OPEN: Bursary recipients
Following a call for ideas, Annie Harrisson, Gareth Cutter and Nathan Birkinshaw were awared an OPEN micro bursary. The bursary recipients will be present on Friday 9th May as part of OPEN.
Annie Harrison
Annie Harrison is interested in bringing back into consciousness hidden and forgotten narratives. Her recent work has concentrated on the historic and contemporary urban environment. She creates installations and objects in a variety of media which respond directly and personally to the stories she uncovers.
Since graduating from the Manchester School of Art in 2009, Harrison has exhibited widely. Her practice is informed by her previous work in human rights advocacy, counselling and community health. She is currently doing a practice-led MA by Research at MIRIAD, MMU.
Nathan Birkinshaw
Nathan Birkinshaw is a performer and theatre maker from Wakefield, working nomadically. Creating work that’s honest and funny, with a minimalist and lo-fi approach, he aims to pick out the absurdity in the notions of humanity, personal identity and recent history.
Gareth Cutter
Gareth Cutter’s performances straddle the cabaret and live art worlds. He fuses practices in spoken word, live music, drag and clowning to create a distinctive brand of solo work.
His most recent project, ‘Uses Of Enchantment’ is a drag folk fairy tale that takes a queer perspective on ideas of conventional beauty. It takes its inspiration from diverse sources, from the recordings of Pete Seeger and the tales of Ovid’s Metamorphoses to modern-day writings on personal grooming and pop songs. The project seeks to reimagine the drag queen as an approachable, maternal presence; one that holds a repository of tales belonging to a wider queer folk tradition.
Based in Manchester, Gareth first began performing in 2009 at Manchester’s greenroom. He has made commissioned works for Chorlton Arts Festival, hAb Arts, Manchester History Festival and was one of the shortlisted artists on Contact’s Flying Solo 2014.