Following on from the inaugural QUAD/ FORMAT Graduate Fellowships that began in 2020, we are pleased to announce the two artists selected for 2023 – Sarah Blandford and Adam Whitehouse.

The Fellowships were created as an annual award to recognise two outstanding graduating students from the University of Derby MA Fine Art and MA Film & Photography course – selected by members of the QUAD/ FORMAT Curatorial team.

Both graduates will each undertake a 2-week fellowship and residency in QUAD’s Artist Studio, along with mentoring and curatorial support from QUAD’s Programme Team.

The Fellowships will take place between 8 May to 4 June 2023 and will include takeovers by each artist of the QUAD Gallery Instagram page.

Sarah Blandford 

Statement: The notion that objects have cultural, physical, and historical memory has informed my practice over the past two years, an evocative photographic study of the mundane nature of objects that take me on a nostalgic biographical journey of memory. For the upcoming QUAD Fellowship, using videography and photographic imagery to explore people and their routines. I’ll be focussing on JJ Martin Fruit and vegetable market stall in Derby’s Eagle Market, as they are undergoing legal proceedings against the Kuwaiti owned centre to fight the closure of their well-loved market stall. This is an ongoing developing story, with no court hearing date set yet. I’ll explore how this intended closure will impact the customers who visit as part of their shopping routine, how the changing retail landscape in general, is affecting people’s routines, and how they feel about it. The owner of the business David Martin and his family have kindly given me permission to proceed with this project, which will take place at both QUAD and the market stall itself