Future Talent’s Local Artists
Albert Bennet-Cowell
I'm an artist working and studying art in Sunderland at the university, I live in Pallion and my family live in Barnes and Seaburn.
For me future walls and the projects we're doing with them are the first proper steps towards building a functioning arts scene in Sunderland and the North East, we have the National Glass Centre, we have high-quality arts education here in the city but there's almost no evidence of that, the artists we produce leave this city because they feel there isn't a scene here for them to enter or the scene is hostile to any changes or developments we attempt despite us living and growing up here. Putting up murals and artworks and engaging in programmes like future walls is the next step in this city reaching its full potential as a landmark of the North East and the UK and goes hand in hand with the current developments from the council on the Riverside and the up and coming plans in the near future for improvements to the city.
I don't want to just see big buildings going up and more jobs being produced, I also want to help make this city a beautiful and vibrant place to live and work and that's what we're trying to do with future walls.
Diane Cobb
As a 55yr old working-class mature female artist/student, being part of the Future Walls regeneration is an exciting opportunity, working on a project that has long-term goals for the City of Sunderland. Harvesting and nurturing new talent with a view to increase our visibility as local artists.
The Future Talent Programme will not only equip us with the necessary skills to carry out this public realm work but will aim to leave the city with homegrown local talent.
This well-established collective of artists within the Art of Protest Projects has given me the chance to be seen and heard within our community, which is something I will be forever grateful for, as there is nothing like this anywhere within the North East.
No parents, no money and from a long line of council estate stock.
With no previous education to speak of and from a senior school that was known back in the day as Cardboard City. A Northerner through and through.
Anna-Marie Gallares
I am a BA Fine Arts graduate from the University of Sunderland. I won the Middlesbrough Arts Week New Graduate Award on degree show night. This award includes a 3-month residency with the Auxiliary Project Space, Middlesbrough.
I work part-time as a youth support worker and community artist at Projects4Change, based in Cowgate, Newcastle.
I aim to establish myself as a Filipino-British Artist in the North East.
I am part of the talent development programme through the help of Sunderland University. My tutor recommended me this opportunity. It would be an excellent opportunity to work on a long-term collaborative project in which the goal is to develop the city through murals and workshops, increasing my visibility and network as an artist.
To be part of Future Walls means opportunities to experience a different art field. I am learning from the mural artists, which would expand my knowledge to be used towards developing my practice. This will solidify my place in the Sunderland artist community and have a piece of collective work that will permanently be part of its walls.
The Future Walls will rebrand Sunderland into a fun, colourful, inviting city. It will attract those who enjoy art, encouraging them to find street art and mingle in the city’s leisure. In turn, attracting people will inspire those to invest in local recreational businesses, increasing Sunderland’s vitality.
Jude Warham
Born to an underclass family in Dublin in ‘98, I left home abruptly in my teens. Fifteen schools and nineteen addresses later I discover the Northeast of England at age 16 in 2014 and it has been my home ever since.
Being raised between Irish and British families I’ve always felt my place in either societies as somewhat dissonant, never truly belonging to either, an outsider. When I began writing on walls I found solace in the colourful yet elusive graffiti scene because I could create where and when I wanted. Encouraged by a mentor to enrol on an access course as a mature art student, I left my role as a full-time chef and the rest is history.
What about my practise?
Well I’ve always loved art but coming from a working class background with very little creative opportunities ‘fine art’ was something inaccessible. I couldn’t afford oil paints or even paper to draw on. What I had come from teachers who were kind enough to support me. The rest of my materials were found in dumpsters and borrowed off the streets. Because of this, my practise today sees found surfaces reworked, pressed, reduced and manipulated to create new forms on which I add my now post-graffiti style of painting. I adapt, respond and celebrate the urban environment by incorporating objects, posters, and newspapers with pigments, dirt and grit to create texture. My practise is a never ending conversation that questions the bureaucracy’s views on street art as a working class product, often in the form of large-scale paintings which mirror buffed city walls soon to be painted again and again.
Future Walls is actively providing engagement opportunities for developing Northeast artists such as myself to create in a safe environment. We want to boast local culture which means public involvement and local artists are a crucial and irreplaceable factor. Being part of this team has been a life changing experience.