Bow Skills Peer Crit, with artist & learning curator Sophie Chapman

Join us to present your artwork, hear feedback from peers and join the conversation with special guest established artist and learning curator Sophie Chapman. In this session, the guest artist will start by sharing their personal and professional practice, before facilitating a conversation around each presenting artists’ work.

Sophie Chapman is an artist and learning curator with a dual practice that is rooted in the politics of collaboration. Sophie’s artistic practise is a collaboration between herself and artist Kerri Jefferis, creating anarchic situations and improvised encounters with other people. The outcomes of these events have taken the form of sound, print, sculpture and film works.

In Sophie’s professional practice as a learning curator, she has worked for Create London, setting up The White House — a community and residency space in Dagenham. She established the Learning Programme for Whitstable Biennale, and continues to support artist led projects in schools and community centres across north Kent. More recently, Sophie started as the new ‘Into The Wild’ Artist Facilitator for Chisenhale Studios — a free programme to help emerging artists develop their working practices. Sophie straddles her curatorial practice alongside her artistic practise with Kerri, doing residencies and other artistic projects all over the UK.

Evening Features:

• The evening will provide 5 slots to present and 5 slots to join the conversation
• The guest artist's introduction to their artistic and professional practice
• Each of the 5 presenting artists have 20 minutes to present and hear feedback on their work
• The evening ends with drinks and opportunity to chat

During the evening you can:

• Hear from an established artist and curator
• Hear from peers
• Present your work (up to 5 artists)
• Join the conversation
• Meet other artists with similar concerns

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 Sophie Chapman

Sophie Chapman is an artist and learning curator originally from Newcastle. Since 2015 she has worked in collaboration with artist Kerri Jefferis to create anarchic situations and improvised encounters with other people. The remains from these events are then shaped into artworks that have taken the form of sound, print, sculpture and film: experimental records and reinterpretations of the ephemeral, live moments. Prompted by the feminist ‘practice of doing’, they invite people to re-orientate, unlearn or embody unfamiliar ways of being, together. Common to each work is the desire to convene differing people and enact forms of resistance. Recent work in progress includes Idle Acts: a film of improvised vignettes that slips between fact and fiction, feeling somewhere between soap opera and documentary, which was developed with a group of acting enthusiasts to explore micro narratives and urban surrealisms in Beeston, Leeds summer 2019. Whilst on residency in Beeston they also produced a community mural, and a modular dining table. Another ongoing project is Guttural Living 2018 which comprises of 'sympoetic tools' - sculptural objects that are used in workshops as a way to talk about our differing experiences of being embodied in the world. 

In 2016 whilst working for Create London Sophie set up The White House – a community and residency space in Dagenham. The house intends to be a safe and comfortable space for people to come together to socialise, collaborate and make art in. Whilst there she worked with artists and community groups to produce embedded residencies and produce new work. There she worked with artists such as Chad McCail, They Are Here, Alice Theobald, Christina Ford and Eve Chabanon. In 2017 Sophie established the Learning Programme for Whitstable Biennale and has since supported long-term artist led projects in schools and community centres in north Kent. Whilst there she worked with artists such as Ania Bas, Jasleen Kaur and Webb Ellis. Sophie has just started as the new Into The Wild Artist Facilitator for Chisenhale Studios. Into The Wild is a free programme for artists starting out in their careers to explore different models to work together and develop their working practices. Sophie’s practice is rooted in the politics of collaboration, and all her work intends to reshape the structures by which people make and access art.