Apply for a fully funded Associates Membership!
Posted on 27 February 2025
Deadline for submissions: Thursday 3 April, 12 noon.
Castlefield Gallery Associates is a membership scheme for artists, writers and independent creatives working in contemporary art.
The scheme provides members with information and activities for artists designed to support their skills and career development. Associates can also access ways to communicate their work through the gallery’s digital platforms and can, at times, apply for use of Castlefield Gallery New Art Spaces and a range of other members only activities. Castlefield Gallery Associates acts as a hub, bringing together creative practitioners, facilitating critical exchange and engagement.
We host regular monthly in person and online events that are programmed in response to the needs, requests and interests of artists and creatives.
We are currently growing the membership offer and are keen to engage with artists and creatives who identify with one or more of the following:
- Being from a low socio-economic background
- Disabled or with a long-term health condition
- Being from the Global Majority
- Being neurodiverse
Please note the funded places are limited and we wish to prioritise those who are currently on a low income who could not otherwise afford to participate in the programme. Do consider if the £5 monthly membership fee is something that would be affordable for you before applying.
With the generous financial support of the Brian Mercer Trust, Castlefield Gallery is offering 25 new 12-months memberships. 20 of these memberships will be allocated to artists from the North West region, and 5 will be allocated to artists living and working elsewhere in the UK.
Being a Castlefield Gallery Associate gives you access to:
- Workshops & talks centred on creative professional development
- One-to-one advisory sessions with Castlefield Gallery directors
- Talks with visiting artists, writers & curators
- Opportunity to apply for the annual Castlefield Gallery Associates Members Exhibition
- Opportunity to access our New Art Spaces scheme, which provides temporary work or project space to artists when we have availability
- A Members only resource page with tailored content
- Regular mail-outs listing current & upcoming opportunities for creatives
- A chance to apply to open call opportunities that are at times made only accessible to Castlefield Gallery Associates
- 10% discount at Fred Aldous
- Limited complementary tickets to attend Castlefield Gallery paid events
Our fully funded Associate places are a key part of Castlefield Gallery’s commitment to supporting artists, building creative communities – and making new art happen.
Please note: if you are currently a Castlefield Gallery Associate you can still apply for a funded place. If successful we will extend your current membership for 12 months. If you have any questions please contact Ryan French on associates@castlefieldgallery.co.uk or 0161 832 8034. If you reach our voicemail please ensure you leave your full name and contact details so we can return your call. Please allow 3 working days for us to get back to you.
To Apply
Fill out the online form below.
The form asks for brief personal information and 5 sentences that ask why you feel you would benefit from joining the scheme at this moment in time.
A word version of the form is available to download here
If you would rather submit your application by video or audio recording please answer the questions in the application form accessed by the link above and place all files in an email to associates@castlefieldgallery.co.uk with the subject line Funded Associate Membership.
If you would prefer, you are welcome to print out the form and fill in by hand, returning to the gallery by email or post. We are also able to post a printed copy of the application form to you – just contact us with your address. Please remember to post completed application forms in advance of the deadline as we can not accept applications received after the advertised date.
We will contact everyone who applied by 17 April. Please note that we are unable to offer feedback.
OUR SELECTING PANEL
Access
If you have any access requirements you wish to discuss and/or need support with please get in touch with us at associates@castlefieldgallery.co.uk or call 0161 832 8034.
If you reach our voicemail please ensure you leave your full name and contact details so we can return your call. Please allow 3 working days for us to get back to you.
ALANA LAKE (Artist, Researcher and Castlefield Gallery Associate)
Born in Tamworth, Staffordshire (1981), Alana Lake is an artist and researcher exploring the intersections of art, psychoanalysis, and queer identity. She studied Photography at Arts University Bournemouth (BA Hons, 2004) and completed postgraduate studies at the Royal Academy of Arts Schools, London (2009).
Currently pursuing a PhD at Manchester School of Art, her research, Towards a Pathology of Desire, adopts an autoethnographic, practice-led approach to embodied sculpture. Working with glass, ceramic, and metal, she examines whether addiction is best understood as a disease or as a “biology of desire.”
Lake has received numerous awards and funding, including a DYCP (2024), the Andrew Stewart Artist Award (2023), a Research Scholarship from Senatsverwaltung für Kultur und Europa (2022), and studio funding from BBK (2021). Early career awards include the Dunoyer de Segonzac Award (2009) and the Michael Moser Award (2008) from the Royal Academy of Arts.
JAMIE KIRK (Artist, Castlefield Gallery Associate)
His abstract paintings are comprised of multiple layers, oscillating between candid, expressive mark making and coordinated attention to detail. Conceived from tongue-in-cheek introspection, cynical commentaries on modern society and his immediate environment, the works exist as diaristic self portraits, embellished with references to both universal and personal cultural significance.
In 2024, Kirk was invited to exhibit as part of Castlefield Gallery’s ’40 Years of the Future: Painting’ exhibition, as well as Saul Hay Gallery’s painting exhibition ‘NOW’, and was nominated for HOME’s Manchester Open solo exhibition award.”
HELEN WEWIORA (Castlefield Gallery Director & Artistic Director)
Helen Wewiora is Director and Artistic Director at Castlefield Gallery, Manchester, where she provides artistic and strategic direction. She is also the Co-Chair and Co-Director of Contemporary Visual Arts North West, part of Contemporary Visual Arts Network England.
Prior to this Helen worked for Arts Council England whilst also co-directing her own curatorial and producing agency. Helen has worked for the Foundation for Art & Creative Technology (FACT), Liverpool; Cornerhouse (now HOME) with the BBC Big Screen Network, Manchester; Tate Education at the then Tate Gallery, London; in the commercial gallery sector, and independently as a writer, curator and producer. Much of her career has focused on the practice and career development of visual artists. Helen trained in Art History at UCL and the Courtauld Institute.
RYAN FRENCH (Castlefield Gallery Gallery & Volunteer Coordinator)
Ryan French is a Manchester native, growing up in Longsight and then studying Fine Art/Painting at Manchester School of Art. As the Castlefield Gallery & Volunteers Coordinator, Ryan works across multiple facets of the organisation, looking after the volunteers, Castlefield Gallery Associates and New Art Spaces artist studios in Warrington, as well as supporting the other members of the team in the gallery across many projects.
Aside from being a coordinator in the gallery, Ryan is an artist. He works with digital mediums and oil painting, referencing classics, art history and psychogeography as he plays with tension between tradition and contemporary art within his practice.
Apply
Downloads
Application form - pdf
107.19140625kbApplication form - docx
8.216796875kbImages
Banner:
- Design by Sara Nesteruk
From left to right, top to bottom:
- Environmental Justice Questions Workshop with Harun Morrison. Photographed by Maariyah Fulat.
- Maisie Pritchard’s winter workshop for Castlefield Gallery Associates. Image courtesy of Castlefield Gallery.
- Alana Lake
- Jamie Kirk
- Helen Wewiora
- Ryan French
- Omid Asadi at the preview of Sources (2019) at Castlefield Gallery. Photographed by John Lynch.
