Shawanda Corbett Awarded Turner Bursary

Due to the coronavirus pandemic, the jury of the cancelled 2020 Turner Prize has selected 10 artists to receive £10,000 bursaries. The artists were chosen for their significant contributions to new developments in British contemporary art.

'Following a lively and rigorous virtual debate, the jury has settled on a list of ten fantastic artists who reflect the exceptional talent found in contemporary British art. From ceramics to film, performance to photography, they represent the many exciting and interdisciplinary ways that artists work today. These bursaries represent a vote of confidence in that work and offer some much-deserved support in challenging times.' – Alex Farquharson, Director of Tate Britain

Shawanda Corbett is an Oxford-based artist, currently studying at the Ruskin School of Art, whose expansive practice combines ceramics, paintings and performance to question the idea of the ‘complete’ body. Each of her hand-thrown ceramic vessels are inspired by real people and are frequently incorporated into politically charged performances in which Corbett’s own body leaves traces on the pottery vessels and surfaces. The jury commended the power of her performance Blackbird Mississippi at the Serpentine Gallery in which the artist drew parallels between a slave’s voyages on the underground railroad to the artist’s own journey towards rehabilitation. The jury also noted the current exhibition of jazz-inspired paintings and hand-thrown ceramics Neighbourhood Garden at Corvi-Mora, London. To read more about all ten Turner Prize winners, please click here.

Shawanda is also a recipient of funding through TORCH, as part of the Humanities Cultural Programme Project Fund, for her project Women in Craft.

This Women in Craft talk series is a platform for women who are influencing their community and students through craft and design, focussing on what it means to be a craftsman in their own countries and to encourage young women in craft. The first stage of this project was completed earlier this year, with visiting artist Alisa Holen, associate professor of art at the University of Southern Indiana, who spoke on the persistence of the hand-made object and the functional ceramic object, as well as her involvement in community project Empty Bowls.

Shawanda’s project will continue into 2021 when she will be welcoming two more visiting artists, Hattie Speed - founder of This Girl Makes, an on and offline community of designers and makers with events and DIY kits that celebrate and promote women in craft and design, and Yeliz Ökdem, who is currently exploring ways to express the spiritual essence of the space between life and death.

Congratulations to Shawanda.

Click here for more opportunities as part of the Humanities Cultural Programme