The Photographers’ Gallery in London is launching a 10-year programme to platform emerging talent through a series of biennial exhibitions. The initiative has been made possible by what the not-for-profit gallery describes as “a very generous grant” from the UK-based John Kobal Foundation.
Shoair Mavlian, the director of the Photographers’ Gallery, declined to specify how much the grant is worth, but she tells The Art Newspaper that it will cover all the costs of staging the shows in its second-floor space, newly named the John Kobal Foundation Gallery.
The initiative will see one artist selected every two years for an exhibition. The first solo exhibition will be announced later this year and will run from 23 June to 26 September 2027.
“The whole idea of the programme is based around giving an opportunity to someone who hasn’t had an institutional solo show before,” she says. “The Photographers’ Gallery is in a similar situation to all other museums in the UK in that we are pressured into having to always do blockbuster shows [to generate revenue]. And what this programme allows us to do is to take risks.”
The gallery received a renewed three-year grant from Arts Council England in 2023, as one of the funding body’s national portfolio organisations (NPO). This grant represents around 20% of the gallery’s revenue, says Mavlian, however, it has remained the same throughout years of rising operational costs and high inflation, and so like other UK arts organisations, the gallery has become more reliant on other sources of income. Its accounts for the year ending 31 March 2025 report £620,573 in admissions income, which is more than two thirds the value of its NPO grant over a single year.
“We are under this constant pressure to sell tickets and bring people through the door—which, of course, is important. But what that means is we then don’t always see the full breadth of photography that is being made today. We are often looking at things that are historic rather than looking at the contemporary.”
The John Kobal Foundation was established in 1990 a year before the death of the eponymous film historian and photography collector “to advance the public appreciation and awareness of photography”.
“We are delighted to support this important new initiative,” says Michael Mack, the co-chair of the John Kobal Foundation, “which honours John’s vision of nurturing creativity and innovation in photography.”
