Eastern Approaches

Our annual open submission exhibition has marked itself out over its 13 years as the definitive annual showcase for artistic talent. Last year over 100 artists from across the eastern region submitted work.

Eastern Approaches is open to artists living, working or studying anywhere in the Eastern region (Hertfordshire, Bedfordshire, Cambridgeshire, Essex, Norfolk and Suffolk) and Alumni of the University of Hertfordshire.

The selection panel

Niki Braithwaite

Niki Braithwaite is currently the Director of Smiths Row, Bury St Edmunds.  Niki began her career in the visual arts at the Demarco Gallery, Edinburgh after graduating from the University of Aberdeen in History of Art. She moved to the North East in 1991 to work as curator at the Northern Gallery for Contemporary Art, Sunderland where she was also an advisor for Northern Arts and a member for the Arts Council’s Exhibition Panel.

During her time in Sunderland she was involved in the delivery of a number of high profile projects including new commissions by Sam Taylor-Wood, Dalziel & Scullion and David Ward.

Niki's work with Northern Arts and the Arts Council led her to move to a more strategic role, initially as Visual Arts Officer for Eastern Arts Board and subsequently Head of Visual Arts & Literature for Arts Council England, East.

Niki left Arts Council in the spring of 2010 and has subsequently worked on a number of projects in a freelance capacity including project managing the Norwich City of Culture 2013 bid and supporting organisations in their strategic planning and most recently as Development Manager for Wysing Arts Centre.

Teresa Grimes

Teresa Grimes is a director of the London based contemporary art gallery Tintype. She previously worked as a director and producer in films and television.
 
In 1989 she directed three of the five films in the Channel 4/Arts Council series Five Women Painters, and co-wrote and edited the accompanying book published by Lennard. She directed the award winning short film Ebb Tide, written by Tony Grisoni. She also produced Stephen Brown’s Breathing, starring Charlotte Coleman, which won the Silver Hugo at the Chicago Film Festival. In 1993 she won the first Media Exchange New Producers Award.
 
Teresa Grimes started Tintype in 2009 with co-director Pat Treasure. The gallery represents a number of UK artists including Suki Chan, George Eksts and Flora Parrott. Formerly in Shoreditch, the gallery moved to the Hatton Garden/Clerkenwell area of central London in 2011.

 

Simeon Nelson

Simeon Nelson is a sculptor, installation and interdisciplinary artist who works within the museum and in the public domain. His gallery-based work and interventions into urban sites are concerned with revealing and mapping the hidden systems and significations of the site. After establishing himself as an artist in Australia and Asia in the 1990s, he moved to London in 2001 and is currently working on projects in Asia, Australia, Europe and the UK.

Projects include: Anarchy in the Organism, a Wellcome Trust funded commission for the new Macmillan Cancer Centre in London looking at cancer as a complex system; Plenum, a computer generated real-time architectural light projection looking at the balance of order and disorder in the cosmos, which is part of an EU Culture Fund supported project, Lux Scientia, and Paratekton (Social Sculpture System), the Melbourne Art Fair, 2010.

Simeon Nelson’s work is held in the collections of the Art/Omi Foundation, New York, the Jerwood Foundation, London, the Museum of Contemporary Art, Sydney the National Gallery of Australia, Canberra, The National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne and the Cass Sculpture Foundation, UK.

Simeon Nelson is a Professor of Sculpture at the University of Hertfordshire and a fellow of the Royal Society for the Arts.

Prizes

• 
• Under 30 (Awarded by Hertfordshire County Council)
• Best Applied Art (Awarded by Hertfordshire County Council)
• St Albans Museums and Galleries Trust Prize
• St Albans Prize (Awarded by St Albans District Council)
• WMT Prize (Awarded by WMT Chartered Accountants)
• Loop Developments Prize
• Townstone Prize
• UH Alumni Association Prize
• UH School of Creative Arts Prize
• UH Recordings Prize
• Best Video Prize (Awarded by St Albans Film Festival)
  
• UHArts Theatre Prize
• Overall Winner (Awarded by UH Galleries)

Submission dates

Submission dates are Saturday 16 and Sunday 17 November 2013.

How to apply

Fill out the Eastern Approaches application form and bring it with you on the submission days. Terms and conditions are included in the form.

Exhibition 

Where?

The exhibition will be shown in the UH Galleries space at the Museum of St Albans.

When?

Open to the public from Thursday 5 December 2013 until Sunday 12 January 2014.

Enquiries

Contact the Eastern Approaches Assistant Thomas Mitchell or call us on +44 (0)1707 284290 if you have any questions.