This Fellowship programme aims to support emerging art writers at formative moments in their careers. Offering two or more non-stipendiary Fellowships each year to candidates who are within five years of starting their practice, the scheme provides successful applicants with mentorship and editorial guidance from distinguished art critics and writers among AICA-UK’s membership. With interests that complement those of the Fellows, mentors review writings and offer both detailed feedback and general career advice over the course of the six-month Fellowships.
Current mentors include: Felicity Allen, Marion Coutts, Sacha Craddock, Jes Fernie, Chris Fite-Wassilak, Ned McConnell, Paul O’Kane, Richard Parry, Charles Pickstone, George Vasey, Gilda Williams.
Devised and facilitated by George Vasey, the scheme will be expanded in 2021 to include between three and five paid writing commissions offered by Arts & Heritage alongside AICA-UK’s Fellowships. Details of how to apply for this future round of Fellowships will be posted here in mid-2021.
Announcement of 2020 Fellows
AICA-UK is delighted to announce that Fellowships have been awarded to Izzy Kroese, Ashokkumar Mistry, and Nie Xiaoyi.
Izzy Kroese
Izzy Kroese is an artist, writer and curator based in Manchester. Kroese’s art writing records personal and embodied reactions to art and exhibitions. They particularly enjoy writing about emerging, disabled and/or LGBT artists. Kroese aims to look critically at art systems, and, as a disabled person, consider accessibility within the art world. Through their writing practice, they try to uplift artists through careful consideration of their work, while also understanding the potential of writing to transform the art community. They also work within a collective called Shy Bairns, which looks at contemporary art and bookmaking.
Ashokkumar Mistry
Ashokkumar Mistry is a multidisciplinary artist, writer and curator working in the UK and internationally. Mistry did not identify as neuro-divergent until he was in his 40s, and it was a seminal moment for his artistic practice. Since then he has focused on researching and writing about disability and neuro-diversity. His writing encompasses first-hand research and personal experiences relating to neuro-diversity with a view to sharing experiences and changing attitudes. He is currently Associate Artist with Disability Arts Online and a Development Artist with The Spark Arts. Mistry has been commissioned by the BBC and a number of galleries such as the Lowry and Southbank Centre to create artworks and exhibitions.
Nie Xiaoyi
Nie Xiaoyi is a Ph.D. candidate at the Royal College of Art, London, where she previously studied for a MA in Curating Contemporary Art. Her research looks into how curating emerged in China in the late 1990s within a global art scene and curating in transnational contexts. Her recent curatorial practice includes the exhibition Metamorphosis: Art Practices Now Activating Archives and Public Memories (co-curator, OCAT Institute, 2018), nominator and curator for Jimei-Arles Discovery Award (Xiamen, China), the online artistic project One Reading The Views and Itinerant Assembly (co-curator, Gasworks & RCA, 2017). She also contributes reviews and reports to the Art Newspaper and Chinese and Art World magazine.
Posted: 19 October 2020