Perhaps most significant was a new approach to grant making with the launch and piloting of three new funding programmes:
- Jerwood Bursaries for individuals’ professional development activities.
- Jerwood New Work Fund for the creation and making of new projects.
- The Development Programme Fund for organisations to run significant opportunities for artists, curators and producers to excel.
This year we received over 1,600 applications, a powerful response which surprised and humbled us, demonstrating the scale of the demand for funding across the visual, literary, musical and performing arts. Thank you to everyone who applied.
Our new commitment to offering feedback was enthusiastically received too, and provided insightful learning for us. Thank you to all those who completed our recent evaluation survey – your feedback confirmed the value of providing tailored, written project and application development support, and we now have a fledgling data set to help us deepen our understanding of what artists need and how we can improve the opportunities we offer and support. Piloting has also enabled us to respond in-year to feedback in two significant ways: firstly, inviting all individual applicants to include an appropriate fee for their own time, and secondly, encouraging applicants to apply for an additional £250 for access and/or care costs. We are delighted to be the answer to a question in the Arts Professionals End of Year Quiz on this issue. We were also proud to have become a Living Wage Foundation Funder, supporting the arts sector to create more sustainable conditions for excellence to thrive.
We also piloted new decision-making processes, an important part of which was the appointment of over 70 Artist Advisers: independent established artists, producers and curators from all disciplines nationally including: Dan Daw, Kevin Le Gendre, Amber Massie-Blomfield, Hetain Patel, Heather Phillipson and Clare Twomey. They worked with us in reviewing applications and brought a wider range of expertise and insight into the selection process. Their support has increased our reach and strengthened our national networks significantly; the number of applications from London is slowly reducing, and the range of art forms and backgrounds of applicants is widening. We’re looking forward to building on this model and inviting new Artist Advisers in 2020.
All our opportunities are now offered online, meeting a clear demand for artist-centred, streamlined processes that do not waste applicants’ time, and allow us to make better informed decisions about where to invest our resources. We also developed a range of different approaches, experimenting with calls for entries, nomination and independent selection panels, alongside our own expertise to tailor opportunities to different art form needs.
In the year, over half of grants made went directly to early-career artists within the first 10 years of establishing their practice: we awarded 47 Jerwood Bursaries, and 15 projects were supported through the Jerwood New Work Fund.
Demand for the Development Programme Fund, with 278 applications received, showed just how urgent the need for expert artist development is. Our final portfolio of 19 specialist programmes range from world-renowned leaders in their field to newer, ground-breaking companies, and all represent common approaches we have long valued: a commitment to paying artists; to properly resourced time for R&D; and to listening and holding a space for experimentation away from commercial pressures.
You can read more about them on the All Projects page, and sign up to our newsletter and follow us on social media to be the first to hear about calls for entries in the new year.
This year our exhibitions and events programme in the galleries at Jerwood Space enjoyed unprecedented national attention. With significant new tour partnerships with g39 (Cardiff), Bluecoat (Liverpool) and BALTIC Centre for Contemporary Art (Gateshead), Survey attracted audiences of 90,000, becoming our most successful exhibition of new work by early-career artists to date. The Jerwood/FVU Awards 2019 films by Richard Whitby and Webb-Ellis were critically lauded, and our major biennial initiative showcasing the excellence of makers in the visual arts, Jerwood Makers Open 2019, commissioned five artists to push the boundaries of their practice. The exhibition opened with us in London before touring to The National Centre for Craft and Design (Sleaford), and will tour throughout 2020 to Manchester Art Gallery and and 20-21 Visual Arts Centre (Scunthorpe), and to Torre Abbey Museum (Devon) in 2021.
Jerwood Solo Presentations 2019 showcased new work by three exceptional early-career artists, and during Frieze Week we opened Jerwood Collaborate!, a major new initiative exploring the power and potential of collaborative and collective artistic practice. Such non-hierarchical work is overlooked and under-supported within traditional institutional frameworks, and yet is of substantial importance to artists today, a fact highlighted by the sharing of the 2019 Turner Prize. Commissioning, curating and developing artists through our exhibitions and events programme remains critical to keep our activities grounded in the reality of artists’ lived experience.
Our sector-leading Weston Jerwood Creative Bursaries also thrived in 2019. The third edition of the programme came to an end, having successfully supported the development and employment of 40 outstanding Fellows taking the total to 125 since 2010. Gathering together everything we have learnt, in July we launched Socio-Economic Diversity and Inclusion in the Arts: a Toolkit for Employers in partnership with the Bridge Group. The guide has become a key resource for the sector and a powerful advocacy tool.
The momentum behind the programme continues and we successfully secured £1.5m in funding from Arts Council England’s Transforming Leadership Fund, Arts Council of Wales, Creative Scotland, Art Fund, Garfield Weston Foundation and PRS Foundation for a remodelled fourth edition 2020-2022 and two new pilot programmes focused on independent leadership and curators as leaders.
We are incredibly proud of our association with some of the UK’s most significant artist development programmes as they discover and nurture some of the most outstanding new voices. Below is a list of all those we have worked with across our programmes in 2019, with just a few highlights to mention here: Jasmine Lee-Jones, the 75th Jerwood New Playwright at the Royal Court Theatre, won the Alfred Fagon Award and the Evening Standard Most Promising Playwright Award for her extraordinary, formally inventive play seven methods of killing kylie jenner; and Daniel Kidane’s (LSO Composer+ 2018/19) composition Woke was performed at the Last Night of the Proms.
