Since 1949 Bloomberg New Contemporaries has provided a critical platform for new and recent fine art graduates. Independent of place and democratic to the core, New Contemporaries is open to all. Participants are selected by a panel comprising influential art figures including curators, writers, and artists often who have themselves previously been a part of the New Contemporaries, and a rigorous process that considers the work within a broad cultural context.
New Contemporaries acknowledges that it is increasingly difficult for emerging artists to operate in the UK, as the cost of living, studios and further education all continue to rise. Since 2014, we have actively worked to address this and have put new mechanisms in place that are intended to support emerging practitioners. These include the payment of exhibition and performance fees for artists, in addition to the reimbursement of travel expenses and the covering of accommodation costs for both the launch of the show and its subsequent tour.
As an institution, New Contemporaries provides important opportunities for small collectives such as Shy Bairns, through exposure and showcasing work, and providing opportunities to gain connections. Although the organisation has a history of bias towards London based creative when selecting its shortlist, we felt it was important to apply regardless.
Traditionally, individuals who apply for BNC are individual artists with a particular specialism. Artists who are selected are asked to submit a piece of work that will then become a part of the New Contemporaries exhibition. The exhibition acts as a physical showcase of all selected artists, and is typically housed in a British leading contemporary art institution. This year the exhibition will start at St John Moors in Liverpool, and then graduate to the South London Gallery.
As Shy Bairns does not make artistic pieces, for our submission we opted to propose a series of participatory workshops that would be led in-situ in the the exhibition space. The aim of the workshops would be to provide the space and opportunity for the audience and other artists to respond and critique the exhibition, and more widely New Contemporaries as an institution. As a group we believe that there are many creative systems in place that allow artists and designers to be put in a spotlight without any real critique of the work or the system itself, and this often leads to bias at the top of the creative hierarchy, whether that’s race, sexuality, gender etc. We want to provide the public with materials to document their responses - this will include basic paper materials, a list of questions that the public could answer and some prompts that would encourage them to draw or write in response to the work around them. As an extension of these workshops, we would then go into the space every two weeks to collect these responses and turn it into a series of publications. The end result would be roughly 15 publications over the 30 week course of the exhibition.
A digital PDF proposal for this idea was put together in accordance with the entry specifications:
Traditionally, individuals who apply for BNC are individual artists with a particular specialism. Artists who are selected are asked to submit a piece of work that will then become a part of the New Contemporaries exhibition. The exhibition acts as a physical showcase of all selected artists, and is typically housed in a British leading contemporary art institution. This year the exhibition will start at St John Moors in Liverpool, and then graduate to the South London Gallery.
As Shy Bairns does not make artistic pieces, for our submission we opted to propose a series of participatory workshops that would be led in-situ in the the exhibition space. The aim of the workshops would be to provide the space and opportunity for the audience and other artists to respond and critique the exhibition, and more widely New Contemporaries as an institution. As a group we believe that there are many creative systems in place that allow artists and designers to be put in a spotlight without any real critique of the work or the system itself, and this often leads to bias at the top of the creative hierarchy, whether that’s race, sexuality, gender etc. We want to provide the public with materials to document their responses - this will include basic paper materials, a list of questions that the public could answer and some prompts that would encourage them to draw or write in response to the work around them. As an extension of these workshops, we would then go into the space every two weeks to collect these responses and turn it into a series of publications. The end result would be roughly 15 publications over the 30 week course of the exhibition.
A digital PDF proposal for this idea was put together in accordance with the entry specifications:
