Middlesbrough Institute of Modern Art (MIMA), which opened in 2007, is one of the main collectors and art galleries in the United Kingdom to focus on the concept of the useful museum as a civic institution by promoting art as an instrument of social change. Its programme incorporates exhibitions and displays of the collection, with educational activities that encourage a ‘learn by doing’ approach, projects run outside its facilities and community-centred initiatives. The concept of useful museum stems from the best intentions of Modernism to urge artists to take part in everyday activities – a practice focused on the applied dimension of art, highlighting the positive results of the projects for the people who take part in them.
Nuria Güell is enjoying a nearly one-year-long residency at MIMA with the support of AC/E, taking art outside the gallery to bring it to audience segments that are difficult to reach and helping regenerate Middlesbrough’s economy. The artist’s work deals with questions of legality, power, ethics and morals; it takes as a starting point the inequalities caused by state regulation and capitalism, laws and control, and uses tactics associated with activism. The artist collaborates with local refugees by designing a number of activities including meetings and workshops to explore the relationship between identity, ethnicity and otherness.
Nuria Güell is enjoying a nearly one-year-long residency at MIMA with the support of AC/E, taking art outside the gallery to bring it to audience segments that are difficult to reach and helping regenerate Middlesbrough’s economy. The artist’s work deals with questions of legality, power, ethics and morals; it takes as a starting point the inequalities caused by state regulation and capitalism, laws and control, and uses tactics associated with activism. The artist collaborates with local refugees by designing a number of activities including meetings and workshops to explore the relationship between identity, ethnicity and otherness.