What are the opening hours?

Thursday 9am - 5pm Friday 9am - 5pm Saturday 9am - 5pm

Primary, 33 Seely Road, Nottingham (2025)

26/04/2025

Three weeks to go until 'En Masse'🍷🍻 Don't wait—get your tickets today—only a few tickets with the special offer left! You know what to do☝️

A brilliant lineup of music includes through our partnership with 🙏🏾.

LVT has absorbed sounds from her home country, Zimbabwe, alongside Leicester, and influences from the UK and America. Her unique sound has been heard on the 02 Academy Islington stage and on BBC Introducing East Midlands by Dean Jackson and Aminata Kamara, of which she was artist of the week. Come and hear LVT perform open-air and be part of strengthening the grassroots music scene in the city and region.

Show up—Support 💥

17/04/2025

🔥 En Masse 🔥

45 masquerades parade; DJs and open-air live music and poetry will play all night against the backdrop of an expansive garden.

WHEN: Saturday 17 May 2025, 6–11 PM. Doors open at 5:30 PM. Performances start at 6:00 PM.
WHERE: Primary’s Playground and Garden. Our exhibitions in Gallery 1 & 2 will be open until 6:30 PM.
BOOKING: Booking essential. Book via Eventbrite, https://enmasse.eventbrite.co.uk/.

🔥OFFER 🫴 Limited number of 2 for 1 tickets!! 🎟️

Join us for En Masse, an eccentric blowout—a mix between the legacies of the Carnivalesque, and Mas Bands such as the Radical Mas Band (1983) (People’s World [formerly People’s War] Carnival Band) that emerged at the Notting Hill Carnival in the UK, which featured masqueraders who wore handcrafted costumes. This cultural practice, rooted in emancipatory and Caribbean traditions, is both ancestral and spiritual.

45 masquerades parade; DJs and open-air live music and poetry will play all night against the backdrop of an expansive garden. There will also be a bar and food.

Line Up:
all.stars
Presents:
Joey
Gloria
IVT
: LiVE

11/04/2025

What a start to spring with the opening of our exhibition, ‘Human Life in Motion’! 🌱

Thank you to the technicians, Primary staff, the folks at in Radford and Sian Morrell () who co-created our easier-to-read guide, and, of course, all of our exhibition contributors: Maia Ruth Lee, Olivia Oyamada, Sofia Yala, Jade Foster, Raghavi Chinnadurai, Palani Studios/People's Archive of Rural India; Marwa Soliman, Hanan Shaikh, Maha Hadid, Shahlaa Al-Battawi, and Azza Elkareh from ✨

Thanks also to Heya for your generosity—the personal invitation to the curator, staff and artists to join you and your families at the open Iftar gathering in Nottingham City Centre on Sunday, 16 March.

The spiritual convenor of this show, Maia Ruth Lee, says that the new addition of the green banner ‘completes the set’—not only symbolising safety and free passage but also the spirit of community, bringing together different civic and creative communities residing in Nottingham. The piece commissioned by Primary with support from and was made collaboratively in Studio A4 (pictured). Each person made a sculpture that was then unravelled to produce a painted panel. Each panel or segment (over a dozen!) was then skilfully sewn together by Primary Resident to make the beautiful 11 metre banner!

The communal process of making the banner centred around the collective and human hand weaved together stories of migration, grounding and disorientating in equal measure. As British-Australian writer Sara Ahmed beautifully puts it in Queer Phenomenology (2006), ‘Hands…emerge as crucial sites in stories of disorientation...Hands hold things. They touch things. They let things go’. We feel that all the stories are spiritually bound to the artwork, and these stories of migratory journeys full of hope, empowerment, and wayfinding will continue to be within the work as it travels to a new place.

The exhibition is on until 31 March—pop by and say hi! 💚

Install 📸
📸 'Human Life in Motion' workshop and opening by

07/03/2025

🌻 Invitation 🌻

PREVIEW: Thursday 20 March 2025, 6–9PM
EXHIBITION: 21 March 2025–31 May 2025
OPENING TIMES: Thursday–Saturday, 10AM–6PM, or by appointment.
WHERE: Gallery 1 and Gallery 2

Primary is working with Colorado-based artist Maia Ruth Lee to present her first solo exhibition in the UK, ‘Human Life in Motion’. We believe that Lee’s artworks help us to imagine the gallery as a worldly and spiritual place. So, we want to welcome everyone to see her work for the first time on the Spring Equinox, Thursday, 20 March 2025, 6–9PM. Please join us for delicious food and drinks!

