A bit more info about Venture Arts and our partnership with the Whitworth…

About Venture Arts…

Venture Arts is an award-winning visual arts organisation working with learning disabled artists. Through our studio programmes, exhibitions and collaborative projects, we remove barriers to the arts. We put artists in the lead; we champion neurodiversity and provide pathways for every individual to develop their creative identity. 

Venture Arts equips people to succeed as artists, advocates, cultural workers, educators, curators and critics. 

Each year the Venture Arts team mentor over 200 artists across a wide range of specialisms. Collaborations and partnerships are integral to what we do. Our studio artists exhibit regionally, nationally and internationally and work is represented in collections worldwide. 

We develop young artists through our Young People’s Art Club and schools projects. Our ground-breaking Cultural Enrichment Programme of placements in galleries, museums, cultural venues and festivals increases representation and makes our cultural sector a fairer, more equitable place. 

About our partnership…

The Whitworth and Venture Arts have been working together for a long time including in the following projects:

• For the past 8 years, the Whitworth have been a partner on Venture Arts Cultural enrichment programme – Venture Arts artists gaining work experience in different cultural venues, in this time 8 of our studio artists have worked with the Whitworth.

• Following on from this, one CEP placement participant, Josh Brown, is now a regular volunteer in the Whitworth shop.

• In 2019 the acquisition of Venture Arts artist Barry Anthony Finan’s work was added to the Whitworth Contemporary collection.

• In 2018/2019 we partnered on a Project called Conversation Series ii. The Whitworth Musgrave Kinley Curator Holly Grange worked with the group of artists looking at the term Outsider Art with particular reference to the Musgrave Kinley collection.  

• We also won a Cultural Award for this in 2019

• In 2020, Venture Arts showed the Other Transmissions Exhibition, part of Venture Arts Conversation Series project exhibited at the Whitworth.

• Venture Arts x The Whitworth Editions prints. 7 Venture Arts artists were selected to show 10 different exclusive prints for the Whitworth.  These have been shown in the Whitworth shop and also at The Manchester Contemporary in October 2022. Artists include Barry Anthony Finan (artwork acquired by the Whitworth) and Amy Ellison and Andrew Johnstone, both artists on the Other Transmissions project.

• A partnership between Venture Arts, Outside In and The Whitworth on the NorthWest Hub programme which has just come to an end due to funding.

Taking us up to today and the galleries work with Sally and Laura to delve in to the collection and stories connected to the art and how we can make our galleries more accessible to all moving forward.

Sally’s workshop ‘Everyone Is Welcome’ on Thursday 10th August is currently Sold Out but please check back for any returns or feel free to come along to the Whitworth’s Playtime activities that day to be in a chance of potentially joining in.