The ‘Guest Curator’ project is designed to bring in new talent and to offer an opportunity for professional development. The candidate gets the chance to build on their skills and professional experience by curating an open-submission show. The exhibition is open to anyone so it gives both local and national creatives the chance to exhibit their work.
It began in 2017 and has had three phenomenal shows so far. The Directors wanted to bring in different curatorial ideas for exhibitions as well as contributions from the in-house Exhibitions Team. It began in 2017 with ‘Eden’ curated by Katie Hodson. It reached a high number of visitors, new and old alike.
‘’Fabulous to see an art centre open & in the middle of town! Some lovely work; the meadow drew me in’’.
In 2018 ‘Lawn and Meadow’ was curated by Mélissa Evans which attracted a higher footfall than the previous year despite a lower number of people coming to Riverside shopping centre. For the ideas behind the ‘Lawn and Meadow’ show please read Mel’s Curatorial Note.
Scaffolds of Nature was curated by Emily Wilkinson in 2019. Emily gathered together delicate works of natural beauty from film, sculpture and poetry to woven and embroidered natural materials. This was the last of this series of exhibitions in Participate’s Riverside Gallery.
Due to the success of this particular exhibition, selected works were subsequently shown at the Unitarian church in Shrewsbury as part of the annual Darwin festival, in February 2020, entitled Scaffolds of Nature II.
