What’s on 2024: Redcar Contemporary Art Gallery hosts summer exhibition, workshops, talks and networking

The Redcar Contemporary Art Gallery (RCCAG) building hosts a diverse and ever-evolving programme of exhibitions, across a broad range of contemporary art forms.

There are paintings and sculptures, innovative installations and new media works. The gallery aims to provide a platform for artists to ‘challenge perspectives and spark conversation.’

ABOUT RCCAG

RCCAG, based at 13 West Terrace Redcar, works with professional and early career artists as well as the local community.

“The group's mission is to convey collective voices about issues of our time, through art and art related activities for social change,” said RCCAG.

Redcar Contemporary Art Gallery was established in 2022 by Miyoko Yamashita, a Goldsmiths College BA (Hons) Fine Art and Baltic/ Northumbria BxNU Master of Fine Art (MFA) graduate for the purpose of opening up creative opportunities in a town where historically few chances to benefit from involvement in the creative industries exist.

Miyoko is committed to the ethos of diversity as an integral part of the artistic process, widening participation in artistic endeavours and creating opportunities for social mobility, especially amongst those who would not otherwise contemplate participating in the creative industries.

Summer exhibition

Thanks to Arts Council funding, this year the organisation is currently curating a new Summer Exhibition of 50 plus works of art.

The 2024 exhibition builds on the success of previous exhibitions. RCCAG staged its inaugural exhibition in October 2022, mainly work by artists based in Redcar or who had a strong connection to the town. Soon after opening, the idea of a 2023 Summer Exhibition – akin to the royal Academy event – was hatched and the call went out to artists to participate. Over 80 from the UK, Europe and beyond, answered the appeal, and around 100 artworks ended up being exhibited. This success has led to the Arts Council Funding and another exhibition this year – with some changes.

The 2024 Summer Exhibition theme is ‘environment’. The exhibition therefore has a strong environmental educational component both through the artist's work, questioning the audience and through engaging children through the theme.

This year there is a guest curator, several guest curator invited artists (Sohorab Rabbey, Richard Wentworth, Josephine Wood and the Lloyd Corporation), a guest curator’s talk, an artist networking event, professional mentoring and children’s engagement activities to allow even our young members of the public to engage with contemporary art.

The guest curator is Michael Archer, former Head of the Ruskin School of Fine Art at Oxford and also former Head of Fine Art at Goldsmiths College. He is a highly respected art educator, writer, curator and critic specialising in modern and contemporary art. He is known internationally for his book entitled ‘Art Since 1960’, now in its third edition and his most recent book ‘Composition’ which has generated much buzz in the art world. Prof Archer will give a talk on July 13.

What’s on

There are a number of events and exhibitions planned throughout the summer, starting with a talk from guest curator Professor Michael Archer, on July 13.

There are artists’ networking sessions and mentoring sessions planned where creatives are invited to come and share their ideas, as well as learning practical skills in how to navigate the art market. The networking event takes place on July 14 and is an opportunity to  for creative practitioners in the wider Redcar and Cleveland  and Tees Valley region to get together to catalyse ‘first-time’ knowledge and share experiences of the art world and find new ways of collaboration to maximise opportunities for community-building, commercial practice, output, and economic impact amongst artists.

The Summer Exhibition’s guest curator will also provide insights at the event into the curatorial process outlining what curators are looking for in artwork.

Between August 24-26 the gallery throws open its doors as part of Redcar’s Between the Tides festival. It is offering a children’s tour of the Redcar Contemporary Art Gallery and they’ll be invited to create Origami insects in the children’s exhibition room.

There are also writing, painting and sculpture workshops for children and creative classes for adults covering themes from using colour to woodblock printing to an introduction to projection mapping.

Find out more

The 2024 Redcar Summer Exhibition is Funded by Arts Council England (National Lottery Project Grants Programme) and supported by Tees Valley Arts

The Exhibition runs from July to August 31, Wed - Sat, 11am – 4pm. July 13 Curators Talk at the RCCAG, 2pm and July 14 Artists Networking Event at the Redcar Palace Hub, 11am – 3pm

Find out more by visiting the website here.