Life Works

MIMA’s autumn season of exhibitions present historic and new work showing the importance of making as a way of creating identity and sense of community through everyday practices. It highlights artists who have dedicated their artistic lives to their cause. Cumbrian folk art, feminist Black Arts activism and LGBTQIA+ rights, feature in one solo show and two group exhibitions. Exhibition opening October 20, 11am–4pm.

Chila Kumari Singh Burman: Tales of Valiant Queens
Chila Kumari Singh Burman is a British Asian artist who makes prints, sculptures and films that explore the intersection of gender, class and ethnicity in the construction of identity. Her vibrant work is rooted in her understanding of the diverse and hybrid nature of culture as shaped by her upbringing in a working class Punjabi Hindu family in Liverpool.

This exhibition surveys her practice, bringing together works made between the 1970s and today that focus on themes of female empowerment, social and political activism, folk traditions and colonial legacies.

​Peter Hodgson​ and collaborators​: Making, A Life
with An Endless Supply; Fernando García Dory; Graham Taylor; Joe Hartley; Juneau Projects; Karen Guthrie; Laure Prouvost; Maria Benjamin and Tom Philipson.

This exhibition of the Cumbrian Folk artist Peter Hodgson and collaborators shows the drive that many share, to make as a way of answering questions, creating a sense of self, and making a living. Work by artists with varied skills and backgrounds show relationships between folk art, contemporary art, and design.

While Hodgson operates from a rural position, he has influenced and built relationships with many artists associated with Grizedale Arts and the Coniston Institute, Cumbria. This exhibition shows some of these connections through collaboratively made works with a group of younger practitioners operating within the field of contemporary art. Shown for the first time, The Middlesbrough Quilt (2018), has been crafted over many months by Cloth Club, a constituent group who meet at MIMA to develop and share skills in textiles.

Made in partnership with The Coniston Institute; Grizedale Arts, Cumbria, and Castlefield Gallery, Manchester. Supported by Arts Council England.

Living Beyond Limits
To be queer is to be erased from public space and to persist, nevertheless, in making yourself heard. This exhibition of works from the Middlesbrough Collection “queers the museum” by re-imagining and reclaiming it as a collective and political space where marginal voices refuse to be silenced.

Living Beyond Limits has been curated with local LGBTQIA+ people and their allies who have shaped the tone of the exhibition, selected works and interpreted them. The queered re-interpretations of works from the Middlesbrough Collection bring perspectives related to their identities and narratives.

Curated with Claire Mead and MIMA constituents. Research grant funding provided by Fluxus Art Projects.

Ongoing

Community Day
Our weekly Community Day consists of free activities and events complemented by a communal lunch. It brings together people of all classes, ages, ethnicities, genders, abilities, and nationalities to share food and collectively make, learn, and discuss current urgencies.

Middlesbrough Collection
The Middlesbrough Collection, housed by Middlesbrough Institute of Modern Art, encompasses art and craft made by British and international artists from the mid-1800s to today. This exhibition features an eclectic mix of works, intertwining British and international artists, and combining various media, styles, periods, and subjects. The display combines references to “cabinets of curiosity,” archives, 19th century French salon-style hangs, and English country house interior design, thus proposing an understanding of art in relation to society.

This is us
We work with constituents who inform and shape who we are and what we do and this is a space for presenting our extensive community-based work. We highlight work with constituents that takes place within MIMA and beyond the museum, including gardening, weaving, making, philosophical discussions and sharing food.  We also display work led with residents around Middlesbrough and the Tees Valley such as Celebrating Age and the Middlesbrough Settlement, together with various commissions organised with partners.

Middlesbrough Institute of Modern Art (MIMA), has a civic agenda to connect art, society and our changing world. Part of Teesside University, we are a useful museum.