26 January - 30 March 2024 Sonya Dyer’s work intertwines speculative fiction, hard science and mythologies to propose new ways of conceiving where the centre is located in fictional narratives of the future. In this project, hard science meets science fiction, with the Ready Room providing space for cells to relax, strategize and entertain. Recalling HeLa’s dubious genesis, the exhibition contemplates alternate forms of building society – what if the HeLa cells have found a better way to live? HeLa cells were originally taken from the body of Henrietta Lacks, a young Black mother in the USA, and were the first human materials sent into space in 1960.
Primary plans to share an annual mapping of resident and member achievements that have taken place over a 12-month period. By bringing together and publishing our creative community's many successes we hope to better communicate with our audiences, partners and funders the ambitious work being created and shared locally, nationally and internationally.
In our 2022 Autumn season of Nourishment, a group of LGBTQ+ young people led by forager Susy set out over to Wollaton park for a day of discussing queer ecologies, puffing puffballs, and admiring slime moulds!
The simple routine act of sharing stories while sharing a meal. In our 2022 Autumn season of Nourishment, artist Janhavi Sharma discussed with participants online how the archival material of food inspires her work.
Nare Mokgotho of MADEYOULOOK collective and artist Zethu Maseko came together at Primary in the Edjardini structure to have a conversation about their overlapping practices. The artists discuss how they understand the place of nature and land in their work.
This Autumn, the Nourishment programme returns, with a focus on harvest, glut, waste, preservation and fermentation. Events include, pressing apples with Cider Club, fermentation classes for community cooks with Sean Roy Parker @fermentalhealth, mushroom foraging walk and talk with Suzy @Queer as Fungi and food histories and storytelling with Janhavi Sharma.
1 February-13 May 2023 at Bethlem Gallery Being Present is a group exhibition and event presenting work by artists from Bethlem Gallery, London and Primary, Nottingham. During the Covid-19 pandemic and spanning various lockdowns exhibiting artists participated in Artist Meets, an artist-to-artist support programme which saw artists from paired based on their shared interests or approaches to art production.
This four-session practical workshop with Sean-Roy Parkeris a chance for those already working in kitchens within the Radford area and wider Nottingham to explore the art of fermentation. We will work with surplus bulk ingredients such as fruit and vegetables to make large batches of fermented, pickled and preserved food that will be distributed back out to local food projects.
Landedness is a commissioning, co-creation, and engagement programme running throughout 2022, that explores topics such as land access, custodianship, and intimacy. Through the programme Zethu Maseko has developed a large-scale quilted banner created from natural dyes.
Build Create Play is a project working with local families and young people around Ronald Street Playground in Radford. The playground is currently a neglected space with old play equipment and this project aims to bring local people’s voices and ideas in to shape how this space is developed.
To and Fro is a pilot project that brings together Primary’s Public and Artist Development Programmes. The project pairs four Primary residents / members with four non-resident artists who connect with our Public Programme. Following a call for expressions of interest from Primary residents and members pairs were suggested by our programme team based on a shared area of research or mutual approach and the potential for an exciting collaborative exchange!
16 September-26 November 2022 Attention, Absorption is British Guyanese artist Maybelle Peters' most comprehensive exhibition of work in the UK to date. The show leads on from the When We Worked at Raleigh (WWWAR) project and oral archive between 2020 and 2021 which was delivered in partnership with Nottingham Black Archive.
16 September-26 November 2022 The exhibition Open Code by Nottingham-born artist Mac Collins takes over Primary’s Reading Room. The installation features furniture, objects, and sculpture.
Career, Plan, Development is a long-term project with coach Stella Sideli supporting ambitious sustainable career growth for Primary’s residents and members, helping them to work towards achievable goals and develop 1, 3 or 5 year career plans.
Mummy Hood Nesting Forest is a site to get lost: a forest, a URL, and a new work of fiction by artist David Steans. The commission takes the form of a multipart story hosted online in its entirety via a bespoke website. A macabre story about storytelling, preparedness, and packable techwear, Mummy Hood Nesting Forest uses the provisional scenario of a hiker getting lost in the woods to conjure, recur, rewrite, and exhume.
Land Lay Moldbrest is a three-part audiobook written by following packhorse trails in Lancashire, Greater Manchester and West Yorkshire. Roy Claire Potter works between performance and experimental art writing with recent works facilitated by Counterflows music festival in Glasgow, Reduced Listening for BBC Radio 3, and Tate Britain with Tate Publishing.
Artist Meets is an artist-to-artist support programme which sees residents from Bethlem Gallery and Primary being paired based of their shared interests or approaches to art production.
Formed in response to a need for mutual support, the network has come together as a way to share resources, increase what each partner is able to offer and create new connections between communities of artists. It also offers professional development for the associated partners who are able to learn from one another.
New Midland Group (NMG) is a consortium of three artist-led organisations located in Nottingham. Backlit, One Thoresby Street, and Primary support the creative development of artists in the City and the wider region
THE EXCHANGE 2 is the second iteration of a project connecting artists and creative practitioners across the UK. Bridging the gap created by limited movement and opportunity to network The Exchange aims to create new exchanges and friendships between artists that wouldn’t otherwise be able to connect.
