Castlefield Gallery Associates Spotlight: Nicole Prior

As we start to grow membership of Castlefield Gallery Associates we are asking current members to share their thoughts on what the programme offers and how it has been useful for them.

We spoke with Nicole Prior, a visual artist whose work explores themes of surveillance and digital influence in the places we live and the electronic devices we use. Her experiments study the effects of surveillance and data collection on human behaviour. The audience and their behavioural responses are integral to the work. Nicole is currently one of four artists undertaking the FACT Together 2022 programme, a development opportunity supporting artists to produce a new digital artwork.

Why did you become a member of Castlefield Gallery Associates? 

I became a Castlefield Associate in 2018. I was looking for a studio space at the time to allow me to spread my work out and spend time working alongside other artists.

After doing the research, it seemed that access to a New Art Space was a great option as it allowed me to test out the practicality of having a space to work from, without committing to the expense of a studio. It would also allow me to try out some large scale ideas with projections that I just wouldn’t have been able to experiment with within a classic studio space.

I also loved the idea of meeting up with other artists once a month for artist talks. The value of those sessions alone made the membership a no brainer!

What’s been the most positive/useful thing you have experienced about it?

Hearing other artists talk about how they have navigated the art world and progressed in their careers has been really impactful. In particular, talks from gallerists, curators and writers still have an influence on me today.

A group of us had an artist led exhibition at a New Art Space in Rochdale and it pushed me to think much bigger about the scale of the work I was producing. The large scale installations created for that exhibition had a big influence on my work going forward.

The exhibition also led to being commissioned to exhibit at New Art Spaces Wigan which again was a great challenge and pushed me to try some ambitious ideas I had been thinking about for a while.

Would you encourage other artists to join – if so why? 

Absolutely. The education, the opportunities, the community, the space…I can’t think why you wouldn’t join!

Find out more about Castlefield’s New Art Spaces Wigan here

Apply for a fully funded Associates membership here

Image: Nicole Prior, All the Paths We’ve Walked