We are delighted to announce the recipients of five awards in Cycle V of Outset’s major arts funding programme, Outset Partners.
Established in 2018, Outset Partners is a dynamic collective of international philanthropists who work together to meet the evolving needs of the global cultural sector. The group is facilitated by a Research and Strategy Lead for each cycle, who crafts a framework for Outset Partners’ decision-making, supporting their uniquely iterative and consensus-driven approach to funding transformation in the arts. Outset Partners are keen to learn what art institutions need, why they need it, and where they want to be tomorrow. Partners are willing to take risks on behalf of genuine innovation and the prospect of meaningful impact.
In its fifth cycle of funding, the programme has awarded a total of £210,000 across a range of agenda-setting museums, galleries and organisations to support challenging new art projects with a demonstrable transformative aspect for the creative sector.
TRANSFORMATIVE AWARD £110,000
The Transformative Award of £110,000 was awarded to the Stellenbosch Triennale.
Stellenbosch Triennale:
The Stellenbosch Triennale takes public art in the historic South African town to new heights in terms of its international reach, the scope and variety of the art to be showcased as well as its intention to place creativity in critical dialogue with society. The Triennale marks an intentional and purposeful attempt to use creativity, imagination and public space as a meeting point in engaging with the collective and distinctive milieu of our past, present and future existence and all its complexities – a place where we can imagine new futures.
Aiming to make Stellenbosch the primary destination of multi-disciplinary art in Africa, the Triennale taps into the creative impetus reverberating across the continent. This project turns Stellenbosch into a curated public laboratory for creative expressions and engagements in response to society’s questions now, then and there; what kind of people do we want to be? What relations to nature do we cherish? What knowledges and technologies do we deem appropriate? What aesthetic values do we hold?
Khanyisile Mbongwa, Head Curator of Stellenbosch Triennale, said:
“In curating the Stellenbosch Triennale, I am interested in finding ways of curating an international festival that carries the markings of where it is from – a site at the Southernmost tip of Africa, engaging the diasporic movement of Africans as a result of colonialism, slavery, ongoing crises, and other fantastic curiosities. As we prepare for the Triennale we are going within and towards the ecological, to find out what it might mean to work with a sense of care and compassion – for the environment, for our practices, for a global indigenous community. This award will allow us to develop and extend this practice of caring, by engaging with festival-making as a form of rehearsal for things that can happen in the real world.”
IMPACT AWARDS £25,000
Five additional Impact Awards of £25,000 each are awarded to public institutions for a range of projects that respond to crucial issues for the public, artists and curators. In line with the Outset ethos these can be through enabling innovative exhibitions and artistic productions with an international reach; empowering educational initiatives or providing professional development opportunities; institutions enriching public collections; or projects that enhance the creative infrastructure through providing workspaces and strengthening communities.
Yinka Shonibare Foundation/Guest Artists Space, ‘Re:assemblages‘, programming inspired by an archive of African publications to support new published work by diverse artists and writers. ‘Re:assemblages’ fosters new publishing actions on African art in three continents through a series of activations, satellite convenings, residencies and artist experiments.
Art Gallery of York University, ‘At the Transit Bar‘, a visiting curator series enabling cross-cultural research and exchange across Canada and the rest of the world. Over its two-year programme, ‘At the Transit Bar’ will bring ten international curators to Toronto to present on their research, conduct studio visits, host workshops, and meet prominent members of Toronto’s art community.
arebyte Plugin, a tool for digital exhibition-making and curatorial practice. The Plugin establishes a direct line of communication with audiences via web extension pop-up, offering enhanced access to cultural content.
STORE STORE Build, an after-school programme for young people to build a new community space in Hackney. This project will serve as pilot for further small-scale local authority site conversions to increase creative workspaces across London.