Raymond Antrobus (Jerwood Compton Poetry Fellow 2017/18) won every major poetry prize with his collection The Perseverance, including the Ted Hughes Prize, Folio Prize and Young Writers Prize. The Arts Council Collection acquired work by Imran Perretta (Jerwood/FVU Awards 2018) and Flo Brooks (Survey); four alumni were shortlisted for the Jarman Award 2019 with one of them, Hetain Patel (Artist Adviser), going on to win; Onyeka Igwe (Jerwood Staging Series 2019) won the 2019 Berwick New Cinema Award.
The work we do and its impact relies on invigorating partnerships, and we would like to thank all those who have been part of our new chapter over the past year. We are also indebted to our friends across the Jerwood Family, particularly the Jerwood Space team and The Gentlemen Baristas with who we collaborate to provide the best experience for visitors to our exhibitions and events.
We hear loud and clear that the challenges early-career artists face remain stark. We will continue to work with old and new partners to discover, nurture and support outstanding new voices in 2020.
2019 in a nutshell
Survey
Chris Alton; Simeon Barclay; Hazel Brill; Flo Brooks; Emma Cousin; Joe Fletcher Orr; Tom Goddard; Ashley Holmes; Lindsey Mendick; Nicole Morris; Milly Peck; Anna Raczynski; Will Sheridan Jr; Rae-Yen Song; Frank Wasser.
Launched at Jerwood Space October 2018 and toured to g39 (Cardiff), Bluecoat (Liverpool), and BALTIC Centre for Contemporary Art (Gateshead) in 2019.
Jerwood Makers Open 2019
Mark Corfield-Moore; Forest + Found; Lucie Gledhill; Bethan Lloyd Worthington; Tana West.
This seventh edition launched at Jerwood Space June 2019 and toured to National Centre for Craft and Design (Sleaford). Continuing to Manchester Art Gallery; Torre Abbey Museum (Devon); and 20-21 Visual Arts Centre (Scunthorpe) in 2020/21. Accompanying curatorial development programme with Art Fund support.
Jerwood/FVU Awards 2019: ‘Going, Gone’
Webb-Ellis; Richard Whitby.
Launched at Jerwood Space April 2019 and toured to Phoenix, Leicester and SALT Istanbul.
Jerwood Staging Series 2019
Seán Elder with Kirsty Russell; Onyeka Igwe; Rebecca Moss; AJ Stockwell.
Jerwood Solo Presentations 2019
Appau Jnr Boakye-Yiadom; Kitty Clark; Sofia Mitsola.
Jerwood Compton Poetry Fellowships 2019-20
Hafsah Aneela Bashir; Anthony Joseph; Yomi Sode.
Funded and run by Jerwood Arts, with support from Arts Council England and the Joseph Compton bequest.
Jerwood Writer in Residence 2019
Gwen Burlington; Joseph Constable.
Jerwood New Work Fund
Heather Agyepong; Kat Anderson; Rhiannon Armstrong; Lauren John Joseph; Phoebe Davies; Ian Giles; Gwen Hales; Mina Heydari-Waite; Idle Women (Rachel Anderson and Cis O’Boyle); Sabba Khan; Lanre Malaolu; Alice Malseed; Fernanda Muñoz-Newsome; Rebecca Solomon; Laura Wilson.
Jerwood Bursaries
Round one: Sharon Adams; Sara Anstis; Jo Bannon; Sophie Blagden; Phoebe Davies; Emma Dove; Sarah Duffy; Ali Eisa; Jane Hayes Greenwood; Fox Irving; Roy Mcfarlane; Louise Orwin; Siôn Parkinson; Berry Patten; Derica Shields; Nastassja Simensky; Jamie Starboisky; Debris Stevenson; Dharma Taylor; Fern Thomas; Joseph Toonga; Katy Weir; Jen White; Nicola Woodham.
Round Two: Katy Bentham; Paul Chapellier; Jasmine Gardosi; Sara Green; Sammy Gooch; Rowland Hill; Chloe Knibbs; Winnie M Li; Sam Metz; Laura Murphy; Sofia Niazi; Emily Nicholl; Ruby-Ann Patterson; Katarzyna Perlak; Dan Ryder; Hannah Saunders; Rae-Yen Song; Laura Sweeney; Benjamin Tassie; Sita Thomas; Andy Truscott; Angharad Williams; Abbas Zahedi.
Funding decisions made in 2019
Development Programme Fund
Outstanding artist development programmes set to take place 2020-21 across the UK:
- Apples and Snakes: Jerwood|Apples and Snakes Poetry in Performance
- Cheltenham Festivals: Jerwood Jazz Encounters
- Dance4: Re-Framing Dance
- Fierce: Fierce Further: Jerwood Commissions
- FACT: Jerwood FACT Fellowship Programme
- g39: Jerwood UNITe
- Glyndebourne: Jerwood Young Artist Programme
- Heart n Soul: Don’t Step On My Burger
- Imaginate: Jerwood Fellowships
- Milk Presents: Making An Entrance
- National Centre for Circus Arts: Jerwood Circus Residencies
- Newlyn Art Gallery & The Exchange: The Jerwood Newlyn Residency
- Prime Cut Productions: Reveal 2.0
- Royal Court Theatre: Jerwood New Playwrights
- Somerset House Trust: Sonic Terrains
- The Gate Theatre: Jerwood Designers Programme
- The Tetley: The Tetley Jerwood Commissions
- The Young Vic: Jerwood Assistant Directors Program
- Whitstable Biennale: Jerwood WB Artist Attachments
Co-commissions
- PRS Foundation’s Composers’ Fund 2020-21
- Activate: Inside Out Dorset 2020, Lorna Rees, Dave Young
- Pacitti Company, SPILL Festival of Performance 2020, Sonia Hughes