For context, please see this Nottingham Post article and listen to Honey on Black Womans Hour.
City Arts is proud to have been hosting Honey Williams as our artist in residence over the past few months, a long-awaited residency that has experienced many delays due to the pandemic.
Honey’s work is unique, she embodies a female – and feminine – space, addressing a wealth of issues, including misogynoir and fatphobia, through her beautiful and iconic style of painting and drawing. We are pleased that Honey is gaining the recognition from her city that her work deserves.
Commissioning and working with artists, regardless of artform, demands a very specific expertise, embodied in the wide range of cultural organisations in our city. It is rarely a straightforward process, so a solid connection with the artist in any given project is paramount to good collaboration.
Artists are vital to our work, they are central to what we do, yet can so often find themselves overlooked in the bigger picture. City Arts has a wealth of experience in nurturing artists, especially those who have taken non-traditional pathways; those who have somehow been marginalised by the mainstream; or those who are seen as ‘other’. We are ‘exclusive’ to be inclusive. And we are still learning ourselves.
City Arts is here for communities, for artists, for Honey. We see Honey’s courage in speaking up for her work and for herself, as a Black woman. We would encourage awareness of the incredible burden this places on an individual, who finds themselves suddenly faced with being a representative for a whole community; a whole history.
We wish Honey well through this daunting and pivotal moment in time, and hope you will join us in support of such a talented artist in our city, and ensure she is offered every chance to realise her potential.
Suzannah Bedford
Director, City Arts
14 October 2021