The 2021 edition is the largest yet
Gallery37, Birmingham’s flagship youth arts programme, returns in 2021 to unlock the city’s creative future.
It will give 80 young artists a place on its Youth Arts Residency, an intensive development programme.
Running over two weeks, Gallery37 will give these young artists an opportunity to learn professional-level skills from experts in the arts industry.
Gallery37 was pioneered in Chicago and arrived in Birmingham in 2002.
The biennial programme is curated and produced by Punch, the UK’s leading creative development agency for young artists outside the mainstream.
Gallery37 provides hundreds of hours of professional training and performance opportunities.
The 2021 edition is the largest yet, offering an opportunity to 80 people aged between 16 and 25 who live in Birmingham.
The programme was cancelled in 2020 due to the pandemic. The last cohort, which was held in 2018, had 60 participants.
Young artists will receive hands-on training in music production, photography, digital and visual arts, vocal and theatre performance, lyric writing, dance and film.
Gallery37 senior producer Nikki Riggon says:
“The list of Gallery37 graduates is like a roll-call of Birmingham’s creative future.
“Our alumni include Dee Ajayi, Jay L’Booth, Pharoah Draws, Tanny Tizzle, Tarik Ross-Cameron and Timeless Kings.
“All have gone on to establish themselves in the industry and are enhancing the reputation of Birmingham as the home of authentic and diverse creative talent.
“We used Lockdown as an opportunity to pause and plan our best-ever programme.
“We brought in more and better partners; for example our venue partners Centrala and the award-winning Aston Students’ Union.
“We also included new artforms – this is the first time we’ve offered digital arts, theatre or photography.”
“We can also announce the internationally-renowned John Berkavitch as our Gallery37 artistic director, with a line-up of facilitators including photography pioneers Grain Projects, singer-songwriter Cherri Voncelle, lyricist and rapper John Bernard, veteran comic book artist Kibla Ahmed, internationally recognised dance artist and teacher Laura Vanhulle theatre director Yael Shavit, visual artist Sylwia Narbutt, musical director Reuben Reynolds and filmmaker Daniel Alexander.”
In addition to curating Gallery37, Punch produces major tours as well as their own Bass festival each year.
Punch also works with artists such as Julian Marley, Lady Leshurr and Fuse ODG.
Through partnerships in Morocco, Jamaica, Taiwan, Suriname and Senegal, Punch reached an in-venue audience of 50,000 over the last 18 months.
Three thousand hours of Punch-commissioned content was viewed online via platforms including the UK’s GRM Daily, Africa’s TFM and a network of community radio stations.
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