If you haven’t been to Primary, on the ground floor, there is Gallery 1. We are presenting five new sculptures there. Lee will be making her sculptures during an art residency in Primary’s Studio A4 next week, and they will become part of the artist’s ‘Bo***ge Baggage’ (2018 – present) series. The artist models her work after the luggage often owned by Nepali migrant labour workers from the Middle East, South and East Asia. Blending the installation with traditions of public offerings, as seen in Korean ‘jesa’ or at religious sites such as Buddhist monasteries within Nepal, Primary and Lee have invited members of our community, such as Raghavi Chinnadurai and Sofia Yala, to present objects alongside her sculptures.

A correlating new large-scale work has a different presence upstairs in Gallery 2—a sixth green banner has become part of the artist’s ‘Bo***ge Baggage Banner’ (2024). Lee and a group of local migrants—including Marwa Soliman, Hanan Shaikh, Maha Hadid, Shahlaa Al-Battawi, Azza Elkareh through Heya Nottingham—workshopped the banner together.

Find out more through the link in our Linkedtree!

‘Human Life in Motion’ is supported by the and

📸 by Rae Dowling, Making multi-media sculpture workshop by Madi Acharya-Baskerville, Primary (2024).

25/02/2025

WHEN: Saturday 22 March 2024, 2PM – 3PM
WHERE: Studio A4 in Primary
BOOKING: Booking via Eventbrite is required. Book Here. This event is free with an optional ‘Pay What You Can’ donation. Links in the Bio. 🔗

Join us for a conversation in Primary’s Studio A4 between exhibiting artist Maia Ruth Lee and curator Jade Foster, taking place on the opening weekend of the exhibition Human Life in Motion, which features new sculptures by Lee made on-site at Primary, a newly painted banner made with local migrants—including Marwa Soliman, Hanan Shaikh, Maha Hadid, Shahlaa Al-Battawi, and Azza Elkareh through Heya Nottingham—and objects from members of our community.

This time, we look forward to welcoming you back or, for the first time, for a unique look behind the scenes at the expansive practice of Colorado-based artist Maia Ruth Lee.

More information in Bio

‘Human Life in Motion’ is supported by the and

25/02/2025

When: Wednesdays, 3.30-5.30pm,(from 26 February until 2 April)
Where: Primary Playground

Join us on free weekly drop-in play sessions running on Wednesdays after school in term time (from 26 February until 2 April). Join play workers for adventurous outdoor play, art, crafts , games and forest school activities.

These sessions are open to children and young people based in Radford / NG7 aged 5-13 years old. Younger children should be accompanied by a carer. Membership forms for the Toy Library must be completed for young people to stay and play.

These sessions are delivered in partnership with The Toy Library.

Contact: 0115 9753898 / [email protected]

These sessions are part of the Community Takeover Programme at Primary, kindly supported by the National Lottery Community Fund.

13/02/2025

📢 Announcement ✨

We are excited to welcome you for the first time or again for our next exhibition, 'Human Life in Motion' opening this March!

PREVIEW: Thursday 20 March 2025, 6–9PM
EXHIBITION: 21 March 2025–31 May 2025
OPENING TIMES: Thursday–Saturday, 10AM–6PM, or by appointment.
WHERE: Gallery 1 and Gallery 2

For Colorado-based artist Maia Ruth Lee’s (b. 1983, Busan, South Korea) first UK solo show beginning on the Spring Equinox, we imagine the gallery as a worldly and spiritual centre. Installations of sculpture, painting, and luggage across our galleries will explore human life in motion.

After a deep investigation into ideas of home, belonging and migration within Lee's presentation for 'Prospect.6: The Future is Present, The Harbinger is Home', she will spend a few weeks in an art studio at Primary creating five new sculptures as part of an ongoing series, 'Bo***ge Baggage' (2018-present). A new sixth green banner workshopped with local migrants in the studio will deepen 'Bo***ge Baggage Banner' (2024), a body of work made of imprints and markings of the bound luggage—the painted surfaces of the sculptures are stretched and smooth like skin—transformed into abstract traces and contours of the migrant experience.

