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BACKLIT 2022

Us

BACKLIT is a contemporary arts charity supporting creative practice through exhibitions, archive, and studio provision. Alongside providing space for artists and creatives to develop their work, we deliver a free public programme that connects audiences with art and culture.


BACKLIT is a contemporary arts charity supporting creative practice through exhibitions, archive, and studio provision. Alongside providing space for artists and creatives to develop their work, we deliver a free public programme that connects audiences with art and culture.

Founded in Nottingham in 2008, BACKLIT works with artists, communities and partners to commission new work, present ambitious exhibitions and create opportunities for learning, participation, and research. Our programme spans contemporary visual art, public events, workshops and artist development, creating space for experimentation, dialogue and collaboration.

Housed within a historic Victorian building, BACKLIT is home to artist studios, galleries and an expanding archive that reflects the organisation's history and the wider creative communities it has supported. Through exhibitions, residencies, commissions and partnerships, we champion emerging and established artists while making contemporary art accessible through a year-round programme of free public activity.

Artist-led since its inception, BACKLIT is proudly LGBTQ+ and female-led, with collaboration and care at the heart of our work. We are committed to creating opportunities for underrepresented artists and communities, fostering a more inclusive and accessible contemporary arts sector.

BACKLIT is a registered charity, no 1167258, and Arts Council England National Portfolio Organisation.

People

Our Focus

Over the next five years from 2022, BACKLIT​‘s work has four key areas of focus: Mental Health, Equality, Diversity and Inclusion, Environmental and Digital.

These key areas will flow throughout our organisation, programme, projects, staff, recruitment, governance, policies and frameworks.

Each focus area will help us deepen our research and impact to continue to provide valuable and relevant public engagement, exhibitions, learning and membership programmes.

Morley History

Originally a flourishing textile company established in 1872 by Samuel Morley, our building has a rich past of creativity, manufacturing, and production.


Samuel Morley, described as an entrepreneur, philanthropist, Member of Parliament, social reformer, and was a model employer and ardent abolitionist, originally commissioned Alfred House to be built. He was an English woollen manufacturer and political radical who pioneered progressions in industry, human rights, anti-slavery, and adult education.


Morley, an advocate of the anti-slavery movement in Nottingham and London, supported and funded Josiah Henson (a ​‘freed’ fugitive American Slave), to publish a book about his experience of Slavery and the Underground Railroad. The book changed history and is the inspiration behind Harriet Beecher Stowe’s ​‘Uncle Tom’s Cabin’. BACKLIT has since developed ​‘Morley Threads Archive’, an online resource.

Support Us

Supporting arts and culture since 2008, BACKLIT is a charity, no 1167258, and depends on the donations and support from our visitors, patrons and funders.

Donating and supporting BACKLIT helps us achieve our charitable objectives and reinvest in our yearly free programme of exhibitions, events and workshops that support an essential framework for local people, artist development, communities, and creat­ives at all stages of life to develop.

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