I am so pleased to share that I was selected for the ORT Gallery Warmth Residency for 2024/2025.

‘Building on the Emergence(y) programme we embarked upon in 2021, the Deliberation Programme seeks to take a cohort of artists on a creatively-affirming journey that prioritises hope, experimentation, and self-interrogation by working in a gentle and considered way as underpinned by our organisation’s methodology - Warmth.

Ort Gallery is a visual arts and poetry organisation based in Birmingham. We are on a social mission to redefine contemporary visual arts by rejecting the sector’s exclusivity, centring access and equity, and providing inclusive high quality art experiences. We support this mission with a care-centred approach (aka Warmth) and strive to work non-hierarchically across the board - whether that be alongside artists and creatives or within our organisation and community.

Ort believes everyone should have access to high quality art experiences and aims to meet this standard by providing exhibition and professional development opportunities to artists, creatives and community members across all backgrounds.

We place Warmth at the heart of all our work. We recognise that galleries can be sites of oppression which centre and reproduce white normative and elitist ways of ‘being’ under the supposed guise of neutrality. We are interested in challenging this head on; whilst also committing to creating space for local artists and marginalised community groups across Birmingham and beyond to play an active role in shaping such practices, in the hopes of transforming ourselves, our city, and the wider arts ecology.’

I recommend signing up to the Warmth programme on the ORT website - to have access to their incredible research into making the arts industry a fairer place.