Upstairs Gallery: An exercise in project management and curation.
As part of the Entrepreneurs Network of projects (including 51–53, Present Workshops and New Horizons), we opened a gallery in the heart of Stoke-on-Trent's Cultural Quarter. We wanted to create a beautiful space where we could exhibit artists from all areas of street culture, design, photography and fine art, along with opening the space up for events.
Since 2014, I led the curation effort which including writing and winning multiple Arts Council England bids, selecting an artist roster well in advance and managing artists throughout exhibition installation, pre, during and post-exhibitions.
I also designed the visual identity for the gallery, every piece of promotion for every exhibition and produced moving image content showcasing key exhibitions.
Faust: 5th June – 29th July 2015
We brought renowned graffiti artist and typographer Faust to the UK for his debut solo show at Upstairs Gallery. After a successful Arts Council England bid, we were able to produce a mural as part of our New Horizons project, and Faust's first ever screen print run in our workshop.
45RPM: 8th January – 3rd February 2016
Another successful Arts Council England bid saw us bring Bristol based graffiti artist 45RPM for a new year exhibition in our Gallery — we also worked with him on two new screen prints for the show and a new piece of ceramics with local ceramicist Jasmine Simpson.
Some shots from other exhibitions, 2014–2018:
For more information, check out the gallery page here.
