Exhibition of emergent and established talents from the East Midlands.

Spotting and supporting new talent from the East Midlands Region through new commissions by recent graduates. Professional practice for artists and events.  Curated by all staff at QUAD and special guests.

In the Gallery were new commissions by Future Focus Bursary Scheme winners Rebekka Bojanowski, Nick Buxton, Neil Dixon, Kirsty Michelle Hayes and Andrew Martyn Sugars.

Around QUAD’s corridors and on the digital screens were projects by Derby-based artists Tracey Meek, Clive Wheeler, George Harris, Scott Green and the filmmakers of Five Lamps Films.

Future Focus addresses and builds upon the fascinating territory of utopia and possible futures. The works investigate ideas of space and time through non-narrative, narrative and physical constructions.

While Dixon, Hayes and Martyn Sugars are touching the idea of utopia via a physical approach and tangible elements, Bojanowski and Buxton are using a narrative form to make that utopia visible either through memory or imagination.

Moreover, outside the gallery Wheeler and Harris adopt a two-dimensional approach to address three-dimensional architectural utopia while Green, Meek and the Five Lamps Films collective investigate the part utopian part mythological features behind our common daily life. Future Focus also provides professional development for the Bursary winners.

Curated by QUAD, mentored by David Gilbert of re:place site-specific contemporary art in Derbyshire and supported by the University of Derby, Derby City Council and Arts Council England.