A single PDF is the preferred way of receiving this application 

• Your Name, Contact details and links to social media and or a website.

• Please provide an artist statement (Max 250 words about your artistic practice, key themes, what is it that you make? This can be supplied as a paragraph or bullet points.)

• Please provide an artist Biography (Max 250 words containing a record of your career, exhibitions, awards and education. This can be supplied as a paragraph or bullet points)

• Upto 5 images of your work, 

• A proposal of what you would like to do for MAW, what would your exhibition/event look like (Max 500 words. This can be supplied as a paragraph or bullet points)

• Please also include your postcode as this opportunity is only open to artists in the Tees Valley. (The Tees Valley is made up of five local authorities: Darlington, Hartlepool, Middlesbrough, Redcar and Cleveland, and Stockton-on-Tees.)

Please email Will on projectmanager@theauxiliary.co.uk with any questions or if you need help with this application. 

Please send your application with the subject line ‘TV MAW Solo Exhibition’ as a pdf or within an email to: projectmanager@theauxiliary.co.uk  .We will also accept a we-transfer link or link to a shared folder.

• An Artist fee of £2500. 

• A production budget of £1000.

• 4 months of support and guidance from the MAW team. 

• Studio visits by the MAW team.

• Professional documentation of your Exhibition/Event at MAW25.

• Networking opportunities with other artists, arts professionals, curators.

As an artist-led organization, we are committed to paying artists fairly and ensuring that our pay rate aligns with industry standards. However, it would be remiss of us to suggest that a £2000 fee for a solo exhibition is a fair amount. The decision of the £2k figure stems from wanting to support as many artists as possible, which means spreading resources more thinly. It is a difficult line to tow and we hope that this statement goes someway to explaining our position. 

We envisage that the selected artist will have a sustained practice, and this solo show would serve as an opportunity to exhibit recently completed works or to present pieces that have not been shown together before. We do not expect this fee to cover the creation of an entirely new body of work for a solo exhibition.

In addition to the artist fee, there will be non-financial support from the core team at The Auxiliary and Middlesbrough Art Week. A technician will install your work for you, the exhibition will be professionally documented, and you will receive a media pack after the festival. Monthly check-ins will be provided to track the progress of your work.

We welcome constructive criticism and greatly appreciate feedback from the artist community. If you have any questions, please don’t hesitate to get in touch at Liam@theauxiliary.co.uk.

The artist fee will be paid in two parts The first payment will be £1250, and the final payment will be £1250 at the end of the project.

• 3rd February Open Call goes live. 

• 7th March Deadline 

• 30th March all artists notified of the outcome.

• 1st June Selected artist starts on the project.

• June - September Artist supported by MAW team and studio visits.

• 25th September Middlesbrough Art Week begins.

• 4th October Exhibition ends.

Abi Shapiro

Dr Abi Shapiro is Curator at The Hepworth Wakefield. Previous curatorial projects include: Kim Lim: Space, Rhythm & Light (2023); Hannah Starkey: In Real Life (2022); The Art of the Potter: Sculpture and Ceramics from 1930 to Today (2023); and Sheila Hicks: Off Grid (2022). She previously worked as Research Curator, British Art 1945 – 1975 at Sheffield Museums, and as a module leader teaching History of Art at the University of York, City & Guilds of London Art School, and McGill University. 

Liz Wilson 

Liz Wilson’s practice explores the stretch of time between the industrial and post-industrial; In particular the beginning of automation and how this is altering our relationships with technology. Using site visits as a catalyst to research, write and produce works, she explores the human-machine relationship of both ‘conductor’ and ‘orchestra’ and how these performative roles manifest themselves within both our natural and fabricated environments.

Since graduating with a masters in Fine Art from the Royal College of Art she has exhibited and screened works within the UK and internationally within various Art Institutions including Taoxichuan Museum of Art, China; OGA, Rome; Parc de la Villette, Paris; FACT, Liverpool; Hockney Gallery, London.

In 2019 she was awarded the first digital art commission for ‘Art in Manufacturing’, the headline-commissioning programme for the National Festival of Making (Arts Council England & Deco Publique). In 2020 she undertook a seven-month residency at Coachworks, Ashford (co-commissioned by Turner Works & Ashford Borough Council) where she collaborated with Hitachi Rail Ltd to produce a body of work which resulted in a multichannel video installation titled ‘The Orchestrated Unconscious’. This led to further Arts Council funding to work with Liverpool based manufacturer CNC Robotics for two years and culminated in a large-scale installation showcased at the National Festival of Making in 2022 titled ‘Within the Wake’. This was featured in Aesthetica’s ‘Future Now’ anthology, a publication taking temperature of global contemporary art practice. She recently undertook a major commission featured in the Turner Prize wraparound programme, resulting in an immersive installation titled ‘Of Confluence’. This was delivered in partnership with Blackshed Gallery, De La Warr Pavillion, Eastbourne Alive and Rother District Council. Previously her work has been shortlisted for Bloomberg New Contemporaries, the Stanley Picker Tutorship, in addition to being selected as ‘One to Watch’ by editor in chief for ‘After Nyne’ magazine.

Polly Wright

Polly Wright is a curator and producer currently working at Devonshire Collective in Eastbourne. She is part of Incidental Unit, the third iteration of the Artist Placement Group and co-curated their recent public activity titled Incidental Futures.

Previous to DC, Polly held positions at Brighton Centre for Contemporary Arts, part of the University of Brighton, Film and Video Umbrella and Art on the Underground. Polly continues to work on independent projects and collaborations.

Polly’s practice is informed by her research into collective structures that support artistic production, working collaboratively to create programmes that centre sharing knowledge and developing creative research for different contexts.