The original five banners are part of Lee’s installation, 'Once we leave a place is it there' (2024), curated by Clarice Lee, Malaika Newsome, Fiona Yu and Ruiqi Wang, and supported by Valeria Napoleone XX IFA at the Institute of Fine Arts, New York University, New York. Drawn from poet Myung Mi Kim’s 'Under Flag' (1991), the installation echoes the poet’s reflection on her journey as an immigrant, mirroring some of the narratives that Lee responds to. At Primary, this installation takes on a new energy and form.

'Human Life in Motion' is supported by the and .

24/01/2025

We are thrilled to share that Primary has installed a new defibrillator on Ilkeston Road, Nottingham, postcode NG7 3FX. This life-saving device is now accessible to the local community, providing essential support in emergencies. This has been made possible through the support of our brilliant community via a crowd-funding effort.

There was previously no accessible defibrillator in the immediate area and this life-saving device ensures residents and visitors have vital access to emergency medical equipment when it’s needed most.

The defibrillator is located outside Wellington Lettings, 57 Ilkeston Road, Nottingham, NG7 3GR – thank you to Wellington lettings for housing the equipment and thank you to everyone who donated to the fund.

📸: screenshot from www.defibfinder.uk

23/01/2025

As a part of Primary’s Kolam exhibition, we are excited to welcome collaborating artists, Palani Kumar ( ) and Hairunisha Kasim Moulana ( ) of Palani Studio—important contemporary voices from Tamil Nadu and prominent advocates of marginalized communities—joining us in person at Primary.

Join us for an in-conversation with artists Palani Kumar , Hairunisha Kasim Moulana, and Nicole Thiara, Raghavi Chinnadurai ( ) . Together, they will explore Palani and Nisha’s extensive photographic practices, delving into their personal journeys and reflections on projects addressing the issues around manual scavenging, “honour killings”, and the systemic exploitation of Working-class and Dalit communities. The conversation will try to reflect on the parallels between these structures of oppression and global post-colonial structures.

This event is a part of Primary’s Kolam exhibition and organised in collaboration with CADALFEST and has been supported and produced by Joshua Lockwood-Moran ( )

CADALFEST (Celebrating Adivasi and Dalit Arts and Literature Festival), a festival series organised by the network on Dalit and Adivasi literature, which is hosted by the Postcolonial and Global Studies research Group at Nottingham Trent University (NTU), UK, and the research centre EMMA at Université Paul-Valéry Montpellier 3, France.

To read more: www.westerner.org/whats-on
Refreshments will be provided.

Access: This event will take place in Studio A4 at Primary, which has level access from our main entrance. Please email [email protected] or call 0115 924 4493 regarding access enquiries.

📸 Palani Kumar ‘To Walk a Mile’ / People’s Archive of Rural India

23/01/2025

As a part of Primary’s Kolam exhibition, we are excited to welcome collaborating artists, Palani Kumar ( ) and Hairunisha Kasim Moulana ( ) of Palani Studio—important contemporary voices from Tamil Nadu and prominent advocates of marginalized communities—joining us in person at Primary.

Join us for an in-conversation with artists Palani Kumar , Hairunisha Kasim Moulana, and Nicole Thiara, Raghavi Chinnadurai ( ) . Together, they will explore Palani and Nisha’s extensive photographic practices, delving into their personal journeys and reflections on projects addressing the issues around manual scavenging, “honour killings”, and the systemic exploitation of Working-class and Dalit communities. The conversation will try to reflect on the parallels between these structures of oppression and global post-colonial structures.

This event is a part of Primary’s Kolam exhibition and organised in collaboration with CADALFEST and has been supported and produced by Joshua Lockwood-Moran ( )

CADALFEST (Celebrating Adivasi and Dalit Arts and Literature Festival), a festival series organised by the network on Dalit and Adivasi literature, which is hosted by the Postcolonial and Global Studies research Group at Nottingham Trent University (NTU), UK, and the research centre EMMA at Université Paul-Valéry Montpellier 3, France.

To read more : www.westerner.org/whats-on
Refreshments will be provided.

Access: This event will take place in Studio A4 at Primary, which has level access from our main entrance. Please email [email protected] or call 0115 924 4493 regarding access enquiries.

