Project name: Circulating Energies
Project partners: FRAC Grand Large — Hauts-de-France (Nord); Open School East (Kent)
Regions covered: Nord (FR) ; Kent (UK) ;
Project length: Janvier 2023 – décembre 2024.
Grant awarded: 10,000 € (Nord) ; £5,000 (Kent)
Project status : Ongoing
Description :
This project will build on an existing Franco-British residency for artists called MAGNETIC, and the 2023 Dunkirk Triennial of Art & Industry, to develop a new cross border partnership between FRAC GRAND LARGE, a major cultural institution for contemporary art in Dunkirk; the Ecole Supérieure d’art Dunkerque-Tourcoing; and Open School East, an independent art school in Margate, Kent.
The project will explore how a shared, international curriculum could be tested. Using research by the MAGNETIC artist in residence for a new public artwork for the Dunkirk Triennial on the theme of energy, the partners will work with the artist to develop new pedagogical materials and a mentoring programme that the artist will deliver to students in the north of France and in Kent.
News : (Updated July 2024)
Between September and December 2023, 20 art students from the Ecole Supérieure d'Art de Dunkerque (ESA) and Margate's Open School East (OSE) took part in a mentoring programme and online and face-to-face seminars led by the MAGNETIC artist in residence, Hugh Nicholson. The curriculum was developed from research he carried out during his Franco-British MAGNETIC artistic residency on the theme of materials, energy and climate change.
The students also put their knowledge and skills into practice by creating an interactive exhibition and running public workshops at the closing symposium of the “Chaleur Humaine” Triennial of Art and Industry, a major cultural event supported by the FRAC Grand Large Hauts-de-France, in January 2024. The artist also created a steel work of art for the Triennal.
While the final project event will take place in Autumn 2024, the impact of the project has already been positive. The ESA and OSE art schools have tested a new joint course and are looking to inaugurate a long-term collaboration between their schools and their partners.