Womxn of Colour Art Award

198 Contemporary Arts and Learning is excited to announce iteration 2 of the WoCAA.

In October 2019 198 launched the inaugural Womxn of Colour Art Award. The new bi-annual Art award recognizes the inequities and additional barriers that Womxn of Colour often face in their practice as visual artists. The award aims to provide financial and developmental support to assist UK based artists and artist collectives of all ages at a key point in their career. To support the process we were honoured to have a list of notable judges including; Amal Khalaf, Marlene Smith and Julia Forson

Judges

Marlene Smith (Artist & Curator)

Marlene Smith is a British artist and curator, and one of the founding members of the BLK Art Group. She was director of The Public in West Bromwich and UK Research Manager for Black Artists and Modernism, a collaborative research project run by the University of the Arts London and Middlesex University. She is Director of The Room Next to Mine, an Associate of the Making Histories Visible Project and Associate Artist at Modern Art Oxford.

Julia Forson (198 Trustee & Researcher)

My creative journey began in graphic design and opened up more broadly into a career as a PA working primarily in creative spaces and community organisations. More recently I gained my MA in ‘Education in Arts and Cultural settings’ at King’s College London where I am now a PhD candidate in my second year. My core interests are, diasporic peoples, cultures and identities, embodied methodologies, and memory. My current research focuses on the lived experiences of women visual artists of the African and Caribbean diaspora living and working in the U.K. Specifically their trajectories through art education in Britain and out into practice. I am also a trustee of 198 CAL – I joined the board in 2019.

Amal Khalaf (Artist & Curator)

Amal Khalaf is a curator and artist and currently Director of Programmes at Cubitt, London and Projects Curator at the Serpentine Galleries, London where she has worked on the Edgware Road Project since its inception in 2009. Here and in other contexts she has commissioned and developed residencies, exhibitions, workshops and collaborative research projects that address the role of art operating within pedagogy and social urgencies. Working with artists, activists, architects, broadcasters, students, urbanists, social services, teachers and labour organisers across different backgrounds, the many long term projects she has initiated, focus on how we work together and the possibilities of collectivity.

We received over 90 applications from artists across the UK who identify as Womxn of Colour, including those who are emerging and self-taught.

Stay tuned…This June we will be announcing the winner and runners up!

This biannual award is a part of our ongoing commitment to support and honour Womxn of Colour artists within the UK.

For any further enquiries on the award please email: wocartaward@gmail.com info@198.org.uk