Artist to work with students on new sculpture

An artist will be working alongside students and staff at a university to create a new sculpture.

Charmaine Watkiss will work with Coventry University Fine Art students on the sculptural installation. It will feature in her solo exhibition The Things We Hold Sacred, which opens at The New Art Gallery Walsall on 2 October.

Watkiss is best known for her research-based drawing practice, which focuses on plant knowledge passed through generations of Caribbean families, the university said.

The project has been funded by a £71,226 Jerwood Art Fund Commissions grant.

Watkiss said: "I am super excited and thankful to be afforded this opportunity to create new ambitious works that would not be possible otherwise.

The university said she has work in collections in "iconic venues such as the British Museum in London" and will work as a resident artist, benefiting from the facilities and expertise available.

"I am really looking forward to experimenting with materials and benefiting from the university's expertise to realise my ideas for the work," Watkiss added.

The artist is particularly interested in healing traditions and her compositions of women use her own likeness as a way of enacting what she calls "memory stories", Walsall Council said.

Watkiss will benefit from the university's departments, which include ceramics, clay, fashion, 3D printing and photography.

Dr Sam Vale, the university's curriculum lead for creative practice, said it was "an exceptional opportunity" for staff and students to collaborate closely with the Walsall gallery and with "such an innovative and exciting artist as Charmaine".

Vale added by being involved from early development through to production and exhibition, students would gain "invaluable insight" into contemporary approaches to making work, helping prepare them for future careers.

Jerwood Foundation explained its partnership with the Art Fund was in its second year and it aimed to benefit collections and visitors, as well as underlying its commitment to emerging talent in arts in the UK.

The sculpture will become part of Walsall's Collections and be shared for "generations to come", the university added.

The New Art Gallery said it was grateful to Jerwood and the Art Fund for offering the opportunity to Charmaine and "making it possible for this undoubtedly significant work to enter our collections."

The Things We Hold Sacred is set to be on display until 11 April, 2027.

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