Alex Farquharson appointed Director of the new Centre for Contemporary Art, Nottingham
Centre for Contemporary Art, Nottingham
Alex Farquharson appointed Director of the new Centre for Contemporary Art, Nottingham
For further information call Gary Smerdon-White, Chairman of CCAN on +44 (0)7860311412 or email garysmerdon-white@supanet.com
The new Centre for Contemporary Art, Nottingham, announces the appointment of the internationally renowned curator, critic and writer Alex Farquharson as its founding Director. Farquharson takes up his post on 2 April 2007 and will lead the development of the centre through to its opening in Autumn 2008 and beyond. Designed by architects Caruso St John, the Centre for Contemporary Art is a highly significant addition to the East Midlands cultural landscape, occupying a prime site in Nottingham’s Lace Market district and funded by Arts Council East Midlands, Nottingham City Council and a range of other supporters. Under Alex Farquharson’s direction it will join an international network of contemporary art institutions dedicated to artistic, curatorial and educational innovation.
In the last six years Alex Farquharson has built a distinguished reputation as a freelance curator, writer, editor and university lecturer. Recently he co-curated British Art Show 6, with Andrea Schlieker, at various venues in Gateshead, Manchester, Nottingham and Bristol, 2005 – 2006, and Le Voyage Intérieur: Paris – London with Alexis Vaillant at Espace Electra in Paris, 2005 – 2006. His next exhibitions are If Everybody had an Ocean: Brian Wilson, an Art Exhibition, at Tate St Ives and CAPC Musée d’Art Contemporain, Bordeaux, 2007 – 2008, and ArtPace’s Fall 2007 season of residencies and accompanying exhibitions in San Antonio. He writes for a range of magazines including Frieze, Art Monthly and Artforum and has contributed to numerous books and catalogues on contemporary art, including Phaidon’s monograph on Isa Genzken (2006). As Tutor and Research Fellow in Curatorial Studies on the Curating Contemporary Art MA at the Royal College of Art he has led weekly
seminars over the last six years on various aspects of experimental exhibition history, and has written and lectured widely on these subjects. Farquharson’s curatorial career began at Spacex in Exeter in 1994, where he became Exhibitions Director, prior to his move to Centre for Visual Arts in Cardiff, again as Exhibitions Director, 1999 – 2000. He curated around forty exhibitions in this period.
Alex Farquharson has expressed his excitement at the prospect of shaping the new centre and sees it as ‘an ambitious new institution of contemporary art, that will be an inspirational social and cultural home for our immediate audience and the artists and other cultural practitioners we’ll be working with’. Under his direction the Centre for Contemporary Art will give equal emphasis to major exhibitions and a dynamic programme of live art, artists’ films and transdisciplinary education projects. Farquharson hopes that Nottingham will become ‘an essential port-of-call for national and international visitors committed to the exploration of art and ideas’.
Alison Lloyd, Head of Visual Arts and Literature, Arts Council England, East Midlands, said: ‘We are delighted to welcome Alex to Nottingham to develop what will be a flag ship gallery of contemporary art in the region. His reputation will help to establish CCAN as an exciting and leading centre for contemporary art. Arts Council England is a major capital and revenue investor in CCAN and sees it as playing a major role in attracting visitors to the city and region.’
Nottingham City Council is the lead partner in the development of the project and has been instrumental in bringing it to this stage. Peter Milton, Head of Cultural Services said: ‘As developer of the building, the City Council is delighted to be working with Alex Farquharson and the new Board to ensure CCAN benefits the cultural life of Nottingham, the region and beyond.’
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