The Freelands Foundation has announced this year’s shortlist of UK institutions for the annual Freelands Award. Established in 2016, the award presents a UK institution with £100,000 to help raise the profile of a mid-career female artist as well as support visual arts organisations outside of London. The winning institution will pay £25,000 of the total award amount to an artist they have selected to work with, which will help fund new work.
Previous winners of the award were Jacqualine Donachie (2016, The Fruitmarket Gallery, Glasgow) and Lis Rhodes (2017, Nottingham Contemporary). Alongside the award, the Freelands Foundation commissions an independent report each year, to research the representation of female artists in the UK. Marijke Steedman’s report for this year revealed, among other statistics, that only 22% of solo shows presented by London non-commercial galleries were held by women artists – less than those counted in 2016. The full report can be read here.
The nominations for the 2018 Freelands Award are:
BALTIC Centre for Contemporary Art, Gateshead
Dundee Contemporary Arts, Dundee
Kettle’s Yard, Cambridge
Metropolitan Arts Centre, Belfast
Spike Island, Bristol
Yorkshire Sculpture Park, Wakefield
The jury for the 2018 Award winnerare: Elisabeth Murdoch (Chair); director of Camden Arts Centre Martin Clark; Jenni Lomax, Outgoing Director for Camden Arts Centre; Susan Hiller, artist and Beatrix Ruf, curator and former director of Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam.
The winning organisation and selected artist will be announced in autumn 2018.
14 June 2018
