FACT are delighted to announce the 10 artists and artist groups who will receive grants of £1,500 each plus 3 months of support to create work from home. The scheme entitled FACT Together was set up in response to the financial uncertainty caused by Coronavirus (COVID-19) and the temporary closure of galleries and museums across the world.
Open to all early-career artists in the North of England, FACT Together received proposals from over 250 artists, highlighting the growing need to support our creative community during these difficult times. The whole of the North was strongly represented with proposals from Liverpool, Manchester, Chester, Sheffield, Leeds, Hull, Lancaster, Middlesbrough, Newcastle, Gateshead and Sunderland. Each artist will create a new work that will respond to The Living Planet, the title of FACT’s online programme and theme for 2020. The Living Planet, taking place across FACT’s website and social media looks at ways in which wildlife, plantlife and other ecological systems have responded to the impacts of our actions.
Awarded artists will develop their ideas over the next few months with professional development and support provided from the team at FACT who are working remotely. The open call asked artists to submit ideas that could be shared digitally which resulted in hundreds of proposals for podcasts, live streams, games, gifs, animations, performances, short films, social media takeovers, interactive artworks, workshops and more. Many of the artists selected for FACT Together have not previously created digital work, making this an exciting opportunity for both the artists and audiences online. The awarded artists are:
- Day Mattar (Liverpool)
- Elle Bulger (Salford)
- Gregory Herbert (Liverpool)
- Jessica El Mal (Manchester)
- MICHAEL BRAILEY with Callum Coomber (Manchester)
- Milda Baginskaitė (Manchester)
- Niloo Sharifi (Liverpool)
- Shonagh Short (Manchester)
- Tammy Reynolds (Liverpool)
- Uma Breakdown (Gateshead)
Maitreyi Maheshwari, Head of Programme at FACT, said:
“We were overwhelmed by the quality of applications we received for FACT Together. The open call introduced the team to the work of many artists across the north of England who have exciting, dynamic practices. While we are only able to work with a small number of people initially, we look forward to creating more opportunities to work with this incredible talent in the future.”
Ahead of the online launch of each artists’ work in August 2020, you can find out more about The Living Planet by visiting FACT’s website.
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