Photo50 Panel: Where do Artists Gather?
Friday 20 January 2023
12.00-1.00pm
Talks Theatre, Gallery Level
Moderator
Pelumi Odubanjo, Co-Curator of Photo50
Panel
James Hyman, Director, Centre for British Photography
Kim Shaw, Director, Photofusion
Doctor Maggie Matić, Studio Voltaire
Sebah Chaudhry, Co-Founder and Co-Director of ReFramed
A panel discussion looking at how and where artists gather today. Whether through residency programmes, creating community spaces, or new organisations – how do art spaces facilitate creative practice? And how is this conceived particularly in the photography world?
Listen to the recording
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Pelumi Odubanjo is a curator, researcher, and writer based in London. Her interests in contemporary art are cross-disciplinary, although her understanding is filtered through the lens of Photography which informs both her work as a curator and researcher. Pelumi holds a BA from Newcastle University in Fine Art and Art History, and an MA in Contemporary Art Theory from the Visual Cultures Department at Goldsmiths, University of London. Her writing on contemporary photography, art, and culture has appeared in Magnum Photos, Artillery Magazine, Photoworks UK, and Photo Fringe amongst others. Her most recent projects include curating for Photo Oxford, 2021, the Tate Exchange at Tate Modern, 2020, Brighton Photo Fringe, 2020, and the Black Cultural Archives, 2020.
Dr Maggie Matić (they/them) is a curator, writer and researcher with a specialism in contemporary feminist and queer visual culture. Maggie is currently Curator (Studios Residencies) at Studio Voltaire, and has previously worked at Tate, FACT (Foundation for Art & Creative Technology), The University of Liverpool and The Royal Standard.
At Studio Voltaire, Maggie oversees all aspects of the studio and residency programmes, including the LOEWE FOUNDATION / Studio Voltaire Award, the Syllabus programme, Open House and the rolling artist residency and professional development programme.
Sebah Chaudhry is a Freelance Creative Producer and Curator. She is experienced in working at international world class festivals, projects and events. She is Co-Founder and Co-Director of ReFramed, a photographic based visual arts network based in the Midlands, supporting the community and artists who are Black, Asian, or from other ethnic minorities. She is also a Director at BCVA, where she has just started a heritage project with Derby Museums working with the South Asian community. She is currently Project Coordinator of Picturing High Streets, a Historic England funded project managed by Photoworks. In Oct 2022, she started teaching on the BA Photography course at Manchester School of Art, MMU.
She was previously Creative Producer on an international British Council funded project with Ffotogallery, The Place I Call Home, connecting the UK to the Gulf region, culminating in 10 exhibitions from September 2019 — March 2020 in 7 countries.
From 2013 — 2017, Sebah was Coordinator at FORMAT Festival. She became a freelancer in 2018, but continues to manage the UK’s largest annual portfolio review. She also manages the Belfast Photo Festival Portfolio Review.
Sebah reviews portfolios internationally and mentors artists. With TRACE, she has launched a year-long mentorship programme for women over the age of 35. In 2022, she was on the Jury for UNSTUCK, Canada and The Ian Parry Scholarship. She was on the selection panel for the RPS IPE 163 Open Call and the BJP Portrait of Britain 2021. She is the Curator for AIS Open 2023 and NAE Open 2023. Currently UK editor for thephotoexhibitionarchive.com, Berlin, Steering Group member for FORMAT Festival, Derby and recently joined RPS and COMMUN as a Trustee.
Dr. James Hyman is an art historian, gallerist and collector. James received his doctorate from the Courtauld Institute of Art, University of London, London. His doctorate was published as The Battle for Realism. Figurative Art in Britain during the Cold War (Yale University Press/Paul Mellon Center, 2001), was shortlisted for the W. B. Berger Prize for studies in British Art History and remains the most important study of 20th century figurative art in Britain. As the Director of James Hyman Gallery James specialises in Modern British Art.
James and his wife Claire are major collectors of photography.
In 2015 they launched www.britishphotography.org as an educational resource based on British photographs from their private collection. In 2020 they founded the charity, The Hyman Foundation, to support photography in Britain. In 2022 The Hyman Foundation set up The Centre for British Photography, which opens in Jan 2023 in Piccadilly, London. James is the Founding Director of the centre. For details see www.britishphotography.org
Kim Shaw has been the Director of Photofusion in Brixton since 2016. Photofusion is a photographic arts organisation which supports early and mid-career photographers and lens-based artists. Photofusion also has a long-standing and well-regarded outreach programme, and is one of London’s largest photographic resource centres, with facilities and services including black and white, colour and historic darkrooms, digital printing facilities, education programmes, professional development programmes, and a gallery. Photofusion has been in Brixton for 30 years and is an Arts Council England NPO. Shaw is also an artist, her work having been recently exhibited at London Art Fair (January 2020), Brighton Photo Fringe (2022), and on three occasions at Soho Photo Gallery in New York. Her early career was in advertising where she worked for a number of high-profile agencies including Wieden and Kennedy, Chiat/Day, Kirshenbaum and Bond, and J. Walter Thompson.