Bringing together artists with and without a learning-disability, the pARTnership is a creative and professional development project being delivered by Grundy Art Gallery, The New Langdale learning disability day service in Blackpool, contemporary artist Tina Dempsey with peer support from Venture Arts in Manchester.

The project currently takes the form of artist-led weekly workshops focusing on the sharing of skills, ideas and the development of new work, research and development visits to contemporary art exhibitions, organisations and events, and public facing outputs such as exhibitions, art fair participation and public facing workshops, tours and talks led by the pARTnership artists.

The pARTnership was initially funded as a pilot project as part of a wider project called Access Fylde Coast (2018-2019) which was funded by the Coastal Communities Fund.

The pARTnership has since gone on to receive ongoing support from Arts Council of England, firstly through project funding and more recently through an uplift to funding that Grundy Art Gallery received as part of its National Portfolio status 2023-2026.

Over the six years that the project has been in development, artists from the pARTnership have exhibited their work at Grundy Art Gallery, the Horsfall in Manchester, Mura Ma in Marple amongst other. Artists from the pARTnership are now represented by commercial galleries such as Jennifer Lauren Gallery, and through the national agency, Outside In. Artists have had their work exhibited at artfairs in Manchester, New York and Paris, they have had their work collected into private collections in the UK and overseas and in 2023, work by one of the pARTnership artists, Stacey Foster was acquired into Manchester Art Gallery’s collection through The Manchester Contemporary Art Fund.

 

Work by artists Conor Gavin and Candice Swallow from the pARTnership is currently on show until 14 December as part of Grundy Art Gallery’s Autumn 2024 exhibition programme and from 15-17 November 2024 work by pARTnership artist Chloe Macfarlane will be presented at The Manchester Contemporary 2024.

You can also follow the pARTnership’s activity via Instagram @thepartnership