In 2021 artist Exodus Crooks was awarded the GRAIN Bursary to explore, research and make new work about the public parts in Birmingham. Exodus looked at the municipal parks from their own experience, making work in north Birmingham in parks that spoke of civic pride, Victorian grandeur, gang culture and recent poverty and neglect. Their work captured the many layered histories and experiences of these public spaces that are used by the city population.

The artist made a small publication that was made available to those she had spoken to about their park experiences and others locally.

GRAIN offers a number of bursary opportunities to support emerging practitioners.  Details can be found on social media and on the website.

About Exodus Crooks:
Built on a foundation of traditional painting and drawing, much of Exodus’ practice considers the collaborative and collective experiences of others, making these recent times in isolation significantly more remarkable. Now engaging with various disciplines, Exodus’ practice involves themes of intimacy, identity, and culture, much of which is heavily discovered through play. Exodus uses Blackness as a lens in which to investigate all things through, an approach also seen in their recent academic research entitled ‘I hope you write back xxx’. Alongside Exodus’s current role as a Black Hole Club artist, Exodus has used their recent commissions for the Film and Video Umbrella, Vivid Projects, and The Barber Institute of Fine Arts as opportunities to refine and exhibit their film making, performance and digital skills.

Having lectured at various spaces across the UK, and recently concluding a collaboration with Iniva on the Contemporary Art Space Project, Exodus is insistent on confronting western ways of teaching and learning. Sitting at the intersection of both student and teacher, Exodus is enthused to offer alternative spaces and methods that challenge current schooling and ways of seeing. Facilitating discussions around politicized identities within schools, colleges, and universities, Exodus uses art to engage their community in conversations of critical race theory and amplify marginalised voices.