Jupiter Woods

What & When

A nonprofit arts organisation co-founded in 2014 by Hanna Laura Kaljo, Lucy Lopez, Carolina Ongaro, Barnie Page, Cory Scozzari and Emma Siemens-Adolphe, based in South Bermondsey, London, UK. In its formation, Jupiter Woods was an exhibition space and residency programme for diverse ideas, artistic techniques and styles, united under a shared curatorial work ethic. This ethic echoed the approach of the Artist's Institute in New York, as outlined in Anthony Huberman’s seminal essay Take Care (2011), embracing the virtues of slowing down and paying attention. As such, it was driven by an intent to experiment with how to work and behave. Alongside exhibitions, the programme held space for conversation around the intricacies of the creative process between practitioners and the public, inviting topics such as emotional labour, ethics and mental health. Led by Founding Member Carolina Ongaro and a new team since 2018, Jupiter Woods continues to commission new work and facilitate artistic and literary research by emerging and under-represented practitioners.

How & Who

Over the course of my involvement as Co-Director, Jupiter Woods presented 13 solo exhibitions, 11 group exhibitions and discursive events from public studio visits, public peer-mentoring sessions, talks, screenings and performances. The residency programme hosted 15 international artists, including Felix Kalmenson, Fay Nicolson, Lisa Radon, Jaakko Pallasvuo and Sanna Helena Berger. An element of action research involved a two-year series of international meetings and reflections on the topics of care, collaboration and sustainability within curatorial work. This inquiry, devised in dialogue with Carolina Ongaro, collected the stories of curatorial practitioners from different organisational models in the UK, France, Italy, Denmark, Finland, Estonia, Austria and Greece, exposing the intellectual and emotional undergrowth of their work. Jupiter Woods has been supported by Arts Council England, Frame Contemporary Art Finland, Danish Arts Foundation, Canada Council for the Arts, The Dutch Embassy, The New Foundation in Seattle and others.

Why

To place value on the how and why in addition to the what in the production and dissemination of culture felt important as a counterweight to mainstream practices of instituting in 2014 and the years following, observed as being at times misaligned with the pace and needs of the artistic process. Looking to initiatives such as Common Practice and How to Work Together, Jupiter Woods advocated for the value of the grassroots level within the ecosystem of the cultural sector as that nurturing the seeds of artistic ideas—many of which would come to develop further iterations in established organisations later on. There was a sense of urgency to challenge and broaden, from the inside out, definitions of growth and progress when it came to the life of a small arts organisation, making visible different degrees of impact worthy of the support of public funding. Jupiter Woods became a space that extended its hospitality to both artistic practitioners and those gathered around the work produced, being a generous testing ground for those involved.