exploring anti-racist practice through a special project responding to the context of the Black Lives Matter movement.” – Melanie Kidd, Director of Programmes, New Art Exchange

Change Makers Rising brings together specialist programmes for young people, local communities and general audiences of all ages. COVID-safe, ‘face-to-face’ workshop programmes will be provided, as well as special off-site and outdoor projects delivered within the community. In addition, there will be a digital programme of talks, debates, film screenings, book clubs, performances and creative workshops.

The grant has enabled NAE to purchase a small library of tablets loanable to those without access to the internet or digital devices. The grant has also enabled NAE to establish a live-streaming suite within the building to produce and broadcast high quality events online. The suite is thought to be the first of its kind in an art gallery and NAE intends to make this service available via hire to other organisations and individuals.

Art Fund’s Respond and Reimagine grants offer flexible and responsive funding to help museums adapt to the challenges of the Covid-19 crisis and reimagine future ways of working. The UK’s
museums provide inspiration, joy and education, enriching lives and bringing communities closer together, but the impact of Covid-19 has been catastrophic for many.

In the last six months, Art Fund received applications totalling over 16.9m from 451 organisations for its £2.25m Respond and Reimagine funding, which is now exhausted. But with six in ten (60%) of museums Art Fund recently surveyed worried about their survival, and 92% of museums saying they need to ‘adapt and innovate’, the charity has launched an urgent new public fundraising appeal: Together for Museums. It aims to raise £1 million to help more museums adapt to today’s challenges and evolve. Art Fund is appealing to the public to make donations of any size. From just £25, unique objects and artworks are available as rewards, donated by leading artists including Lubaina Himid, Anish Kapoor, Michael Landy, Melanie Manchot and David Shrigley.

www.artfund.org/together

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