MILK is a group of 2015 Newcastle University graduates, who describe themselves as something between gallerists, curators, a collective and artists. They are very involved in the art community, but they do everything they do with minimal funding. Some of their exhibitions are entitled Rubber Necker, Windings, Quite While you’re Ahead and Xmas Dinner. MILK is very representative of the north and northern artists, having decided to centre their practice in Newcastle rather than move somewhere else. They stated that although Newcastle is a small scene with a collector base, it is much cheaper to practice in and offers a lot of studio opportunities, lots of art and a good community of people who are interested in creative arts and graphics.
MILK is very hands on with networking, curation and displaying work. After a few smaller exhibitions in a shop building, MILK was approached by Workplace, who offered them 3 months to hold exhibitions featuring artists from all over the UK. This was a good opportunity to provide connections for northern artists and other artists around the UK. Some of the exhibitions displayed here were titled ‘This is it isn’t it’, which had a theme of self doubt, and ‘Worried Mother’, which had a theme of social critique. After these 3 months, IKO collaborated with Milk at SET London with exhibitions such as ‘Ultra Sunrise’ and ‘Gratification’. This was followed by an exhibition called ‘People see Nothing’ at Division of Labour, London. After working in London for a while, it was clear that it was full of opportunities, particularly with galleries and networking. The audience is a lot more varied and international too. However, it was very expensive and the art scene, in comparison to the Northern art scene, was a lot more hostile and competitive.
MILK have a website alongside their gallery work, which they use to post interviews with new artists as well as documenting studio visits. They also have a sister project called Slugtown, which was a project to display similar art work but in a domestic space. They practiced this in their shared flat and it was very successful due to the sense of ease and change of dynamic this residential area provided.