📸 Palani Kumar ‘To Walk a Mile’ / People’s Archive of Rural India

14/01/2025

🥘🍚🫛As part of Nourishment: A Cyclical Programme, we have been working with Open Arms Organisation and community cooks to run regular cooking sessions in the Primary kitchen. The sessions are an opportunity share recipes and increase confidence in cooking skills. We aim to use ingredients that might regularly be in food parcels, share recipes from different countries and cultures and support healthy eating.

The Community Cooking Sessions are free and open to anyone accessing Open Arms Organisation food parcel, and anyone else experiencing food inequality or on low income.

These sessions are kindly supported by the Boots Charitable Trust.

13/12/2024

We have been reflecting through our 2024 Programme. With the first iteration of our winter exhibition ‘Kolam’ coming to a close, it relaunches on 9th January 2025, with artists Hairunisha and Palani Kumar joining in person. Our Associate Curator, Raghavi shares,

“ Kolam preview was an invitation to Tamil community in Nottingham to engage in Primary’s public programme. Facilitated by the brilliant works of artists Hairunisha, Osheen, Palani and Rocky, the conversations acted as a portal connecting different spaces, times, and stakeholders, highlighting intersectional solidarity. The last month had been a learning in seeing ‘Exhibition as a process rather than a presentation’.”

More on the exhibition:

Kolam is an exhibition, an action, a space, an exploration. Mimicking its namesake, a south-Indian threshold art-form, the exhibition acts as an invitation to Tamil women, Dalit community and other marginalised communities to hold space and have voice within contemporary cultural production. This liminal space explores the plurality of Tamil identity, the contradictions, the poetics, and the politics. It negotiates what we bring forward through the threshold, what we leave behind. It seeks the right to self-determine.

The exhibition will have newly commissioned animation work by artist Osheen Siva ( .siva), photographic works by Hairunisha ( ), Palani Kumar and Palani Studio
( ), an intervention by artist Rocky Mol Selvaraj ( )

The exhibition is a part of practice-led curatorial research by Raghavi Chinnadurai, supported by Primary’s Programme team.

Raghavi’s role as an Associate Curator is funded by Art Fund support.

📸 Kolam Preview, Primary 2024, Image by Rae Dowling

12/12/2024

We have been reflecting through our 2024 programme. First stop, we are revisiting ‘Imagining Otherwise’. Our Public Programme Curator, Jade Foster shares their experience with the three brilliant artists who were part of the show,

“Ashley, Jala and Jasleen reflected on how ‘they appreciated the amount of time and care afforded to the exhibition process’. Having collective conversations together required more time and participation, which is not a common experience for them, but they felt it brought out more profound and complex connections. They said they want to bring this approach to future work and relationships with artists, galleries and organisations. As a curator, I’m grateful to learn from them.”

More on the exhibition:

Exhibitions should not necessarily be fixed; they have the potential for change. To explore this idea, Primary has engaged in a reflective process of exhibition-making. Imagining Otherwise initially comprised three pre-existing works by artists Ashley Holmes ( ), Jasleen Kaur (.kaur_ ) and Jala Wahid ( ) before it is transformed. Framed by a series of live events (e.g., readings, performance, screenings or discussions) the artists returned to the artworks presented in the exhibition and changed, added works, allowing us to better witness the connections made between the works inhabiting Primary.

Imagining Otherwise is part of TRANSFORM, a City Takeover taking place across cultural organisations between May and September 2024.

📸 Imagining Otherwise, Primary (2024). Photos by

06/12/2024

Chiemi Shimada & Susie Cunningham  | Oneiric Kitchen: Online screening

Friday, December 6, 2024 12:00 PM
Sunday, December 15, 2024 10:00 PM

Where: Online ( Link in Bio)

Oneiric Kitchen is a collaborative project by artist-filmmaker Chiemi Shimada and wellbeing practitioner Susie Cunningham . The work explores our relationship with sleep and addresses issues surrounding it. Developed through therapeutic cooking workshops in the UK and Japan and facilitated by partners Primary (Nottingham) and Documentary Dream Center (Tokyo) the project created a safe space for participants to reflect on their sleep experiences.  

Oneiric Kitchen culminates in a video installation and single-channel film of the same name. Following a work-in-progress screening at Broadway (22 November 2024) Oneiric Kitchen is available to view online for one week, via Primary’s website and YouTube channel.

