Come sundown, the pub transforms into an intimate venue for live music, performances and late-night gatherings. Created as an inclusive, safe, multi-purpose space for everyone, UTOPIA flips the expectations of a traditional working men’s pub on its head. Throwing its doors open to Manchester’s creative scene, it celebrates grassroots culture, giving local talent a platform to meet, create and flourish.
UTOPIA - Trackie McLeod
An art installation that happens to be a pub - with real pints, music, performances and more Playfully exploring nostalgia, class, identity, gentrification and the changing landscapes of Glasgow and Manchester, this installation raises a glass to the places that shaped us.
Created by artist Trackie McLeod with Factory International’s Young Curators, UTOPIA revives the warmth of the working men’s clubs McLeod grew up in in Glasgow – by building a working pub inside Factory International’s Warehouse space.
By day, UTOPIA is open as a pub, exhibition and workshop space – complete with McLeod working shifts behind the bar. Pull up a stool for talks and put the world to rights with mates. Explore new prints, sculpture, video and found-object works from Trackie that draw on his lived experience, tucked between salvaged chairs and rescued pub décor – a loving nod to what’s vanishing from our cities.
The Young Curators are six young creatives working with leading industry professionals and artists to explore curation and work towards a commission at Aviva Studios in 2026. As Young Curators, they will develop knowledge, skills and networks as future leaders in the arts. This programme seeks to address underrepresentation and supports creatives who have little or no experience in curation.
The Young Curators will explore what Factory International should be doing for younger audiences. They will research what they want to see commissioned here and have the opportunity to shape the future of programming for young people at Factory International.
RETROSPECT, REALITY AND REFORM
The Tetley Gallery/Yorkshire Contemporary, 2022
Retrospect, Reality and Reform.
For this exhibition, we have commissioned four artists from across the north west and Yorkshire to examine the ideas of retrospection, reality and reform, offering a platform for reflective, unfiltered and liberating perspectives from artists of colour. Themes presented include racial justice, feminism, sisterhood and the meaning of home.
The exhibition includes work by Yasmin Ali (she/her), Liverpool-based filmmaker and photographer; Hanna Gwynn(she/her), Liverpool-based comic artist and illustrator; Linnet Panashe Rubaya (she/her), Leeds-based figurative artist; and Simone Yasmin (she/her), Leeds-based writer, spoken word artist and vocal soul.
This exhibition has been a significant opportunity for these early-career artists to extend their practices.
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ROOT-ed Zine: Retrospect, Reality, Reform is part of The Tetley Jerwood Commissions programme, supported by Jerwood Arts’ Development Programme Fund. Photography by Jules Lister.
VOICES - HILAN GULLY
I was invited to guest curate Hilan Gully's Voices exhibition at OUTPUT Gallery, in Liverpool. Having curated this space before, I was excited for a new way to interpret the work made by the participants of Gully's previous workshops, which was to show the voices of Merseyside based Middle Eastern and Arab community, about climate change, environmentalism, and how they feel their voices are represented and heard.
In this space, we thought it was important to visually demonstrate the protest boards the participants made to emulate a real protest within the gallery, keeping the conversation frontal and ongoing. IMGS: OUTPUT GALLERY
QTIPOC EXHIBITION PARTY
Hyde Park Book club, 2021
I really love curating in spaces that will be functional and aesthetic at the same time - this was the case in this instance. This exhibition I curated in the basement of Hyde Park Book Club in Leeds. It was a fantastic fundraiser for QTIPOC charity What Can We Do - that fundraises for UK Black and Brown Trans people’s healthcare, housing, and mental health needs. The space's artwork also consists of Queer university student's work, which consisted of film via projection, canvases, photographs, large print posters, delicate clothing and paper pieces (illustration and poetry). In total it was around 40 pieces of work total.
The space had to be curated start to finish in about three hours - but despite the short time frame, it was complete with safety and accessibility checks.
AESTHETICS EXHIBITION
Convenience Gallery - 2021
Utilising a space at Bloom Building, Birkenhead in which is usually a Café, I transformed the space to equally create designated 'wall space' for each individual artist, and to create a functional, streamlined space that can re-arranged or moved within short notice. This was made possible by using plinths and erected stand-alone panels.
This exhibition consisted of mine and 4 other artists work, sharing our own experiences of BPD (Borderline Personality Disorder) through the lens of artwork. Working with artists' work when they aren't present is a tricky challenge, as you need to represent it correctly. By taking an in-depth look into their practice and context of the works, I was successful in ensuring the safety and integrity of their art remained top priority when installing.
SOFT BOYS
Fact Liverpool, 2021
This was the biggest Exhibition I had ever curated independently, and it was a significant learning curve to my practice. Kiara Mohamed, Liverpool based Somali Trans artist invited me to curate his exhibition exploring his works. He felt it was important that the people working on this project were Queer and Somali, as often cultural traditions and knowledge is not represented within a gallery space by people who actually are within those communities.
This can sometimes lead to the artist not being able to be fully supported, and possibly making spaces not as safe and open as they usually are.
Soft Boys is a short film about queer and trans joy, specifically through and within the Somali culture and community. By re-engaging with Somalian traditional dances, cooking practices and garments, Kiara connects with his nomadic ancestors and to a heritage from which he had always been made to feel excluded. In this solo exhibition, Kiara’s new work highlights how modern concepts of masculinity can be surprisingly conservative, even within the trans community. The experimental documentary questions what it means to be a man by focusing on emotion, empathy and joy.
During this project, I executed the exhibition from conception to installation, advancing research locally, culturally and in regards to Kiara's practice. I contemplated what would make this safe feel safer for people who are Queer, but perhaps may feel uncomfortable viewing Queer art within a public setting. I concluded on areas which had coverage from the public, headphones to cover the sound and context of the film, and bean bags for those who wish to stay for a while. I believe working with artists who you can relate and share experiences with is really important to make an exhibition feel genuine, warm, and welcoming. IMGS: FACT LIVERPOOL
OUTPUT GALLERY - ROOT-ED ZINE
CELEBRATING BLACK WOMEN 2019
It was important for us to represent three black women, all at different stages of their career within the same room. The mediums ranged from Abeni Sheen's illustrative and bold paintings; to Ivy Kalungi's plaster and metal installation displayed, and Kiara's Mohamed's (he/him) film Founding Mother display via projection.
Not often can you access free and local exhibitions that represent Black Women (at the time), for purely their artwork - with not concrete theme to tie them together, in order for their work to speak for itself. However, the exhibition touched on themes of motherhood, ancestry, and representation of culture and childhood memories.
This installation was curated under the umbrella of ROOT-ed Zine, a magazine that I co-found with Amber Akaunu (filmmaker and community artist).
HAIR, BLACK HISTORY, AND MOVEMENT
Tate Liverpool 2018
This exhibition was curated when I was freshly graduated from university studying Fine and Applied arts, in which I took a deep interest in curation. The function of the space was to both create an open, welcoming atmosphere and also to present the paper based 2D works of myself, Kiara Mohamed, and Amber Akaunu on the walls as well as present literature relevant to our theme: hair, black history and movement (rhythmically and historically).
We also had dance, acting and singing installations within the space, so we had to take into consideration footfall, flow, health and safety and accessibility. This was an interesting space to work with as we were paralleled with another installation of an exhibition. We were also not allowed to bring in anything that could encourage pests such as plants or dead foliage - which is something I had not fully considered. This aspect has brought me into studying conservation of paintings and items from 2020 as a hobby.