GRAIN Projects are delighted to announce their 10 year anniversary and their 2025 & 2026 programme. To celebrate we are launching a range of opportunities, events, and commissioned projects. GRAIN will continue to extend our important work in the sector, including new commissions, open call opportunities, socially engaged photography projects, professional development activity, exhibitions and publications. Thanks to the support of Arts Council England and Birmingham City University the next phase of our work will see more opportunities for community collaborations and artists opportunities.

The 10th anniversary programme will include Open Calls for emerging practitioners, bursaries, internships, masterclasses, mentoring, events – including the biennial national photography symposium The State of Photography, professional development programmes, artist commissions including with Jermaine Francis, Ayesha Jones, Lewis Khan, Kelly O’Brien, Ming de Nasty and Daniel Lyttleton, and collaborations with IKON Gallery, GLAZ Festival, FORMAT International Photography Festival and Quad, Birmingham City University, the national Socially Engaged Photography Network, and OLGBT+ Peoples Group.

Over the past ten years GRAIN Projects has worked with over 200 artists and photographers, creating development opportunities as well as commissions and bursaries leading to over fifty Exhibitions and fifteen Publications, reaching an audience of over 1 million people. Projects have taken place with many communities across the West Midlands including those most marginalised in society, and in a variety of public spaces and community settings. Highlights include The Face of Suffrage by Helen Marshall, which marked the 100th year anniversary of some women getting the right to vote in England, this large scale work was exhibited at Birmingham New Street Station, The Rural Gaze, a commission, publication and symposium, which invited ten photographers to reflect on contemporary life and rural communities in the Midlands and Arpita Shah’s Modern Muse, a series of photographic portraits celebrating the identities and experiences of young South Asian women from Birmingham and the West Midlands, currently on show at Birmingham Museum & Art Gallery.

Peter Knott, Midlands Area Director at Arts Council England said: “We’re proud to support GRAIN Projects’ 10th  anniversary programme, using money from the National Lottery.   “The programme will build on learning and collaborations with artists and communities over the last 10 years to provide opportunities for connection and skills development. Through high quality photography, people will be encouraged to explore identity, creativity, and expression to inspire positive social change.”