Major art show starts UK tour in Coventry

The decision to start the 10th edition of the British Art Show (BAS) in Coventry is an important moment for the West Midlands' art scene, according to the head of an art collective in the city.

The Hayward Gallery Touring's BAS 10 show, a Chorus of Strangers, has its opening on 2 October, with displays at Warwick Arts Centre's Mead Gallery, Coventry University and the Herbert Art Gallery and Museum. It will later move on to other cities.

"This is really important because there isn't anything in Coventry which supports artists to explore visual arts," said Kyla Craig, the creative director of Art Riot Collective.

"I really feel like this show is moving through the cities and what we want to see from it is how we connect artists from the area locally that are outside London."

BAS 10 features the work of 37 artists, including that of Turner Prize winner Nnena Kalu, all curated by the cultural commentator and writer Ekow Eshun.

In 2025, Kalu, who is autistic, became the first artist with a learning disability to win the most prestigious prize in British art.

She uses graphite, pen, oil sticks and chalk in repetitive spirals on large-scale paper. as well as creating what are described as "boulders" of multi-coloured fabric, representing the relationship between her own body and physical movement and her sculptural works.

Craig said she was particularly looking forward to seeing Kalu's work, as the Art Riot Collective worked with artists who were neuro-divergent or had other disabilities.

"There's a heavy influence of access within the whole project.

"We really want to engage audiences and humans who wouldn't normally be able to get to the British art show or activities or exhibitions that are happening because of disability.

"So we've really tried to challenge some of the main venues around access and the local venues around access and what that really means."

Sarah Shalgowsky, principal curator at Warwick Arts Centre, described the event as "the biggest touring exhibition of contemporary art in the UK".

The head of the tour Brian Cass said: "Coventry has always kind of assembled something new and remarkable from fragments of broken times.

"It always felt like a very natural place to launch because that ethos of reinvention, sits at the very heart of this show, which brings very ambitious, significant narratives to our making work over the last five years in the conversation with the histories in the city."

Art Riot is part of the Coventry Art Forum, which is staging a fringe show to coincide with BAS 10 and Craig hopes both events will inspire more creators in the city.

"I do feel like there's a massive underground movement of arts," she said.

"I suppose what we're hoping with the British Art Show is that it supports and amplifies what's there. I mean, you'll see a wealth of activities that are happening, not just been put on by organisations because of the art show, but amplified."

The British Art Show 10 runs in Coventry until January 2027, before moving on to Swansea, Bristol, Sheffield and finally Newcastle Gateshead over the next two years.

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