This event is exclusively for STEAMhouse Create members. Find out about how to join HERE.
Join us for an informal lunchtime chat between Niki Russell, Director of Primary in Nottingham and Ruth Claxton.
Primary is an artist-led contemporary visual arts organisation which prioritises artistic research, provides studios and residencies to artists, and runs a free public programme of exhibitions and events. They have transformed a disused school in an inner-city area of Nottingham into a new cultural resource which now houses high quality studios and workshops for over 40 resident artists, alongside a free programme of exhibitions and events which are open to everyone, an ever-growing garden and the award-winning Small Food Bakery.
Niki has been involved in the project since the start, so this is a great opportunity to hear both about how he and Primary work with artists and communities and learn more about how they built the organisation.
Our ‘In Conversation’ events are designed to help STEAMhouse Create members learn more about how different arts organisations, commissioners and curators work with artists, and how artists can work with them.
About Our Guest
Niki Russell is an artist, curator, and writer. He co-founded Nottingham Studios, working with the organisation to successfully realise a permanent artist studio for the city at Primary, and acted as Chair of the Board before stepping down to become Primary’s Programme Curator and, later, Director.
He has organised a number of projects independently, such as Not ready yet (2011) at the Exchange Building in Nottingham and the You Are Here Festival (2003-4) in various locations across Nottingham. He was also played a key role in instigating Sideshow, the Nottingham wide artist-led initiative to present exhibitions and projects alongside the last two iterations of the British Art Show (2006-10).
Previously, he worked as Programme Co-ordinator at Radar, Loughborough University, producing projects with Ruth Ewan, Future Farmers, Becky Beinart, and Nils Norman, and curating programmes including: Folk Variations, with Serena Korda, Sally OʼReilly, Olivia Plender & Patrick Staff, and Tris Vonna-Michel; and This is not a performance or a performance! with Frank Abbott, Robin Deacon, Jenny Hogarth & Kim Coleman, Janice Kerbel, Pil and Galia Kollectiv, Ruth Proctor, Neal Swettenham & Michael Pinchbeck, and Jennet Thomas.
As an artist he has presented work in exhibitions in the UK and internationally, and for the last ten years has worked collectively with the group Reactor, whose recent projects include Log!c ?stem at Flux Factory (New York, USA) and Dummy Button for KW Institute for Contemporary Art (Berlin, Germany). Reactor have regularly worked internationally at institutions such as MoBY (Bat Yam, Israel), Schirn Kunsthalle (Frankfurt, Germany), Donau Festival (Krems, Austria) and also programme the events series Reactor Halls at Primary, presenting live projects with artists such as Juneau Projects, Pil and Galia Collective and Plastique Fantastique.
