The Graduate Project – 3 Month Socially Distanced Residency w/ Online Mentoring and Exhibition

The Graduate Project is Modern Painters, New Decorators response to the COVID-19 crisis. Across three months we’ll be providing three graduates with online mentoring, a social distancing residency, a £300 materials fund and the opportunity to take part in an exhibition project with us. The deadline for application is 22 July 2020.

Launching 25 June 2020 applications will open for 2020 graduates from Loughborough University’s School of Creative Arts. With lockdown ensuring that degree shows across the country are being forced to go online, we want to provide three graduates with the opportunity to realise their degree show ambitions, as well as take their first steps into the art industry. Applications will be accepted from across disciplines and courses, although we advise applicants to get in touch if they have any questions about the viability of their project.

More info

Across three months (August-October) graduates will receive three mentoring sessions with Modern Painters, New Decorators’ Team Leader which will help prepare individuals for life after university, alongside dialogue around their work as we work together to produce the exhibition project. Out of this dialogue, graduates will then book 2-4 weeks to complete their residency within our gallery space, giving them a chance to execute their ideas with the help of a £300 materials fund. The residency will comply with all up-to-date government guidance on social distancing. Finally the work of the graduates will be brought together in a curated and themed exhibition, with much needed documentation providing them with a vital starting point for their online portfolios. Depending on guidance at the time we will decide how the exhibition might be viewed, whether this is made into a video, publication or we are able to open the gallery to the public. Across this time the graduates will have a chance to virtually meet the rest of the team, our studio holders and our wider artist network to enable them to begin creating their own network within the arts.

About us

Modern Painters, New Decorators is an artist-led organisation running a gallery, shop and studios from a shopping centre in Loughborough, East Midlands. We enable artists to re-energise the local by producing free contemporary art exhibitions, artist-produced products and creative membership schemes. The project was started in 2017 by artists and makers with a connection to the town.

Find out more about us at: mpndprojects.co.uk