18 May 2022
Venture Arts, Outside In and The Whitworth are excited to be working together to present the North West Hub for Artist Development, which aims to create and expand opportunities for artists who face barriers to participation in the arts world. As well as being able to explore the incredible Musgrave Kinley ‘Outsider Art’ Collection at The Whitworth, this exciting opportunity enables visual artists to develop a portfolio, professionally photograph work, apply for funding, network and exhibit.   As well as spreading our reach further across the North West, we are also working in partnership with Disability Arts Cymru, using our knowledge and experience to support neurodivergent artists from across Wales. This month we were thrilled to welcome our first artist in residence from Wales, Leila Bebb (pictured), who visited us from Swansea for a week long residency. New artist residency programme begins with Leila Bebb Leila is a talented textile artist and painter, whose work often explores themes of space, aliens and landscapes. During her time at Venture Arts she also developed a passion for photography, working with our photography facilitator to photograph her sculptural work and share techniques and ideas with our own photography group.
New artist residency programme begins with Leila Bebb 2
Leila Bebb, 'Baskets', 2021.
  As well as spending time working with Venture Arts artists and facilitators, Leila also got the opportunity to visit the Musgrave Kinley Outsider Art Collection at The Whitworth, one of the most significant public collections of Outsider Art in the UK, consisting of over 1,153 individual artworks, by over 129 so called 'outsider artists'. During her visit to The Whitworth Leila met artist in residence, Ekua Bayunu, who taught her to crochet, a new skill she is now exploring in her work.   Leila told us;
“I was buzzing from my visit to Venture Arts, I got lots of ideas to take home, like using printing and doing more photography… I learnt how to crochet as well… It was really fantastic meeting new people, such nice, wonderful people. Being in the big city was really exciting”.
  Leila Bebb leaning forward while taking a photo with a large SLR camera   We are offering 10 bespoke residencies for learning disabled or neurodivergent artists from across the North West, as well supporting more artists from across Wales. If this sounds like something you or someone you work with might be interested in, please get in touch with Ellie at ellie@venturearts.org or by text at 07539 371 070.
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