Young New Contemporaries is a newly created educational initiative to widen the participation of young people currently underrepresented in art schools.
Young New Contemporaries sessions. Photography by Sam Nightingale and Peter Otto.
Launched in Autumn 2023, Young New Contemporaries has been developed in collaboration with UCL Institute of Education to support 30 students from London schools who are following post-16 courses in Art and Design, to help increase their confidence to enter the arts sector.
In its first year, the Young New Contemporaries (YNC) participants worked with a variety of creative practitioners who guided the group through practical introductions to different ways of making, as well as discussing their work and potential pathways into creative careers. The group received support putting together portfolios and also visited different cultural and creative spaces.
As a culmination of year one's six-month programme, and with the support of designers HATO, the Young New Contemporaries worked together to co-create a zine, which they launched alongside a pop-up exhibition at Camden Art Centre.Excerpt from The ABC's zine, co-created by the Young New Contemporaries and designed by HATO
To mark the thinking and making which has taken place during the programme’s first year, the YNC's launched their zine, The ABC’s, alongside a pop-up exhibition at Camden Art Centre, inviting friends and family to celebrate with them the work that they’ve made. The exhibition was curated by the YNC Curatorial Committee (Aden, Aleksandra, Rai and Zara) who came together at Camden Art Centre to install the works made throughout the previous sessions, taking inspiration from the installation of Bloomberg New Contemporaries.
The ABC's at Camden Art Centre. Photograph: Peter Otto
Artist and DJ Anu Ambasna guided the group through the process of making a comic inspired by the lyrics of their favourite song.
Artist and educator Shepherd Manyika introduced the possibilities of making and editing a collective moving image work using mobile phone footage.
Artist and educator Chloe Cooper introduced the group to the practice of manifesto writing, creating a YNC manifesto, listing the group’s dreams and demands, as well as naming their collective and future zine: The ABC’s.
Illustrator, animator and arts educator Sadie St. Hilaire led a print-making workshop, exploring the process of monoprinting and stamping.
Assistant Curator at Camden Art Centre Arese Uwuoruya
co-led a Curator’s tour of Bloomberg New Contemporaries.
Artists and lecturers George Richardson, Samuel Thomson-Plant and Rosalind Wilson each hosted 1-1 portfolio feedback sessions with the YNCs.
Writer, sound artist and educator Belinda Zhawi (aka MA.MOYO) introduced the group to poetry and spoken word, producing collaborative poems responding to ideas of identity and sense of self.
Fibi Kung and Patrick Thomas (HATO) worked with the YNCs to produce a new font for their forthcoming zine, as well as supporting the group in making its design and editorial decisions. Hato Press is an independent publishing house established in 2009.
Giles Smith (Assemble) led a table-making workshop, supporting the group to make two tables, using handheld tools and timber, to display their zines on at their forthcoming Camden Art Centre exhibition. Assemble is a multi-disciplinary collective working across architecture, design and art.
Young New Contemporaries is supported by Art Fund Reimagine
