Prime Highlights:
- Get Gallery Ready bootcamp helps artists gain gallery exhibitions and media exposure, boosting their careers.
- Participants report increased confidence, motivation, and professional growth in the competitive art world.
Key Facts:
- The 10-week programme, funded by West Midlands Combined Authority (WMCA), is free for local visual artists.
- Every bootcamp concludes with an exhibition at The Courtyard Gallery, Solihull, and provides portfolio reviews, guest talks, and gallery visits.
Background:
A 10-week bootcamp aimed at supporting working-class artists in the West Midlands is helping participants break into the competitive art world, with many seeing their work featured in galleries and magazines.
Developed by Birmingham-based art curator and critic Ruth Millington, the programme, Get Gallery Ready, has run twice this year and is funded by the West Midlands Combined Authority (WMCA). It is free for visual artists in the region.
“Art can be notoriously difficult to enter, especially for those without connections or inherited wealth,” said Millington, who previously worked with galleries in London. “I wanted to level the playing field.”
The bootcamp offers portfolio reviews, guest lectures, and behind-the-scenes visits to local galleries, museums, and studios, including Ikon Gallery, RBSA Gallery, Coventry Biennial, Stryx Gallery, and Nook. Each programme concludes with an exhibition at The Courtyard Gallery in Solihull.
Artists participating have already seen tangible success. Six from the first bootcamp have shown their work in galleries, and all 20 participants received media coverage, including features in Stylist magazine. Tara Harris, a Birmingham-based painter, said her confidence and motivation “received a massive boost,” while Ukrainian artist Yulia Lisle secured her first solo exhibition at Nook gallery.
Textile artist Odette Campbell noted the programme gave her “extra belief that stitch does have a place in the art world” and will now run a six-week craft club at Wolverhampton Art Gallery next year.
Hayley Pepler of WMCA praised the initiative, saying it has been “phenomenally successful” in addressing local artistic needs.
The second bootcamp’s participants are currently featured in the exhibition Winter Folk, running at The Courtyard Gallery until 10 January.
