Curatorial Training: Holloway Park

Curatorial Training: Holloway Park

Call for participants

Duration: 10 two-hour sessions over the course of one year, starting March
Honorarium: £35 per session (£17.5 hourly rate)
Location: London Borough of Islington with visits to London zone 1-3
Deadline: Friday 15th March at 12:00pm

Are you passionate about the arts and would relish the opportunity to learn about it and develop your curatorial skills? Look no further!
Create London and Peabody are working together on an ambitious project. Curate and commission public artwork that will commemorate Holloway Prison. In 2027, a mural, a sculpture and an architectural installation will launch on the site of the old prison. But we are already starting to work on the project, engaging women with lived experience from the earliest phase.

We are looking for:

Up to eight women with connection to Holloway Prison to join a co-curation panel. This unique training programme is designed to upskill participants’ curatorial knowledge and practice. It will offer a chance to immerse yourself in the world of public artwork with just 2 hours per month. You will delve into the heritage of HMP Holloway and its significance in shaping attitudes towards women within the criminal justice system.

Project context

Create London, commissioned by Peabody, is spearheading the curation and production of a series of public artworks for the former site, now Holloway Park. HMP Holloway was a landmark institution both locally and nationally, accommodating inmates from across the country. Its heritage is diverse and profound, encapsulating the struggle of the suffragettes incarcerated there while reflecting evolving attitudes towards the treatment and rehabilitation of women within the criminal justice system.

Laden with lived experiences and renowned for historical depth, the site’s narrative is accessible primarily through written records and visual documentation. This project offers an opportunity to be part of drafting a brief and
selecting artists who will craft permanent artworks for Holloway Park and Holloway Women’s Building. Resonating with the site’s history, the artworks will honour, explore and render visible the women who inhabited and worked within its walls.

About the programme

This curated training initiative aims to provide aspiring curators with hands-on experience, mentorship and exposure to the intricacies of curatorial practice. Participants will have the opportunity to engage with diverse art forms.  They will learn with professionals and artists and contribute to the cultural landscape of Holloway Park and Women’s Building.
At Create London, we recognise the increased vulnerability of women who have encountered the criminal justice system. Our programme seeks to empower participants, and we emphasise an informed and empathetic approach in selecting artworks to appropriately address these complex issues.

This programme will offer participants:

• Paid training in curatorial practice.
• Opportunities to widen your network with talks with curators and exhibition visits.
• Experience in drafting commission briefs and insight into rigorous artist research and selection processes.Learning about artwork interpretation and how to communicate to diverse audiences.
• To connect with local communities and deepen your knowledge of the many stakeholders associated with the Women’s Building and Holloway Park redevelopment.
• Peer-driven support by working alongside seven other programme participants, forming a cohort of nurturing and supportive relationships.
• Engage in local heritage, archival material and stories relating to Holloway Women’s Prison that will enrich and inform decision making and artist selection with a wider group of stakeholders.

Create London

A charity that commissions bold, radical and socially engaged art and architecture in the public realm, collaborating with local communities to commission work that is ambitious, purposeful and useful. Create work over the long-term, and in ways that can bring agency and positive impacts for local residents, the partners we work with and the artists, architects and other creative practitioners we commission.

Who should apply?

Becoming a curator often demands significant financial investment presenting a barrier to entry for many. Consequently, the art world is not truly representative of our society and important stories can go unheard. Create London aims to challenge this narrative by fostering accessibility and inclusivity within the art world.

The programme

Aimed at women and female identifying women often underrepresented in the cultural arts sector. We are seeking individuals who have with lived experience and a connection to the female justice system and are one or more of the below:

• Enthusiastic about creativity with a keen interest in curatorial practices.
• Women of any age who are seeking practical experience within the arts.
• People who are creative and eager to contribute to a project with historical and contextual significance.
• Residents with a connection to the London Borough of Islington and Holloway Women’s Prison.
• Be able to commit to one Thursday evening per month (usually the third Thursday of each month). Potential to commit four hours spread across two Saturdays – TBC which months.

Due to these artworks positioning in public space, we want to hear the public within the decision making. Please remember that this is an introductory programme. If you have no experience but great ideas – we really want to hear from you. Those with existing curatorial experiences are also very welcome to apply.

How to apply

We welcome applications from women eager to contribute to the cultural enrichment of Islington and we look forward to your participation in this transformative initiative.

To apply please send a response to the answers below as text (500 words maximum) or video recording to the email addressmorgan@createlondon.org by 12:00pm GMT, on Friday 15th March2024.

*Please note the questions below are not a selection criteria, we would just like to know a little more about you and your interests in the project.
Questions
1. What is your connection to the London Borough of Islington?
2. What is your connection to Holloway Women’s Prison?
3. Why are you interested in joining the curatorial programme?
4. What would you like to gain from the programme?

We will aim to contact successful applicants the w/c Monday 18th March.