Constellations ° Cohort 2022 Announced

Liverpool Biennial, Flat Time House and UP Projects are pleased to announce the ten selected individuals who make up the Constellations ° Cohort 2022. This year’s cohort are:

Amina Lawal Agoro
Benedict Rutherford
Jordan Rowe
Kate Mahony
Laura Eldret
Manon Awst
Monica Tolia
Nisha Duggal
Rebecca Moss
Taey Iohe

You can read more about their individual practice here.

The Constellations ° Cohort is a group of artists, curators, producers, and practitioners active and/or interested in the expanded field of public art. The cohort will take part in Constellations, a free, nine month learning and development programme, curated and delivered by UP Projects, working in partnership with Flat Time House and Liverpool Biennial. By ‘the expanded field of public art’, we mean the work that happens at the intersection of contemporary art and culture, social practice, and the public realm.

In the UK, while there are increasing opportunities for socially-engaged work, particularly in urban development and regeneration programmes, there are very few opportunities to develop sector-specific knowledge and skills. Artists, curators and public art practitioners are often required to adapt and learn while “on-the-job” which carries risk, particularly when working with communities and vulnerable groups. To address this, UP Projects has developed Constellations working in partnership with Flat Time House and Liverpool Biennial. Independent curator and writer Jes Fernie is also working with us to develop the programme, bringing her expertise of expanded practice into the mix.

Constellations offers free learning and development opportunities and resources for artists, curators, producers, and practitioners operating in the expanded field of public art. By ‘the expanded field of public art’, it means the work that happens at the intersection of contemporary art and culture, social practice, and the public realm. Constellations advocates for a broader, more nuanced, understanding of what it means to commission artwork for a public context and work in socially engaged ways. Constellations aims to nurture an inclusive generation of public art practitioners that is representative of the diverse communities the sector serves. Constellations reflects UP Projects’ ‘Learning to Learn’ value, which promotes a collaborative and participatory approach to learning and is part of our commitment to provide learning opportunities, resources and support to the public art sector.

The cohort will take part in two strands of activity, taking place between March and November 2022:

• Six online Assemblies – events that explore urgent lines of enquiry relating to contemporary public art and social practice, involving a range of UK and international speakers.
• Fifteen in-depth seminars, workshops and mentoring sessions which underpin and unpick the discussions above, devised specifically for a cohort of ten early-mid career practitioners from across the country.

All Assemblies will take place within UP Projects’ digital participation space, The Hall, along with the majority of the workshops, seminars and mentoring sessions attended by the cohort. However, the cohort will meet in person, together with the programme organisers and partners, at the launch and closing of the programme at Liverpool Biennial’s offices and Flat Time House, London, respectively.

Constellations is generously supported by Art Fund, Arts Council England, The Barrington Hibbert Associates Access Fund, and the Constellations Patrons and UP Supporters. Constellations is directed by Emma Underhill, curated by Elisabeth Del Prete and delivered by Jack Newbury at UP Projects. Independent curator and writer Jes Fernie, Gareth Bell Jones and Mary Vettise at Flat Time House, and Sam Lackey and Lily Mellor at Liverpool Biennial are also contributing to the curatorial development of the programme.