December 2, 2019

Announcing our 2020 Funding and Exhibition Programme

Alongside this, we are announcing our Exhibitions and Events programme 2020; details of new partnerships and co-commissions; and new funding rounds for 2020.

Our 2020 Funding and Exhibition programme includes:

  • 19 leading arts organisations from across the artistic spectrum, from Apples and Snakes to Whitstable Biennale, from Edinburgh to Belfast, awarded funding to support specialist early-career artist development programmes across the UK over the next two years through pilot Development Programme Fund
  • Return of critically-acclaimed Survey and Jerwood Solo Presentations, as part of our 2020 Exhibitions and Events programme
  • Jerwood New Work Fund 2020: Funding of up to £25k will be available to artists, artistic groups and artist-led organisations to undertake the research, development and creation of new work to enable a step change in their practice and profile. Call for entries will open 1 April 2020 with a deadline of 18 May 2020
  • Jerwood Bursaries 2020: Two rounds of Jerwood Bursaries will run for individual artists, curators and producers to apply for up to £1,250 to undertake professional development and/or to kick-start new ideas. Round one will open on 22 January 2020 and close 9 March 2020. Round two will follow in the autumn.
  • A new partnership to support PRS Foundations’ Composer Fund, enabling the fund to focus on early-career composers writing primarily for live performance across musical genres
  • Three co-commissions with partners Activate (Dave Young and Lorna Rees) and SPILL Festival (Sonia Hughes), each making profound work at a pivotal moment in their careers

We have spent 2019 piloting new funds, making over 100 grants and listening to feedback from the individuals we support and our partners throughout the country to understand how our programmes need to evolve.

Our response is a focus on supporting specialist artist development programmes, continuing our dedicated funds to directly support outstanding individual artists, artist groups and collectives, and working together with funders, partners and organisations to remodel our nation-wide Weston Jerwood Creative Bursaries programme to create better conditions for early-career artists, curators, producers and creatives of all backgrounds to thrive.

Further details of each of the programmes can be found on linked pages:

Development Programmes Fund 

Jerwood New Work Fund and Jerwood Bursaries 2020

Partnerships and Co-commissions 

An overview of 19 specialist programmes supported by the Development Programme Fund and our 2020 Exhibitions and Events programme is detailed below.

Overview of Development Progamme Fund

Our pilot Development Programme Fund received 278 applications, and the 19 programmes awarded funding were selected for their commitment to supporting outstanding early-career artists, developing excellent new work and improving conditions for artists to thrive. Find out more here.

The 19 programmes are:

  • Jerwood Arts | Apples and Snakes Poetry in Performance: Apples and Snakes (London and national), pioneers in performance poetry, will work with 10 artists who will each receive £3k to explore their creativity and develop their business practice via a 10-month research and development programme.
  • Jerwood Jazz Encounters: Cheltenham Jazz Festival, a leading large-scale showcase for UK and international musicians, will support up to eight jazz artists who want to develop boundary-pushing projects for presentation outdoors or for other atypical jazz spaces.
  • Re-Framing Dance: Dance4 (Nottingham), internationally renowned experts in developing the next generation of dance artists, will support three residencies for producers to explore the possibilities of creating new work that invites audiences to see, experience and have the opportunity to participate in choreographic art works in gallery contexts.
  • Jerwood FACT Fellowships Programme: Foundation for Art and Creative Technology FACT (Liverpool), home to exceptional art, science and technology projects, will nurture a diverse generation of new artists, film-makers, creative technologists and critical thinkers, with three FACT Fellows awarded the chance to undertake a 10-week residency at the FACTLab to upskill their new-media artistic practice.
  • Fierce Further: Fierce (Birmingham), the force behind the biennial Fierce Festival of national and international live performance, will work with four of the UK’s most promising early-career live artists over a 30-month period to make new work and catalyse a step change in their practice and career.
  • Jerwood UNITe: g39 (Cardiff) Wales’s most exciting contemporary artist-led gallery and creative community space, will offer intensive 8-10 week residencies for 10 artists.
  • Jerwood Young Artist Programme: Glyndebourne, one of the worlds’ foremost opera houses, will offer up to five aspiring soloists career-changing support, to include coaching, mentoring and performance opportunities, over the course of a festival season.
  • Don’t Step On My Burger: Heart n Soul (London), the leading artist-led organisation working with artists with learning disabilities, will offer responsive, sustained and bespoke support to five artists who are at a breakthrough point in their career.
  • Jerwood Fellowships: Imaginate (Edinburgh), Scotland’s premier professional theatre and dance company for young audiences, will support four theatre or dance artists who wish to create innovative contemporary performance works for children with complex additional support needs.
  • Making An Entrance: Milk Presents (Derby, Manchester, Brighton), the fiercely independent queer and trans artist-led organisation, will offer four directors and producers the chance to shadow the company’s co-directors for three months and run an intensive workshop for independent queer creatives to nurture their needs as LGBTQIA+ identifying artists.
  • Jerwood Circus Residencies: The National Centre for Circus Arts (NCCA) (London), the UK’s leading circus training and development organisation, will select artists and offer them a package of support to respond to the lack of affordable rehearsal space for aspiring circus artists. This will include a bursary, rehearsal space, access to training sessions, technical support and mentoring from NCCA staff.
  • The Jerwood Newlyn Residency: Newlyn Art Gallery & The Exchange (Newlyn/Penzance), one of Cornwall’s leading contemporary visual arts organisations working across two sites, will be awarding six artists to take up residency at their gallery to develop their practice with the support of the gallery team.
  • Reveal 2.0: Prime Cut Productions (Belfast), the independent award-winning Northern Irish theatre company, will offer a new writing commission for an early-career playwright to be produced in 2020, provide ongoing support to two artists to create new performing arts projects, and provide masterclasses to eight further early career artists.
  • Jerwood New Playwrights: Royal Court Theatre (London), the internationally renowned writers’ theatre, has evolved its 25-year strong programme to offer a full commission to six emerging writers and create funding to support a pool of writers at an early stage of developing their writing practice.
  • Sonic Terrains: Somerset House (London) and innovative sound and music organisation Call and Response will together select five artists to take part in a structured spatial sound residency programme and perform new compositions as part of ASSEMBLY, Somerset House Studio’s experimental music festival.
  • Jerwood Designers Programme: The Gate Theatre (London), the UK’s dedicated international theatre with one of the most versatile studio-spaces in the capital, will support six lead designers and six design assistants.
  • The Tetley Jerwood Commissions: The Tetley (Leeds), pioneering centre for contemporary arts, will offer three artists or curators based in the North of England the opportunity to develop a significant body of work or curate a group exhibition with the support of a dedicated mentor, an R&D budget and institutional backing.
  • The Jerwood Assistant Directors Program: The Young Vic (London), one of Europe’s leading producing theatres, is a nucleus for directors, performers and writers. Ten Assistant Directors will receive paid positions, training and mentorship as part of this program, recognized for discovering significant new directors for over a decade.
  • Jerwood WB Associate Artists: Whitstable Biennale, one of the UK’s most exciting contemporary visual arts festivals, will select three outstanding artists who have developed a strong practice but who have not yet received a commission from a major arts organisation. Each will receive a fee and bespoke support allowing them to take risks and develop new ideas.

