Bootcamp 'game-changer' for working class artists

A bootcamp to help artists get their careers off the ground has seen participants get their work into galleries and magazines.

The 10-week programme to help working class artists in the West Midlands has run twice this year and was developed by Birmingham-based art curator and critic Ruth Millington.

She said the art world was notoriously hard to get into, "particularly those without connections or inherited wealth".

Sandra Palmer, known as The Brummy Artist, who has shown her work in exhibitions in Birmingham and London, said the programme was a "game-changer".

Six artists from the first bootcamp have gone on to show their work in galleries and all 20 have had press coverage, including in the magazine Stylist.

The programme, Get Gallery Ready, funded by West Midlands Combined Authority (WMCA) and based at Solihull College & University Centre, is free for visual artists in the region.

Guest speakers were brought in, Ms Millington reviewed each person's portfolio, and the groups had behind-the-scenes visits to galleries, museums and studios, including Ikon Gallery, RBSA Gallery, Coventry Biennial, Stryx Gallery and Nook.

Every bootcamp ends in an exhibition at The Courtyard Gallery at The Core in Solihull.

Birmingham-based painter Tara Harris said her confidence, belief and motivation to be seen as an artist received "a massive boost".

Yulia Lisle, originally from Ukraine, went on to secure her first solo exhibition, A Moment to Gather, at Nook gallery. She said the support "changed everything".

One of those taking part, Odette Campbell, works in textiles and creates abstract embroidery.

She said taking part had given her "extra belief that stitch does have a place in the art world".

Ms Campbell is running a six-week craft club on Tuesdays at Wolverhampton Art Gallery next year.

Artists in the second bootcamp are currently showing their work in the exhibition Winter Folk, which runs until 10 January at The Courtyard Gallery.

Ms Millington, who previously worked for galleries in London, said the art world was fiercely competitive and difficult to navigate, and art school did not tend to teach artists how to prepare for galleries.

"I wanted to level up the playing field," she said.

At WMCA, Hayley Pepler said the authority had been "thrilled by the phenomenal success" and how the bootcamps had responded directly to local needs.

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