CVAN EM's AGM 2026

Date: Thursday 26 March
Time: 5.00 – 7.30pm
Venue: Leicester Print Workshop (in-person only) 50 St. George Street, Leicester, LE1 1QG
Hosted by: CVAN EM in partnership with Leicester Print Workshop (LPW)
Booking: Free event, booking required via Eventbrite

There are ten £50 bursaries available to support AGM attendance from unwaged/freelance East Midlands-based visual artists and arts workers. Find details in the access section of this page.
Context and Purpose

This year’s CVAN EM AGM takes place at a pivotal moment for the visual arts, both regionally and nationally. With Arts Council England’s current review shaping the future of support for artists and organisations, and the continued evolution of Combined Authorities influencing cultural strategy and investment, it is vital that our regional network comes together to reflect, connect, and look ahead.

The AGM will serve as both a moment of reflection and a platform for dialogue, raising CVAN EM’s profile and helping ensure our work remains inclusive, relevant, and creative-centred. It is an opportunity for visual artists, arts workers, and organisations to:

• Learn more about CVAN EM’s purpose, focus, and programming.
• Contribute to conversations about the opportunities and challenges facing the visual arts in our region.
• Find out how to get involved, including future roles within our Steering Group as we move into a new phase of leadership and collaboration.

CVAN EM’s 2026 AGM has grown from our Annual Forum, a key event in the region’s cultural calendar bringing together visual artists, curators, organisations, and cultural workers to explore current issues shaping contemporary visual arts. Each year CVAN EM works with a different regional partner to spotlight activity in a different locality and focuses on timely themes, amplifying diverse voices and fostering a more inclusive and sustainable arts ecosystem in the East Midlands.

We are thrilled to partner with Leicester Print Shop, who have generously supported us in hosting CVAN EM’s AGM 2026.
Evening Programme

5.00 – 5.45pm: Arrival, Refreshments, Open Conversation & Input Activities
Enjoy refreshments, snacks and an informal opportunity to (re)connect with peers.

Attendees will be welcomed on arrival and invited to reflect on CVAN EM’s past, present, and future through a series of creative input and feedback activities.

· Artist and LPW studio holder Mandeep Dhadialla will facilitate a printmaking-led approach to feedback.

· Live illustrator and cartoonist Kelly Bond will visually document key ideas and discussions.

· Participants can also contribute written or visual reflections on large-format posters.

Together, we’ll identify shared opportunities and challenges across the region’s visual arts sector.

• What’s working well across the visual arts in the East Midlands?
• What challenges and opportunities do we face locally and nationally?
• How can CVAN EM best support and represent our community moving forward?
• Consider CVAN EM’s sector support, strategic & programming role.

If you are unable to attend but would like to feed into the conversation, please complete our , in advance of the AGM.

5.45 – 6.00pm: Welcome
Introductions from Michelle Bowen (Development Manager, LPW) and Colette Griffin (Director, CVAN EM).

6.00 – 6.45pm: CVAN EM Presentation | Who We Are and Where We’re Going
A presentation from CVAN EM Director Colette Griffin, supported by members of the Steering Group.
This session will outline:

• CVAN EM’s vision, values, and role within the wider CVAN network and partnership with New Art Exchange (NAE).
• Highlights and learnings from 2025/26.
• Our priorities, plans and programming for 2026/27.

6.45 – 7.15pm: Q&A and Open Discussion
An open space to ask questions, share reflections, and discuss how we can continue to strengthen our regional visual arts ecology together.

7.15 – 7.30pm: Wind Down and Goodbyes
Final conversations and informal networking.
Access Information (event)

- This event is free. There are ten £50 bursaries available to unwaged/freelance East Midlands-based visual artists and arts workers. Funds are to support access to the event and can be used to cover time and/or travel. Bursaries will be given on a first come first serve basis. Bursaries will be paid only after attendance. To request a bursary please email [email protected] with the subject line ‘AGM Bursary’ and include:

o Your name

o Your address

o Your role

- This event will be recorded, with captioned documentation of the event being shared online after the event.

- If you are unable to attend but would like to feed into the conversation, please complete our , in advance of the AGM.

- Please share any access requirements on booking via Eventbrite, or contact [email protected]

Access Information (venue)

- LPW is located a 10 minute walk from Leicester Train Station. Limited parking is available onsite which we will allocate to blue badge holders on this occasion.

