While museums remain closed, Art in Flux has teamed up with National Gallery X to present an exciting online exhibition set to begin on March 30^th. Titled “Art in Flux: Reclaimed,” the exhibition will include works by 11 artists who are part of the Art in Flux community as well as the premier of Transcendence VR by Kimatica Studio.

Founded in 2016 by artists María Almena, Olive Gingrich, and Aphra Shemza, Art is Flux is a nonprofit with a mission to develop media arts across the UK. Thus, this exhibition will “showcase artists from the underrepresented spectra of society and provide a bridge between media artists and established art institutions, reclaiming visibility for new stories within the art world.”

As part of the exhibition, Kimatica will present Transcendence VR, which consists of a 360-degrees video media performance. The experience is a study in altered state of consciousness achieved through the combination of live performances and interactive technologies. The work is “born from a reflection on the evolution of society and the way it’s been facing a serious ‘narrative collapse’ – what we have lost more than lives during the pandemic, is hope, narrative and connection.”

Also included in the exhibition are artists Aminder Virdee, Aphra Shemza & Stuart Batchelor, Camille Baker, Danielle Brathwaite-Shirley, Enrique Agudo, Kimatica Studio, Natasha Trotman, Olive Gingrich & Shama Rahman and Ro Greengrass.

“As an artist and curator, I believe that contemporary art has a responsibility to contribute to societal change, particularly given the time of flux we are living through,” said Almena, who is not only a co-founder of Art in Flux but also the creative director of Kimatica, in a statement. “By creating artworks that aim to encourage wellbeing and transformation, and curating events that reclaim space for talented but underrepresented groups, I am hoping to lead the way towards a more thoughtful and inclusive way of experiencing art.”

The premier of the exhibition will be an online live National Gallery X event accompanied by a panel discussion that will include Art in Flux co-founders as well as Trotman, Agudo, Brathwaite-Shirley, and Baker. Also part of the panel will be key curators such as Helen Starr and Ashokkumar Mistry, with a focus on platform cultivation, art communities and the reclaiming of spaces for underrepresented groups.

Art in Flux: Reclaimed is an online exhibition that will begin 30 March, 2021 and run through 30 April, 2021. The exhibition has been sponsored by the Arts Council. Additional information can be found at Art in Flux.

To better understand the lack of diversity within the arts in the UK, the Freelands Foundation and Runnymede Trust are looking at arts education. Together, they have announced the commission of major report to shed light on why Black, Asian, and ethnically diverse peoples are underrepresented in art education, resulting in underrepresentation across the arts sector.

Despite the success of major artists like Steve McQueen and Sonia Boyce, less than three percent of those working in the arts sector are ethnically diverse. Through the two-year project, researchers hope to better understand why Black, Asian, and ethnically diverse students become excluded from art education.

“Our school students are a blank canvas. It is imperative they are able to see and appreciate diversity in art,” said Dr Halim Begum, Director of Runnymede Trust, in the announcement. “Ultimately we believe that the impact of this research will resonate beyond a single generation and provide the foundation for developments in the teaching of art in our nation’s schools, and in turn help to inspire new generations of children who value, appreciate, and indeed fall in love with art in all its forms.”

A race equality think tank, Runnymede Trust expects to announce the findings of the report in 2022. Research will take on a holistic approach reviewing everything from early engagement with the arts in school to the configuration of the professional arts sector.

Within the scope of the report, particular focus will be put on Key Stages 3 & 4, when students are between 11 and 16 years of age. This is a critical transition period in education as it is when students in the UK move from curriculums with compulsory art education to those that include elective art education only.

Ultimately, the report will not only shed light on why Black, Asian, and ethnically diverse students are not engaging with the arts as much their white counterparts but also offer guidelines, recommendations, and plans for moving forward. It is expected that the report’s findings will help build a more solid foundation for educators while ensuring that students have ample opportunity to engage with the arts.

“We know that Black, Asian and ethnically diverse students face significant obstacles to studying art at every stage of their educational journey, not least because of a striking lack of representation in the curriculum and in art educators. This has the ripple effect on the lack of representation throughout the arts sector: from entry level, technical, curatorial, to leadership, at which point only 2% of managers in visual arts organisations identify as ‘BME,’” said Founder and Chair of Freelands Foundation. “Whilst we have seen many successful Black, Asian and ethnically diverse British artists; this does not mean that we are not compelled to remove the barriers they faced for the next generation of students.”

