New Art West Midlands
New Art West Midlands is the Contemporary Visual Arts Network for the region. Their purpose is to strengthen and develop the contemporary visual arts sector in the West Midlands, working collectively to safeguard the future of artists and our sector as a whole. Together with their partners, NAWM create defining opportunities for artists and arts professionals to develop their practices through a distinctive, critically-engaged programme. Their programme strands include the annual New Art West Midlands exhibition for recent graduates, and Engine, our region-wide professional development programme for artists and curators. New Art West Midlands plays a leading role in the development of a closer, strategic partnership between Higher Education arts institutions, arts organisations, artists and independent arts professionals. Together they are developing a regional Visual Arts Strategy that aims to support artists at every stage of their career, as part of a shared commitment to creating an ecology that values and celebrates the visual arts as an essential part of people’s lives in the West Midlands.
ICF collaborated with New Art West Midlands on two major professional development opportunities in the West Midlands:
Together we showcased the work of recently-graduated artists in the West Midlands as part of the Coventry Biennial (2019)
We supported emerging curator, Dr. Sylvia Theuri, to undertake a curatorial fellowship and curate a new exhibition at the Herbert Art Gallery & Museum (2019-20).