- LPW is located in Leicester’s city centre, within the Cultural Quarter and is just an 8 minute walk from the train station.

o Click here for local rail travel information.

o There are two bus stations in Leicester city centre (Haymarket bus station, and St Margaret’s bus station) and both are within walking distance of the venue. Leicester also operates a Park & Ride service.

Bike Parking:

o There is a locked bike shed in our car park, with several bike racks inside

o There is also open bike parking out the front of the building

Carparking:

o There is limited parking available in LPW’s carpark. On the occasion of this event onsite parking will be received for blue badge holders.

o Midland Street council car park (LE1 1TG) is located nearby. Pay-and-display parking. Enter via Midland Street. Payment by cash or card.

o Rutland Centre NCP, Halford Street (LE1 1TQ) is a 5 minute walk.

CVAN EM bio

CVAN EM is the free-to-access Contemporary Visual Arts Networks for the East Midlands encompassing Derbyshire, Leicestershire, Lincolnshire, Northamptonshire, Nottinghamshire, and Rutland. Since 2008 CVAN EM has been part of the national Contemporary Visual Arts Network, working alongside 8 other regional Contemporary Visual Arts Networks.

We advocate for contemporary visual arts in the region by supporting artists, arts workers, and organisations through paid opportunities, critical programming, and partnership working, while driving policy change to ensure a sustainable and vibrant sector. CVAN EM is guided by a diverse Steering Group of arts professionals including artists, technicians, writers, curators, producers, academics and access support workers.

Since 2023, CVAN EM has been hosted by New Art Exchange (NAE).

LPW bio

Leicester Print Workshop champions printmaking as a vital contemporary artform by providing open access, expert support, and inspiring opportunities for people at every stage of their creative journey. We nurture a thriving, inclusive community rooted in creativity, collaboration, and lifelong learning, ensuring that high-quality printmaking is recognised, valued, and accessible to all.

Artist bios

Mandeep Dhadialla joined the CVAN EM Steering Group in November 2023 and is a fine art printmaker specialising in plant forms and landscape using combined print processes, drawing and bookmaking to explore concepts of place and home. Her visual and thinking practice is influenced by spending her formative years in Kenya and migrating to England in her teens. Her current long term artist practice examines care of place of the natural world by telling the story of how people and landscape are in an interconnected cyclical exchange, through the idea of nurturing – with focus on the natural environment, human wellbeing and sense of community - emphasising the parallels in narrative between plant and human movement.

Alongside teaching printmaking and bookmaking workshops at Leicester Print Workshop and Charnwood Arts, Mandeep delivers socially engaged projects with ArtReach, most recently in partnership with Leicester Cathedral creating a large-scale suspended paper garden swing, and completed an NPO funded artist commission by Leicester Museum and Galleries in response to Abbey Pumping Station and the Environment – the large scale linocut reproductions were exhibited at Highcross Leicester and featured in No Jobs in the Arts zine. Her practice has also featured in Art Etcetera magazine, A Seasonal Way, Stylist Magazine, and was in conversation with Ruth Singer's the Making Meaning Podcast.

She regularly exhibits her original prints nationally and internationally for a number of years. Key exhibitions & awards include Sock Gallery 2024, 2023, 2022 & 2019 (Highly Commended, Prize Winner, Highly Commended & Runner Up), Society of Women Artists Exhibition 2021, Teeside Print Prize 2020 (Commended) and Circle Foundation for the Arts Kenya 2020 (Honourable Mention). Mandeep is a member of Leicester Print Workshop, A-N The Artists Information Company, CVAN-EM and Artcan Org.

Kelly Bond runs 13 Bends Design, a graphic design and cartoon studio based in Derbyshire. She set up the studio just over ten years ago, first working from home and then progressing to her own studio space in 2024.

Kelly has a passion for drawing and graphic design she started her career working in a busy cartoon studio at the age of sixteen. She has since spent the last thirty years working in creative industry learning as many new skills as possible along the way.

In recent years she has focussed on the visual art element of her business, creating visual note art in the Derbyshire community. Kelly really values meeting people and recording their opinions, thoughts, dreams and stories using humorous cartoons and characters.

Her cartoons have so far been used as an evaluation tool, story gathering method or to capture valuable information for business and charities, for Junction Arts, LEVEL Centre, NHS, Recovery Connections, and Chesterfield College.

Kelly was diagnosed twenty years ago with Usher Syndrome a deaf blind condition, she is sight impaired and wears hearing aids.

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