I’ve applied for the New Opportunities Award (NOA) from New Expressions – an initiative to develop contemporary art in museum settings. This kind of strategic use of contemporary art presents interesting boundaries for artists to potentially push against. I’ve negotiated a project with the Museum of Bath at Work whose main collection – the J. B. Bowler collection – consists of all the contents from a Victorian hardware shop, metal works and drinks manufacturers. It tells a tale of 2 cities; the overarching narrative is that of the Victorian entrepreneur, whist a more hidden layer tells the story of the worker. I want to unpick this more hidden history.
Myself and the museum Director are keen to realise the project, so in the likely event that we don’t get this funding we’ll apply for a GfA.
Update: We are going down the GfA route.
