EXPLORERS Conference at MK Gallery, 2019, Project Art Works
MK Gallery, Milton Keynes
MK Gallery provides free access to high quality, innovative and thought-provoking contemporary art from around the world. In its programme MK Gallery stimulates participation and debate, building relationships between artists and audiences.
Previous Projects
EXPLORERS Conference: Art, Rights & Representation: Wednesday 20 November & Thursday 21 November 2019
A two day event about neurodiversity, art and the politics of inclusion.
In November we delivered the EXPLORERS Conference at Milton Keynes Gallery, that showcased work by a group of neurodiverse artists. The two days featured presentations, conversations, tours and workshops by Project Art Works, IntoArt and ActionSpace, Disability Arts Online, many of the EXPLORERS partners and many others. With an audience drawn from across art and culture, academia and social care it demonstrated a determination to bring about real change for neurominorities, both artistically and in terms of rights and representation.
“It was an eye-opening and humbling experience. I was so delighted to be part of it. It really shows you what is possible for everybody if we think differently.”
“I thought the conference was wonderful and I learnt lots. I particularly enjoyed the spotlights on artists practice, balanced with organisations presenting too. I left feeling inspired and energised.” (from anonymous evaluations)
More about the EXPLORERS Conference here
Illuminating the Wilderness, Collaborative Workshop, Tours & Talk - 23 May, 2019
Project Art Works visited MK Gallery on the 23 May with a group of makers from Hastings for an afternoon of nuerodiverse interventions throughout the gallery which included film, a collaborative drawing workshop, talks and sensory gallery tours.
Project Art Works hosted a collaborative drawing workshop celebrating the final week of the inaugural exhibition, Lie of the Land in their new building. Our film Illuminating the Wildernesswas being shown as part of the EXPLORERS project.
It was a fantastic opportunity for the makers who contributed to the film, to experience seeing the film in a gallery setting and take leading roles in the workshop.
16 March - 26 May, 2019
Illuminating the Wilderness is a new film production by Project Art Works, conceived and directed by Kate Adams and Tim Corrigan and filmed on location with Ben Rivers, Margaret Salmon and neurodiverse artists and makers, families and carers.
This 40-minute film follows the investigation of a remote Scottish glen over several days and reveals the pleasures and challenges of neurodiverse responses to nature and shared experience. Shot from multiple viewpoints and cameras, the film is unscripted and reveals the subtle fluidity of roles and interactions between this unique and itinerant community away from the practical, attitudinal and social barriers that they face in their everyday lives. Moments of humour and tender consideration for each other unfold in and around the landscape and weather systems of the mountains. The remoteness, scale and indifference of the landscape provides a rare sense of freedom and belonging for everyone involved.
The film is part of an exhibition The Lie of the Land at MK Gallery open from March 2019. The exhibition celebrates the opening of a brand new building for the gallery.
MK Gallery are one of the partners of the EXPLORERS Project, a three year programme of inclusive cultural actions and partnerships nationally and internationally over three years culminating in a year-long programme of exhibitions, installations and new cultural commissioning models that place neurodiverse communities, artists and makers at the heart of civic and cultural life.
Find out more at mkgallery.org.
MK Gallery visit Tate Exchange in Liverpool, September 2018
Bethany Mitchell, Curator of Inclusion at MK Gallery, and five Artist Associates joined Project Art Works artist team for 3 days of workshops with social care organisations at Tate Liverpool.
Awareness Day, May 2018
Bethany Mitchell, Curator of inclusion at MK Gallery and four Artist Associates joined us at Project Art Works for an Awareness/Encounter day.
Positive Behaviour Support, May 2018
Bethany Mitchell and three Artist Associates joined us at Project Art Works for a Positive Behaviour Support workshop with John Shepherd involving other artists and members of the Peer Support Network.
Explorers/Art & Us, December, 2018
As part of a wider MK Gallery Art & Us programme the EXPLORERS team from Project Art Works host an Encounters with MK Gallery staff taking place at Slated Row School in Milton Keynes.
