HATE crime, Lady Godiva and isolation will be among themes explored by artists part of Coventry’s City of Culture 2021.
Ten artists from Coventry and Warwickshire have been selected to receive funding to create artwork for the City of Culture programme.
The Coventry City of Culture Trust and Unlimited – an arts commissioning programme enabling work by disabled artists to reach wide audiences – put out a call for deaf, disabled and neurodivergent people who live or work in the area to apply for ten commissions of up to £1,000 each.
After an impressive amount of applications, the final ten were chosen. They include: Al Davison, Edi Jo Murray, Emily Woodruff, Hayley Hindle, Debbie and Culley, Katie Walters, Lou Sarabadzic, Richard and Rishard, Sebastien H-W and Seyedeh Naseriniaki.
The artists will cover a range of themes including activism, community collaboration, environment and public and digital spaces.
The diverse work that will be developed by the artists include an autobiographical comic book sequence looking at experiences of hate crime; a reimagined painting of Lady Godiva; an exploration of the Herbert Art Gallery and Museum’s natural history collection; a slapstick theatre piece on the subject of isolation; and an audio artwork piece documenting the soundscapes of different parts of Coventry.
Trust creative director Chenine Bhathena said: “I am thrilled that we have selected and awarded small grants to these ten extraordinary local artists and practitioners.
“We want Coventry UK City of Culture 2021 to be truly inclusive and representative of the all of the people of the city, which includes commissioning artistic creations from deaf, disabled and neurodivergent artists.
“These artists are all making art, of one kind or another, their profession and their future. I can’t wait to see how they respond to our City of Culture themes and the great art that they create for our 2021 programme.”
