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What’s been happening at Artlink & 87 Gallery… Hello, I’m Bex, the General Manager here at Artlink and 87 Gallery. I’ve been in this role since February last year so it’s very nearly my one-year anniversary. I’ve been reflecting on what I’ve seen in the last 12 months, and I felt like I absolutely needed to share it with you. As a charity run by an entirely part-time team and despite so many challenges, 2024 was an exciting rollercoaster for us. Allow me to sum up just a few of our 2024 successes (…takes a deep breath because there’s more than a few).
We welcomed the vibrant and passionate Lindsey Alvis as our new Creative Director and CEO, following the retirement of Philip Stevens. During his tenure and before he left, Philip secured numerous grants including funding from Arts Council England for exhibitions and engagement work, a grant from the National Lottery Community Fund to support the Creative Connections project over the next three years and grants to support the expansion of Artlink’s work in the East Riding. Since Philip retired, Lindsey has secured further funding from the Garfield Weston Foundation and Children in Need so that we can continue our work in the community. Janet Adamson, the chair of the board, said: “Philip has done a fantastic job. We are incredibly grateful for his contributions and the board is confident that Lindsey will bring new energy and ideas to Artlink, ensuring its continued success as a vital part of Hull’s artistic community.” It’s been four months in her role, and I know I speak for the whole team when I say, we think she’s doing an incredible job.
In our 87 Gallery, we had FOUR unbelievable exhibitions curated by Becky Gee Lucy Elmes: What We Do, Woman Life Freedom | Zan Zendegi Azadi, Cold Junction and Outwith. Each exhibition - each artist or collective - as different as the last, but equally inspiring in their own way. We joined forces with Hull York Medical School, the Polish and Romanian community here in Hull and co-produced Is That It? a short film about cervical screening for Polish and Romanian women in the UK. We worked with our neighbours at Peel Project, Welcome House, Hull and East Yorkshire Ukrainian Community, and Open Doors to bring our local international community together through art workshops and events. We continued with our Creative Connections programmes in different venues across Hull, led by our Creative Producer Lucy Elmes and our Community Engagement Worker, Josie Davies. Lucy also produced the beloved Explorers in Libraries programmes while Josie connected with almost everyone in Hull (if you haven’t heard from her, you probably will soon) to bring art and people in Hull, together. Matt Fratson, our Engagement Producer, supported the whole team in their different projects while also facilitating community workshops, school visits, work experience opportunities, Times, and Streams. Matt is also the producer for our learning programme, Gallery Explorers.Wanting to make sure they had the best opportunities from their experience, Matt recently trained to offer the Gallery Explorers Arts Award qualifications. Dan Watts, our producer of Disability Arts Network (D.A.N for short), had some amazing gatherings in 2024. We welcomed so many wonderful people from Wes Trowell, Liz Dees, and Emily Oetegenn to the charity: Tourette Syndrome - Inclusion in the Community (T.I.C), as speakers. We also went offsite a few times like when we were hosted by the incredibly welcoming Hull Truck Theatre. They gave us, and the Disability Arts Network participants, an accessible tour before talking with us about Access in their industry. (…crikey, I am still writing, and I know I am missing so much out) All this incredible work meant that by the end of 2024, we could also launch Our Community Gallery, a flexible, creative space to celebrate the artists that take part in these programmes. Right now, we are installing something special here, so keep checking our social media for updates. Making the most fabulous entrance into 2025, we saw record-breaking numbers at the Launch Night of our newest, current exhibition, "Different by Design". If you haven’t seen it, you must! Phew. What an incredible team I get to work with. It goes without saying, that all our staff, partners, artist facilitators, workshop participants, exhibition visitors, newsletter readers, social media “interactors”, feedback contributors and donators (of pounds or hours) deserve the biggest Thank You because as it turns out, Artlink Hull is a team effort. Finally, if you’re feeling as inspired as me after reading all of that, it’s probably worth knowing that we’re always considering new visits, new collaborations, new projects, and new promises. So, if you’d like to get involved, volunteer, donate, or give us some gentle encouragement, we’d love to hear from you. Thanks for sticking with me, I hope to hear from you soon, Bex
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