Cinnamon Art Group:
In 2019, Nicole co-curated a Cinnamon Arts Group showcase, hosted by The Fiddlers Bar in Wellingborough, Northamptonshire:
In some parts of the country, especially the more rural places, there aren't as many opportunities for people to see and experience art. Exhibiting artwork in a pub, restaurant or other alternative venue, brings the artwork to the local people rather than expecting them to travel some distance to an art gallery further afield in a city.
On this occasion, The Fiddlers Bar benefitted from enhancing and beautifying their space and attracting new people who would never otherwise visit. Plus this was a chance for the artists to meet the locals and discuss their artwork.
Every showcase an artist can get, regardless of where you get it, is a line on your art resume. Unless you get your art out there in front of the public in as many ways as you can, you'll never know who might see it, how much they'll like it when they do, who'll become your biggest fan, and what they might be able to do for you if they really like what they're looking at it.
Brown Sugar solo exhibition:
Wellingborough, Northamptonshire
In 2004, Nicole commissioned a Brown Sugar series of paintings on canvas by Philomena Francis, Art Therapist, hosted by The Castle Theatre in Wellingborough. This project was part of her role as the facilitator of Black History Month events for Wellingborough African Caribbean Association. This involved curating a solo exhibition by Philomena Francis: Brown Sugar Series of paintings of Black women, made using a variety of unrefined brown sugar to create 'sugar paintings' of Black women's bodies in three wall hangings made of sackcloth and sugar cane.
Images & Voices: Past, Present, Future:
In 1997, Nicole curated Images & Voices: Past, Present, Future, Photography Exhibition of Black Women — as part of her community development and trustee role as Chairperson of Nehanda Black Women's Organisation from 1994-2002 and as part of European Year Against Racism's Under One Sun Festival. This project was funded by the London Borough of Enfield and exhibited at Gallery Fore, Edmonton, London and toured local libraries and the Enfield Civic Centre.
The exhibition aimed to demonstrate the everydayness of Black women, by providing a multi-dimensional version of their blackness, a counternarrative against the displacement of Black women's history, challenging the legacy of a historically colonial lens that continues to permeate British society's norms.
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