Ten artists have been selected for Syllabus III, a national, alternative peer led learning programme, jointly delivered by Wysing Arts Centre, Cambridge; Eastside Projects, Birmingham; New Contemporaries, national; S1 Artspace, Sheffield; Spike Island, Bristol; Studio Voltaire, London and new partner Iniva (Institute of International Visual Arts), London.
The selected artists for Syllabus III are: Frederica Agbah, Chris Alton, Conor Baird, Ilker Cinarel, Phoebe Davies, Freya Dooley, Rose Gibbs, Jill McKnight, Ben Sanderson and Karis Upton.
Now in its third year, Syllabus III provides a programme for artists over a nine-month period. It is developed collaboratively with the participating artists, partner institutions and lead artists, who this year are Jesse Darling and Harold Offeh.
The Syllabus III artists are from many areas of practice including photography, painting, sculpture, installation, writing, performance, poetry, and interdisciplinary and collaborative work that defies a genre. They live and work across the UK, including Cardiff, Folkestone, Glasgow, Leeds, London, Norwich and St. Ives.
Beginning at Wysing in September 2017, Syllabus III artists will come together to share their work and co-develop the year’s syllabus alongside the partners and lead artists. Meeting throughout the year, the cohort will invite guest artists, curators, writers and other practitioners to deliver intensive sessions hosted by each of the partners. Previous years of The Syllabus have invited guest artists such Barby Asante, Ruth Beale, Marvin Gaye Chetwynd, Céline Condorelli, Anthea Hamilton, Andy Holden, Mark Leckey, Katrina Palmer, Richard Wentworth and Rehana Zaman.
Karis Upton, selected for this year’s programme, commented: “All the organisations involved have a vision for supporting and developing UK artists. As a self-taught painter, Syllabus III will provide a solitary artist like me with collaborative experiences and networks that have been absent in my artistic journey so far – all things necessary for any artist to move into new directions that help to sustain artistic vision and energies into the future. I can’t wait to begin and see where we go.”
Melanie Keen, Director, Iniva said: “What’s remarkable about Syllabus is its ability to draw artists together who are keen to shape their learning and progression through collective action – these artists are helping to define the meaning of peer-led development. For Iniva, it’s important to support artists in those ambitions, so I’m really excited to be a partner in this national programme. Syllabus’ desire to transform the lives of artists is one that meshes with Iniva’s mission to support artists at different stages in their careers.”
Iniva’s agthering, taking place between 21-24 June 2018 is framed around Afrofuturism and the ways it intersects with questions of the intercultural and the postcolonial, exploring working with sound and engaging with archives.
Download the full press release, programme and reading list below.