Overview of 2020 Exhibitions and Events Programme

Our calendar for the coming year reflects our commitment to supporting early-career artists who work in a variety of mediums and confirms our exhibitions as the place audiences can discover the ones to watch in contemporary art.

This year’s programme includes the return of the critically acclaimed Survey, a major review of new commissions by outstanding early-career UK-based artists who are nominated based on the strength of their practice by leading artists from across the UK. Together these works will provide a snapshot of current artistic concerns and approaches spanning a breadth of disciplines, and showcase the contemporary art stars of the future. Our events programme will draw out key critical themes from the exhibitions and provide a space for wider conversations. Admission to all exhibitions and events will remain free.

2020’s Jerwood Writers in Residence, who were selected from a strong round of over 80 applicants, are Alexandra Hull (January-June) and Marek Sullivan (June-December). The writers are tasked with responding to Jerwood Arts’ programme of exhibitions and events in London with the aim of opening up wider debate around the enquiries and themes explored. They each receive a £1500 fee and access to a £500 fund for self-directed professional development activity.

2020 Exhibitions are:

Jerwood/Photoworks Awards – 15 January to 8 March

Silvia Rosi and Theo Simpson will exhibit new photographic work incorporating moving-image, sculpture and printmaking. Both artists explore the idea of history through their work, across themes of family, industry, identity and architecture.

Jerwood/FVU Awards – 3 April to 7 June

Returning this year with the theme ‘Hindsight,’ the Jerwood/FVU Awards 2020 will featured new moving-image commissions by Guy Oliver and Reman Sadani. Each artist explores the power of reflection through the prism of artists’ film, and the use of moving-image to move us backwards and forwards through time, assisting recollection, producing nostalgia, and enhancing collective wisdom.

Jerwood Solo Presentations 26 June – 6 September

Now in its fifth year, Jerwood Solo Presentations showcase new work by three early-career, UK-based artists, each taking over one of the Jerwood Arts’ gallery spaces for their first major solo presentation in London. The selected artists are Emii Alrai, Freya Dooley and Bryony Gillard.

Survey II 30 September – 13 December

The return of the critically acclaimed exhibition Survey, displays newly-commissioned work by 10 outstanding early career artists, nominated for the strength of their practice by leading artists. Together these works provide a snapshot of current artistic concerns and approaches, spanning a breadth of disciplines: Jerwood Arts’ ‘ones to watch’ for the future.

Jerwood Makers Open 2019 – Touring Nationally in 2020

Continuing its tour around the UK Jerwood Makers Open 2019 focuses on material practices and making within contemporary visual arts. The exhibition includes sculpture, weaving, woodwork and ceramics, with new works by Mark Corfield-Moore, Forest + Found, Lucie Gledhill, Bethan Lloyd Worthington and Tana West. A curatorial development programme runs alongside the tour made possible with Art Fund support.

Download the Press Release 2020 Funding and Exhibition Programme

The Unknown Island, Jerwood Designer: Rosie Elnile. Featured: Thalissa Teixeira. Image: Cameron Slater