Factory International has announced that more than 20 emerging artists from around the Manchester region will take part in its new talent development programme, REFRAME: The Residency.
The Manchester cohort will be part of an 80-strong group taking part in REFRAME, which is supported by Apple and partners The Southbank Centre in London and Birmingham’s City University STEAMhouse and Midlands Art Centre (MAC). The free programme supports Black and Black mixed heritage creatives in Manchester, London and Birmingham and helps address and remove the systematic barriers to career development Black creatives face in the arts and creative industries.
The artists will present their artwork at a free exhibition, which opens on Tuesday, July 18 at the Southbank Centre and runs for several weeks during Planet Summer, a multi-artform season that explores themes of care, hope, connection and activism in response to the climate emergency.
The Residency is led by tutors who are established artists: Riley Bramley-Dymond (writer and director); Holly-Marie Cato (photographer and director); dubmorphology (production and performance group); Caleb Femi (writer, director and photographer); Joshua Inyang (music producer, artist and radio host); Nicole Justice (singer, performer, composer, producer and audio engineer); Tayyib Mahmood (filmmaker); Denise Maxwell (photographer); and Tanya Weekes (photographer).
The programme is part of Apple’s global Racial Equity and Justice Initiative (REJI) — and represents Apple’s first REJI expansion into Europe. This collaboration aims to inspire future generations to take part in building a cultural legacy for the UK.
The Residency is just one of the ways in which Factory International plans to support local artists. The flagship venue will be a training ground for the next generation of creators, focussing on creating opportunities for artists from the North of England, particularly those most underrepresented in the sector, to develop work at scale, to be interdisciplinary and support the development of new international networks to export talent from the region.