Oneiric Kitchen is supported by the British Council’s Connections Through Culture grant programme.

04/12/2024

🎄 Uncanny Christmas: Pure Uncanny 🎄

🎉 Primary’s Artist-Run Weird Winter Party is THIS SATURDAY! 🎉

Don’t wait—BOOK NOW and guarantee entry at our alternative Christmas party!

https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/uncanny-christmas-pure-uncanny-tickets-1050673912957?aff=oddtdtcreator

This year, we’re turning up the weird with even more entertainment, surprises, and creative experiences! We’ve got five artist studio bars with DJs, seasonal cocktails, mulled cider, local beers and homemade food!

PLUS
🎤 Pure Uncanny Karaoke hosted by Mitzi Penrice!
📀 Live DJs including Kristian Kirkwood and Tom Harris
🎺 Live music including Hannah Bannana!
🖌 Live portrait drawings you can take home by Mik Godley
📸 The revival of our Uncanny Photobooth!

🎁 We are *extremely grateful* for the support of some lovely NG7 & NG1 businesses on our UNCANNY RAFFLE. WIN! 🎁
- £150 BEAM voucher
- Hamper from Small Food Bakery
- £200 voucher for Universal Works
- Meal for two with coffee at Little Brickhouse
- 6 bottle selection from Wright’s Wines
- Selected Primary Residents’ artwork
- Two tickets for a history walk in 2025 with Watson Fothergill walks

>>>>>>Buy tickets from Primary, Small Food Bakery, BEAM or your nearest Primary member

15/11/2024

🎞️📽️Join us for Oneiric Kitchen: Work-in-progress screening at Broadway Cinema delivered in partnership with Near Now.

When: Friday 22 November, 6 pm - 7.15 pm
Where: Broadway Ceinema, 14-18 Broad Street, Nottingham, NG1 3AL
Booking: Free. Booking in Bio

Oneiric Kitchen is a collaborative project by artist-filmmaker Chiemi Shimada ( ) and wellbeing practitioner Susie Cunningham ( ). The work explores our relationship with sleep and addresses issues surrounding it. Developed through therapeutic cooking workshops in the UK and Japan and facilitated by partners Primary (Nottingham) and Documentary Dream Center (Tokyo) the project created a safe space for participants to reflect on their sleep experiences.  

Oneiric Kitchen is supported by the British Council’s Connections Through Culture grant programme.

14/11/2024

🪩🎉🎈Party Alert: Uncanny Christmas, Primary’s artist-run weird winter party is back for another year! Our annual fundraiser planned and executed by our resident community is now live. This year’s theme is PURE UNCANNY. Link in bio to book!

Join us Saturday 7 December, 7PM – 1AM, to celebrate seasonal strangeness at our indoor festival with all new Uncanny Karaoke, festive food offers, themed bars, live art games, tarot readings, the Photo-booth, the NG7+1 raffle, and dancing into the night.

We’ll be offering more creative activities and experiences than ever, so book your early bird tickets now (available until 3rd November).

TICKETS:
Early bird entry = £11: Book on or before Sun 3 Nov to grab a bargain.
Standard entry = £13: Book after Sun 3 Nov or purchase your ticket on the door.
Group entry (6+) = £10: per person: You can’t party alone, can you?
Pay it forward entry = £11: Gift a pay it forward ticket!
Student/unwaged = £10

All funds raised through Uncanny Christmas support the ongoing maintenance of the building and help keep Primary’s studios affordable and accessible to our resident community.

📸: Uncanny Christmas (2023) .griffiths , Uncanny Christmas (2018, 2019)

11/11/2024

🎨🧶Winter Play Sessions with The Toy Library

When: Wednesdays, 3:30 PM - 5:30 PM ( November 13 - December 11, 2024)
Where: Primary Playground

Free weekly drop-in play sessions running on Wednesdays after school until 11 December. Join play workers for adventurous outdoor play, art, crafts , games and forest school activities.

These sessions are open to children and young people based in Radford / NG7 aged 5-13 years old. Younger children should be accompanied by a carer. Membership forms for the Toy Library must be completed for young people to stay and play.

These sessions are delivered in partnership with The Toy Library

These sessions are part of the Community Takeover Programme at Primary, kindly supported by the National Lottery Community Fund.

📸: Light Parade, photo by Freddy Griffin

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