Tyburn Foundation is a not-for-profit visual arts organisation, working internationally to contribute to a vibrant and diverse African art ecosystem founded by Emma Menell. She is a Global Patron of the Zeitz Museum of Contemporary African Art, continuing her commitment to supporting and elevating contemporary African art on the global stage. She later became a founding director of Goodman Gallery London in 2019, collaborating with leading African and diaspora artists.
A.S: What inspired you to create the Tyburn Foundation, and what mission did you have in mind when you came up with it?
E.M: I wanted to work with early career artists. We had a wonderful time. It was a great experiment. However, it highlighted the difficulties of working in a strictly commercial environment. We at Tyburn Gallery experienced firsthand the difficulties of being a smallish gallery dealing with early-career artists.
Commercial projects are intense and not necessarily the best place for artists to experience, experiment and grow as their practice grows. We felt that even as a gallery, we were focused on creating a nurturing space for artists to work, to aid their practice, and to grow the infrastructure on the continent. For instance, we helped to establish the first printing press in Zimbabwe with Admire, who won our prize with the gallery.
Our ideology of the foundation grew from our frustration with the commercial art space, and we thought that we could do better. An intensely competitive environment was not entirely in line with what we wanted in terms of collaborations and partnerships on a global scale. That’s really where the Tyburn Foundation came from. I thought there was a better, more collaborative, more expansive, less competitive way of working with early-career and mid-career artists, and that’s really where Tyburn comes from.
Image courtesy of Tyburn Foundation
A.S: How do you think the Tyburn Foundation is different from other residencies?
E.M: We come from a commercial space, so we understand the commercial pressures. I don’t think many commercial artist residencies come from a space where they have run a gallery and not only one gallery. You know, I worked with Goodman after Tyburn, and my leader of projects, Alessandra, came from Galley57. So we’ve looked at galleries quite intensively, and we understand the commercial pressures, but we want to give artists more space.
We are very committed to working internationally or cross-continentally. We want to work in Ghana, we want to work in South Africa, we’re working in Italy, and we want to work across continents, and I think that is also why most residency seems to be focused on one place and time. We want to be far broader because we think that’s in the artist’s interest.
A.S: How do the artists benefit beyond studio space and funding in the residency?
E.M: We think that artists need to be introduced broadly in collaboration partnerships, that is our commitment beyond the residencies to stand there as a broader fellowship for the artists. That’s very much, in part, how we see ourselves in terms of long-term fellowship. This is why we want to do not only fellowships but also an exhibition programme, which gives artists visibility on a global scale.
Artists contribute so much towards society in so many ways, but they need support, and they need help. That’s what our intention is. Our fellowship will be ongoing, in terms of mentorship.
We are in the process of drawing up an advisory board, and the role of the advisory board will also be to mentor artists in terms of establishing their careers going forward.
A.S: So how do you pick the artists for the programme?
E.M: Tyburn has put forward artists for Civitella. Civitella elected the artist for the next two years, and they have an international board. There’s a highly regarded international board at Civitella in which we’ve put forward artists, and they have made the selection.
A.S: I was wondering how you build on collaborations? Would you say collaboration is key?
E.M: It’s at the essence of what we do. We want to work with West Africa; we want to work with East Africa and Northern Africa. We want to do a collaborative programme for the benefit of early-career artists and beyond.
A.S: If you had different collaborators, would it be by country, by industry, or by job description? How would you collaborate with others?
E.M: Well, I think we would like to collaborate with other residencies that are doing wonderful work. I can think of many initiatives in Nigeria and Ghana, as well as artist-led initiatives in Zimbabwe. I think there is a wonderful range of bodies that we can collaborate with across the continent.
We would like Nigerian artists to come and work in Zimbabwe. We love Zimbabwean artists to go and work in Nigeria. We’d love Ghana to be part of the conversation. I think there’s a wonderful scope across the continent.
A.S: I definitely agree. What advice would you give to an artist who wants to apply for your residency?
E.M: We don’t work by application. We work by consulting with people in the field as to who the artists are who could benefit from the programme. Who is promising, individual advice to artists is always difficult because it’s tough being an emerging artist.
Be excellent in what you do. That’ll get picked up by the plays in the space that’ll feed that. We are working on the advice of people who are in this space and who are seeing what is happening in contemporary African art. I think it’s such a hard arena, but I think you should just do your very, very best work with integrity and authenticity, which ultimately gets picked up.
A.S: What criteria do you think the advisory board uses for selecting artists?
E.M: Primarily about who will benefit, who will make use of the opportunity, and who has promised to take their practice forward. Who will take up the opportunity and run with it? Whose work spells authenticity? Character is very important. Who’s dedicated, and who will work? Who is committed? I think all of these things really, really count. You can have all the talent in the world, but if you are not really committed to your practice, it’s not going to work. You need special drive and commitment. I think that’s what we seek in the end.
A.S: Very clear but tough and hard to be in.
E.M: Not easy. I’ve just been to the Cape Town Art Fair. Oh, my word, this continent has exceptional talent. I think there’s so much to be excited about. I was recently in Venice, and I saw the Nigerian Pavilion. Oh my goodness, how beautiful! That was just a snapshot of the talent in West Africa. So much more to see.
A.S: The long-term vision of the Tyburn Foundation, how do you see it shaping the future of contemporary art in Africa?
E.M: Our big commitment is to nurturing and developing the art of the African art ecosystem. This comes from a place where we’ve seen how difficult it is from a gathering point of view to really nurture art. We want to do something a little bit more expansive. A little bit more adventurous, and we want to take early career, mid-career artists and say experiment, dream, develop your practices, and we’re here to support you in the longer term.
That’s our aspiration. We think that there’s a difficulty in terms of the art infrastructure, particularly the art ecosystem and African art ecosystem. In terms of how young artists from Africa transition and become global stars, we want to be part of that process and help young artists get there.
The Tyburn Foundation is launching their residency programme in Spring 2025, to promote artistic exchange and collaboration between African and global institutions. Based in Umbria – the heart of Italy – cooperation and partnerships are central to the Foundation’s ethos. For more information, email info@tyburnfoundation.org and www.tyburnfoundation.org.
