Category: News

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Announcing: Hybrid Futures Symposium

Hybrid futures logo

Friday 10 May 2024 10.00am – 4.45pm
The Old Fire Station, University of Salford & Salford Museum and Art Gallery

What are the environmental issues currently facing museum collections, art galleries and artists? 

Is it possible to make your work more sustainable in the visual arts sector? 

How can arts organisations and their local communities work together to influence change?

Is there the potential to test ideas and new ways of working in order to create a robust and effective model to change the way that galleries should operate in the future?

Join the Hybrid Futures partners, artists, commissioners, funders, community members and consultants for conversation and activity as we share our learning and explore together concrete actions our sector can take to create enduring and effective models of sustainable practice for galleries and museums.

Get updates on the Hybrid Futures Symposium programme and book here: www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/hybrid-futures-making-showing-collecting-art-in-a-time-of-climate-crisis-tickets-837365973167

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Collective Futures Fourth Meeting – POWER

Artist Hilary Powell and filmmaker Dan Edelstyn walked the Collective Futures group through their work and the motivation for POWER. 

Dan and Hilary trade as Optimistic Foundation CIC, a creative and community-based organisation that focuses on shifting power and subverting power structures. Power as energy and power as financial system, taking on projects to wipe out decades of debt and galvanising communities to take direct action. Hilary and Dan use their sphere of influence to incrementally and strategically build a vision of a better future and develop strategies to resource this.

Watch their presentation here.

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Climate Impact Study of First Hybrid Futures Exhibition Assessed

A still image from Leviathan Episode 8 showing a young indigenous person in traditional dress and face paint looks into the camera. A caption included on the image reads: 'It reached the sacred alter, It reached the sacred alter".

Hybrid Futures Climate Case Study: Leviathan: From the Forest to the Sea exhibition at Touchstones, Rochdale 3 June- 12 August 2023

Leviathan: From the Forest to the Sea opened at Touchstones Rochdale featuring the 8th film in Shezad Dawood’s Leviathan Cycle, plus a series of physical artworks – was the first of the Hybrid Futures branded exhibitions to open. 

As part of the Hybrid Futures project, staff at Touchstones and the team at Shezad’s studio collected as much data as they could about the energy, transport and material use associated with the exhibition. This information was then analysed by Danny Chivers, the Environmental Advisor to the project, to see what could be learned about the climate impact of the show. 

Read the headline results in this pdf.

Read more about Hybrid Futures and sustainabilty here.

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Coming Soon: GRUNDY X LIGHTPOOL X HYBRID FUTURES

As part of GRUNDY AT LIGHTPOOL: Neon, New Media and Natural Light Grundy Art Gallery is presenting work from Shezad Dawood and RA Walden, developed as part of Hybrid Futures.

THE UNIVERSE IS A CLOCK(i) Schrödinger’s equation, time dependent a new co-commission by RA Walden and Island Pattern a co-acquisition by Shezad Dawood will both be on display at Grundy Art Gallery until the 16th of December.

Read more about GRUNDY X LIGHTPOOL X HYBRID FUTURES here. 

Grundy Art Gallery invites you to celebrate Lightpool with them at their late-night opening on Friday 20th October, where the gallery will remain open until 7pm. 

In addition, you are invited to attend the Lightpool Creative Conference on Saturday 21st October.  Visit Eventbrite for full information and to book your free tickets.

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Artists and Sustainability – Shezad Dawood

A still image from Leviathan Episode 8 showing a young indigenous person in traditional dress and face paint looks into the camera. A caption included on the image reads: 'It reached the sacred alter, It reached the sacred alter".

Every month, Castlefield Gallery publishes a Sustainability Spotlight which focuses on one of the artists they are working with.  It looks at their work and how it might relate to climate change.

Hybrid Future artist Shezad Dawood was featured recently and you can read his thoughts here:  www.castlefieldgallery.co.uk/news/spotlight-artists-and-sustainability-shezad-dawood/

“There really is a role to play for artists, galleries and art spaces to connect with and support real-world change. Not just through best practice, but by stepping out of our comfort zones and working collaboratively with individuals and collectives from other disciplines and the wider public.”  Artist Shezad Dawood

A newly acquired work by Shezad Dawood will be shown at The Grundy along with a new commission by RA Walden as part of Lightpool from 20 October 2023.

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Artists and Sustainability – Parham Ghalamdar

A detailed, close up image of the top of an unglazed pot, with light blue and black glaze drips.

Every month, Castlefield Gallery publishes a Sustainability Spotlight which focuses on one of the artists they are working with.  It looks at their work and how it might relate to climate change.

In August, Hybrid Future artist Parham Ghalamdar was featured and you can read what he had to say here: www.castlefieldgallery.co.uk/news/spotlight-artists-and-sustainability-parham-ghalamdar/

“I would suggest embracing collaboration and community engagement. Collaborative projects that involve local communities and environmental organisations can amplify the impact of artistic efforts. As artists, we can facilitate workshops and discussions that encourage sustainable practices in both art creation and daily life. By fostering a sense of shared responsibility, we can collectively contribute to a more sustainable future.”  Artist Parham Ghalamdar

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READ: Charu Vallabhbhai reviews The Poetics of Water at Castlefield Gallery in the latest of Hybrid Future’s commissioned reviews

“Ghalamdar signals a warning in these new works while El Mal offers an alternative way. In her practice of working collectively, El Mal recognises that all her work is produced within an interdependent community. This is a reflection of the great need for cooperative will and action, globally.”

Click here to visit Charu Vallabhbhai’s review for The Fourdrinier.

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Artists and Sustainability

Photograph showing Jesica El Mal's work installed at Castlefield Gallery. Three transulsent blue banners, lit by two blue lights, hang floor to celing infront of a red wall.

Every month, Castlefield Gallery publishes a Sustainability Spotlight which focuses on one of the artists they are working with.  It looks at their work and how it might relate to climate change.

The latest Spotlight features Hybrid Future artist Jessica El Mal and you can read her responses here: https://www.castlefieldgallery.co.uk/news/spotlight-artists-and-sustainability-jessica-el-mal/

“Climate doom is real and it’s so easy to feel overwhelmed and hopeless. It helps to recognise that there are people doing really practical, thoughtful and amazing work, especially in the global south, and we can learn (or unlearn) things from others if we are open and respectful, and we can support by redistributing resources such as money, but also time, knowledge and access. “  Artist, Jessica El Mal

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Check out the films and critical writing commissioned for Hybrid Futures

A still from episode 8 of Leviathan, shows an South American indigenous man, pounding a tree with his fist, looking up at it.

“We hear a lot more talk about Indigenous knowledge, alternate cosmologies but this was trying to locate it and to think it through as a practical as well as philosophical collective imagining of the ways we could try things differently from a social, cultural and natural perspective.” Artist Shezad Dawood on the making of Episode 8 of his Leviathan Cycle

A series of films and critical writing that explore the Hybrid Futures exhibitions programme can be found in the exhibitions section under the relevant artist and exhibition.  There are also recordings and other assets that accompany some of our past events programme.

Watch: Parham Ghalamdar and Jessica El Mal discuss The Poetics of Water at Castlefield Gallery

Read: Desmond Bullen reviews The Poetics of Water for Northern Soul

Read: Maja Lorkowska reviews The Poetics of Water for Creative Tourist

Watch: Shezad Dawood discusses Leviathan: From the Forest to the Sea at Touchstones Rochdale

Read: Ella Otomewo reviews Leviathan: From the Forest to the Sea for Corridor 8

Watch: Leviathan: From the Forest to the Sea – More-Than-Human Collaborations Panel Discussion

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