Award-winning  BA (Hons) Fine Art graduate Beth Hinde was the the joint recipient of this years New Graduate Award which will see her take part in annual creative festival Middlesbrough Art Week. MAW 2024 is now presenting its 7th festival edition, which takes place across the town from Thursday 26th September to Saturday 5th October, 2024.

The title for this year’s festival is ‘IN THE NOW AND THE FAR’ and seeks to “negotiate the overlap and differences between cultural production and political action. Who has the right to take action? What does art & social practice look like? When is the moment and who is in the room? We are thinking about the attitudes, frameworks and timescales that inform the way that we make and share work, and in turn, how this helps us reimagine the communities we live in. We are also considering how uneven distribution (of power, time, resource, capacity) has shaped social movement of the past, and how this in turn might act as the imaginative scaffold for the future.”

The New Graduate Award is “a studio-based residency for new graduates in the North East. It is designed to instil confidence, strengthen networks and develop a talent pipeline for graduates of art in the Northeast. It is supported by Middlesbrough Art Week (MAW) and The Auxiliary Project Space which are both Arts Council National Portfolio Organisations.”

The prize also offers a wealth of support including a two-day intensive induction delivered by by Eve Cromwell, Artist Statement workshop with George Vasey, an opportunities workshop with Conor Ruth from Starving Artists and a video call with New Contemporaries as-well as some financial and community based support.

This year the award was expanded to include five North-East Based institutions. Beth, who left our school with a degree in BA (Hons) Fine Art received the award alongside fellow student Charlotte Thompson. We caught up with her to find out more about the award, her practice since graduating and what visitors can expect from her installation at this years Middlesbrough Art Week.

You were a recipient of the New Graduate Award, tell us about it!

The New Graduate Award (NGA) is a three-month residency-based development programme supported by both Middlesbrough Art Week and The Auxiliary Project Space which was offered to 9 graduates. With this award, I have been very lucky to be granted a studio space from Navigator North in Middlesbrough which I can expand upon my practice. Thanks to the help of Will Hughes, we have been very fortunate to receive one-to-one crits, and support sessions from New Contemporaries, Starving Artists, George Vasey and Evelyn Cromwell with upcoming sessions with MIMA! On top of all of this, I have been given a place in an exhibition at Middlesbrough Art Week.

How have you found working with the Auxiliary?

The time I’ve spent with The Auxiliary so far has been invaluable. When starting our residency we had an intensive weekend full of support sessions and conversations with people working throughout the creative industry, all of the information I received was amazing and to hear it from people so invested in the arts was such a pleasure. I’ve already had one-to-one crits with members of the Auxiliary and other recipients of the award and we have more coming up as we prepare for Art Week.

As a New Graduate Award winner you will be taking part in MAW 2024 – tell us about it!

If all of the support we’ve been given wasn’t enough, the residency also comes with a spot in Middlesbrough Art Week 2024. From attending previous years, the calibre of work and creativity is incredible and to know I will be a part of it is a very surreal feeling. I’ve been using this residency to explore my practice further and I’ve been able to learn how to adapt from painting on canvas to wood and all the necessary steps to prepping this. Any ideas I’ve had are supported by The Auxiliary, with Will Hughes helping me step by step as I prepared to paint on an entirely new surface. From the sneak peeks I’ve seen visitors can expect an abundance of talent and different takes on the art industry.

What are you working on next?

After I finish this residency, I will be due to start my MA Arts Practice course with the Northern School of Art. I really hope to expand on my knowledge and techniques that I’ve learnt over these three months and begin working within the creative industry.

Middlesbrough Art Week will run from Thursday 26th September to Saturday 5th October with programmes running throughout. Check out @MiddlesbroughArtWeek on Instagram for updates. 

Keep up to date with Beth’s work by following her Instagram @bethhindeart or visit her website.