Now in its eleventh edition, the Jerwood Writer in Residence programme is an opportunity for UK-based visual arts writers to develop their practice. It aims to support early-career writers to explore their experimental critical voice and have their practice engaged with across Jerwood Arts’ audience and extended networks. The six-month residency provides a paid writing opportunity and substantial developmental support, inviting writers to engage with both the exhibitions programme and Jerwood Arts’ wider work as they choose.
Dylan and Salena were selected from over 60 applications to a national call for entries following an assessment process that included previous writers from the Jerwood Writer in Residence programme and Jerwood Arts Artist Advisors.
“We are thrilled to announce Dylan Huw and Salena Barry as Jerwood Writers in Residence for 2022. The strength of their writing and the potential of their individual research interests stood out to us throughout the assessment process and I’m looking forward to supporting them to further develop their critical voices in response to the Jerwood Arts programme.”
Harriet Cooper, Head of Visual Arts
Dylan Huw is a writer living in Cardiff. His work across art criticism, essays and fiction, and in Welsh and English, is informed by an interest in processes of translation and vocabulary-making, collective practices and queer lineages. Recent publications include commissioned texts with Artes Mundi, Occasional Groundwork (EVA International, Göteborg International Biennial for Contemporary Art + Lofoten International Art Festival), Mostyn and Dortmunder Kunstverein. Recent collaborative editing and curatorial projects include the first print issue of mwnwgl, a new platform for art/writing in and around Welsh languages; an issue of Cynfas, Amgueddfa Cymru/National Museum Wales’ digital magazine, on the theme ‘queer looking’; and ululations, a bilingual publication of new writing in response to Alberta Whittle’s Art Night 2021 exhibition with Peak Cymru, the Black Mountains-based contemporary art organisation where Dylan has been part of the creative team since Spring 2020. He has a BA in Liberal Arts from King’s College London (2017) and an MA in Contemporary Art Theory from Goldsmiths, University of London (2018).
Dylan will be in residence from January to June 2022 and will use this time to experiment with different forms and approaches to writing, both about and alongside contemporary art practice. He is particularly interested in emphasising a process-led approach, working collaboratively with artists in the Jerwood Arts programme. In his work he values a belief in interdisciplinary and bi/multilingual possibilities, blurring the line between criticality, fiction and personal insight.
Salena Barry is a writer who currently lives and works in London. She was born and raised in Tkaronto (Toronto, Canada), where she studied Art History and worked at C Magazine and the McMichael Canadian Art Collection. In 2017, she moved to London to pursue her MA in Art & Politics at Goldsmiths College. She wrote her dissertation on how indigenous art was deployed as part of a larger decolonisation struggle by indigenous groups and the Canadian government during Canada’s 150th anniversary celebrations. After completing her studies, Salena began building a career in digital communications by working and volunteering at charities specialising in domestic abuse and migration issues. She believes that the knowledge and experience gained in her communications work can be transferred to her art writing to enhance legibility and connection between audiences, artworks and artists. Salena was recently selected for Frieze New Writers 2021.
Salena will be in residence from July to December 2022. Her writing interests include the intersections of government policy and visual art, particularly in relation to decolonisation struggles, and art’s role in shaping how identities are understood in the public space. She plans to use her time as a Jerwood Writer in Residence to develop a decolonial framework in her writing which seeks to offer a range of diverse entry points through which audiences can engage with the art she writes about.
Find out more:
Read about the Jerwood Writer in Residence programme here
Find out more about the 2022 Exhibition and Events programme here
Explore responses from alumni from the Jerwood Writer in Residence programme here
