Birmingham gallery partners with Norwegian art academy to launch new prison art exchange programme
Ikon Gallery has partnered with Norwegian art academy Agder Kunstakademi to deliver a new UK–Norway exchange programme connecting artists, curators and prison-based art initiatives.
Supported by KORO – Public Art Norway, the Marie-Louise von Motesiczky Charitable Trust and the Royal Norwegian Embassy in London, the programme explores the role of art school pedagogy within prison systems through exhibitions, residencies, workshops and public events.
An installation by Agder Kunstakademi alumnus Zubair can be viewed at Ikon Gallery till 5 July. It reimagines damaged prison televisions as sculptural forms, transforming objects of frustration into spaces for creative expression. The exhibition is curated by Nick London (Inside Time), connected to Ikon’s long-running Art at HMP Grendon programme.
The exchange continues through artist residencies in both countries.
Dag Erik Elgin will lead a collaborative workshop at HMP Grendon next month while James Lomax will undertake a residency at Agder Prison, Froland Norway in September, reactivating its ceramics studio and developing research into creative labour in carceral spaces.
Photographer Edmund Clark will contribute through visiting Agder Prison documenting and researching, drawing on his longstanding exploration of state power and systems of control.
Over six months, participants will engage in ongoing dialogue around prison art education, culminating in a roundtable at the Royal Norwegian Embassy in London in November 2026.
