Bow Skills Talk: International working for artists with the British Council & artist Elpida Hadzi-Vasileva

Jenny White, Head of Visual Arts Programme at the British Council, and international artist Elpida Hadzi-Vasileva, discuss opportunities for artists to work abroad.

Come along for a unique panel discussion where special guests Jenny White, Head of Visual Arts Programme at the British Council, and practicing international artist Elpida Hadzi-Vasileva, will discuss the opportunities, benefits and challenges for artists to work internationally. This session aims to offer an insight into what working internationally can offer and how it can expand and strengthen your artistic practice.

Drawing on her experiences of setting up international programmes and working with artists abroad, Jenny White will talk about what the British Council does and where they operate, highlighting some key opportunities on the British Council website for individual artists to get involved. She will also use case studies to discuss the ways in which the British Council can facilitate international working through networking and brokering.

Elpida Hadzi-Vasileva is a contemporary visual artist working across varied media of sculpture, installation, video, sound, photography and architectural interventions. She was commissioned by the Vatican as part of the Pavilion of the Holy See, at the 56th International Art Exhibition, and represented Macedonia at the 55th International Art Exhibition, La Biennale di Venezia. Hadzi-Vasileva will also give a short presentation highlighting examples of her international projects, offering practical advice, whilst also providing guidance on where to source other reputable opportunities.

Bow Arts’ Director of Arts & Events, Sophie Hill, will be chairing the event, drawing on her experience managing the international open call for Visions in the Nunnery, a biennial film, moving image and performance art exhibition in the Nunnery Gallery. Sophie has been managing the Nunnery Gallery’s exhibition and event programme for the past 4 years, as well as organisation-wide events and residency programmes.

Bow Arts seeks to support creative professionals at all stages of their careers. In 2015 Bow Arts launched Bow Skills in response to an artist survey which showed over 90% of practicing artists find it useful to receive further support outside formal education. Bow Skills is a dynamic and relevant programme of Continuing Professional Development (CPD) which is informed by an artist steering group and open to all creative practitioners across London. The programme of talks, panel discussions, new skills labs and peer crits is open to all, with concession rates available to Bow Arts artists and students.

About Jenny White

Jenny White is the Head of Visual Arts Programme at the British Council. In the British Council, Jenny has been Arts Manager Japan, Head of Culture and Communications Thailand, and Director of the British Council Cuba. After a secondment to the British Council’s Environment team, Jenny is now Head of Visual Arts Programme working on residencies and exchanges with Sub Saharan Africa and Europe, global Biennales and convening art, disability and environment programmes. Jenny is a Trustee of Japan Society UK, Fellow of Royal Society of Arts, Visiting Fellow for University of Derby Art School, and a Trustee of ATMA South Asian dance company and APT art studios in Deptford.

About Elpida Hadzi-Vasileva

Elpida Hadzi-Vasileva is a contemporary visual artist working across varied media of sculpture, installation, video, sound, photography and architectural interventions. Her materials range from the extraordinary to the ordinary and the ephemeral or discarded to the highly precious; they have included organic materials, foodstuffs and precious metals, such as caul fat to gold leaf. Central to her practice is a response to the particularities of place; its history, locale, environment and communities. Elpida has worked in collaboration with many other professionals and organisations including the RSPB, and the Forestry Commission to The Vatican, and from Cathedral settings to National Trust properties as well as contemporary visual arts organisations such as MIMA and Djanogly Gallery, and understand the complexities of place and negotiations necessary to realise work in diverse often fragile settings. Hadzi-Vasileva is interested in how the exchange of knowledge might develop through collaborative working and in the contexts of landscape, heritage, science and community as offered by each location.

Elpida Hadzi-Vasileva was commissioned by the Vatican as part of the Pavilion of the Holy See, at the 56th International Art Exhibition, and represented Macedonia at the 55th International Art Exhibition, La Biennale di Venezia. In 2017 she received Grand Prix, Osten Biennale for Awarded Authors in Macedonia, and in 2016 Golden Osten Award, at the Osten Biennial of Drawing in Macedonia. Other awards including from Wellcome Trust, Pollock-Krasner Foundation, Arts Council England, Ministry of Culture of Macedonia. Her artworks have been commissioned and developed in urban and rural sites, in interior and exterior spaces, including The University of Nottingham; Djanogly Gallery, Nottingham; Daniele Arnaud Gallery, London; Nymans Gardens; Fabrica Gallery, Brighton; Mottisfont Abbey, Romsey; Pied à Terre, London; Gloucester Cathedral, Bennachie, Aberdeenshire; L’H du Siège, France; Kilmainham Gaol Museum, Ireland. In 2020 her largest to date commission ‘Cusp’ for the Forest of Dean Sculpture Trail will be permanently sited.