Coventry will soon make its mark on the art world by creating one of the largest cultural hubs in the world. The UK city, which will soon be named the 2021 UK City of Culture, is looking to convert a disused IKEA building into a cultural centre that could showcase as many as 16,000 artworks.

The seven-story building was once the home of an IKEA, but in March of 2020, the branch was closed due to “consistent losses” since 2007, when the branch was opened. Details of the price have not been released, but Coventry City Council has agreed to take over the building and turn it into a cultural centre. The project is expected to cost around £1.31 million and the city plans to have it open by August of 2023.

With nearly 54,000 square metres of floor space, the building will provide ample room for displaying works from Arts Council England’s (ACE) Arts Council Collection and the British Council Collection. An estimated 8,000 works held in the ACE’s collection would head to Coventry freeing up two collection storage facilities that are currently at maximum capacity. It is expected that the arts venue might also display artworks from local collections, including the Herbert Art Gallery and Museum as well as the Coventry Transport Museum.

The conversion is a chance to “re-imagine the city” says Jim O’Boyle, the Coventry councillor in charge of city services. “We have to find a way to understand and re-purpose our city centres,” continued O’Boyle, noting that more and more, people are turning to online options for shopping as opposed to traditional high street brick and mortar shops.

In 2017, it was announced that Coventry was selected to become the UK City of Culture for 2021. The city has since created an entire programme of works, activities, education, and more that will be part of the year-long honour that officially begins in May, due to delays related to COVID-19. The city hopes that its plans will help revitalise the city after the pandemic.

“This has been the most challenging of environments in which to create a festival programme,” Chenine Bhathena, creative director of Coventry UK City of Culture Trust, said. “We’re so excited to be setting out some of the ways in which we are bringing about a return of the live to our city. Coventry city of culture year will be at the forefront of the recovery and renewal of the city and will demonstrate the important role arts and culture offers our communities and our struggling economies.”

Plans for the massive new cultural hub fall in line with larger plans for the city. “This exciting and amazing proposal really is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to create something Coventry people can be rightly proud of, as well as a national and international center of excellence that will be a lasting legacy from our year as UK City of Culture,” said David Welsh, Coventry councilor in charge of culture and the arts.

Planning permission for the transformation of the former IKEA building is expected to be given before the end of this year with construction beginning shortly after in May of 2022.

Two rarely seen sculptures by Egyptian artist Mahmoud Mokhtar are heading to Sotheby’s for auction at this week. The sculptures represent two different periods in Mokhtar’s career and have belonged to the family of politician and collector Hafez Afifi Pasha for 80 years. Together, the sculptures could fetch more than £200,000.

Born in 1891, Mokhtar was a pioneer in the Egyptian art movement and, although his life and career were cut short, he changed the landscape of Egyptian contemporary art. He was among the first class of artists to study at the Egyptian School of Fine Arts in Cairo. After graduating at the top of his class in 1912, Mokhtar moved to Paris to study at the École des Beaux-Arts on a scholarship provided by Prince Youssef Kamal. His unique combination of Egyptian and French styles would become his hallmark.

Before his death in 1934, Mokhtar is thought to have created between 80 and 100 sculptures, although only a few have survived. This is what makes the forthcoming auction of works by Mokhtar that much more exciting.

The earlier of the two works is a 1910 sculpture titled Ibn El Balad. The sculpture depicts a boy, modeled after a local boy in Cairo, with slightly disproportioned features standing atop four steps. It is a prime example of the works Mokhtar created while a student in Cairo, according to Sotheby’s specialist in modern and contemporary Middle Eastern art, who added that it’s an item “any collector should aspire to have.”

The second sculpture, Arous El Nil, is a 1929 work that shows the evolution of Mokhtar’s style and technique. Here, the artist has created a Pharaonic bust of a woman in an elegant combination of Egyptian and Art Deco styles. The bust is similar to the head of a full-length sculpture Mokhtar made in the same year called Bride of the Nile.

Both Ibn El Balad and Arous El Nil were purchased by Afifi Pasha directly from the artist and have remained in his family’s collection for eight decades. Afifi Pasha was once a surgeon before becoming an influential politician who served as the first Egyptian delegate to the United Nations. In 1951, he was appointed as the royal court chief under King Farouk and also served as the head of Bank Misr.

The sculptures head to the auction block for the first time ever from the Afifi Pasha’s family estate. Ibn El Balad and Arous El Nil will be included in Sotheby’s 20^th century art and Middle Eastern art auction, which opens on the 23^rd of March and will run for a week before