In our new short series Five Minutes With, we’re shining a light on the people who help bring Meadow Arts’ vision to life. From dedicated team members to our brilliant board and trustees, we’re taking a closer look at the individuals who make everything we do possible.

In this edition of Five Minutes With, we spoke to our Deputy Chair, artist-curator Ryan Hughes, Founder, Artistic Director and Chief Executive Officer of Coventry Biennial. As we prepare for our upcoming exhibition of artist Leah Gordon at The Herbert Art Gallery & Museum this October, presented in partnership with Coventry Biennial, we take a moment to get to know the person helping to shape one of the UK’s most thoughtful and socially engaged contemporary art festivals.

I had followed Meadow Arts’ output for a long time before I had any real kind of involvement, and had recognised a shared commitment to art in places that weren’t necessarily galleries or museums.

Ryan Hughes

Ryan is an artist-curator and Founder, Artistic Director and Chief Executive Officer of Coventry Biennial – a social, political and critical platform for contemporary art working across Coventry and Warwickshire.

Coventry Biennial has presented exhibitions, events and activities in museums, galleries and more ‘unusual’ locations including medieval and modernist buildings, vacant industrial spaces and de-commissioned NHS facilities. The fifth Coventry Biennial will take place from 2 October 2025 until 25 January 2026.

Clare: Tell us a bit more about Coventry Biennial 2025 

Ryan: This will be the 5th Coventry Biennial and the programme will consist of exhibitions, events and activities across Coventry and Warwickshire. The programme is called Obsessions, Possessions and will take a multi-faceted and multi-disciplinary look at the  roles, functions and methodologies of collections and archives across society, in the art sector and within artists’ studios.  

Ranging from major national art collections to personal and family archives, from libraries to what can be found beneath your kitchen sink, from warehouses full of artworks to photo albums full of memories, we will explore how and why we collect, what it means to collect and will examine the impacts, legacies, politics and problematics of what is (or isn’t) included.  

We’ve already announced a number of projects with local, national and international  artists but we’ll be releasing more details over the summer months.  

The whole Biennial programme is set against the backdrop of the development of a new, 

nationally significant but locally embedded “Coventry City Cultural Gateway” building  that will see the British Council Collection and the Arts Council Collection permanently relocate from London and Yorkshire to Coventry.  

We’re really excited to be working with Simeon Barclay who will curate an exhibition using the Arts Council Collection, and E.N. Mirembe and Rosie Olang’ Odhiambo who will curate an exhibition using the British Council Collection alongside new works by artists from East Africa. Both of these projects begin to show what might be possible in the future with these two major collections being based in the city! 

Clare: Can you summarise what excites you most about the contemporary visual arts scene at the moment?

Ryan: I haven’t seen the word “peripheral” included in an exhibition press release for a while!  

But seriously, there seems to have been some kind of shift from traditional “centres” of art world power, lots of policy talks about co-creation, but within practice there are so many more modes of working together in so many different contexts and places happening at the moment – I find that really exciting.  

Art is happening all over the place and with all kinds of people. Going to see some of the best exhibitions in the world often no longer means going to a capital city. 

Clare: We’re interested in the newly established CVAN West Midlands, can you tell us a bit more  about it?

Ryan: I’m no longer associated with the network in any official capacity but, I used to be a part of the Advisory Group for New Art West Midlands which was the regional branch of the Contemporary Visual Art Network, where I was part of the group that oversaw the move away from its relationship with Birmingham City University towards a new arrangement, where it is now hosted by DASH.  

In any case, I feel like I have a good level of insight into the crucial work that the network does in the region and at a national level, and I’m sure colleagues won’t mind me advocating for and promoting their work here!  

CVAN West Midlands is picking up where New Art West Midlands left off a few years ago, providing support to the local sector and leading a collective agenda for policy change across the visual arts.  

I should of course highlight that CVAN West Midlands has a shiny new website where art workers can promote themselves, where artists can find exhibition or residency opportunities and where galleries can promote their exhibitions and events – it a one stop shop for art in the West Midlands!

Clare: What drew you to an involvement with Meadow Arts?

Ryan: I had followed Meadow Arts’ output for a long time before I had any real kind of involvement, and had recognised a shared commitment to art in places that weren’t necessarily galleries or museums.  

I grew up in quite a rural community, and reconnecting with spaces that aren’t cities felt (and still feels) urgent. I first properly spent time with Meadow Arts in the lead up to Coventry UK City of Culture and quite quickly joined the board of trustees after gaining a better understanding of the organisations work, and understanding that I could perhaps be of some use. 

Clare: Your hobbies – we know you are a keen cyclist – what have been your best adventures and  what is it about cycling that gets you on your bike time and time again?

Hobbies are everything, I’ve got endless hobbies and have actually found the curatorial process of this upcoming 5th Coventry Biennial to be a real enabler – spending months talking to artists about their obsessions and possessions has only spurred me on in relation to my own!  

But yes, cycling is perhaps chief among my pastimes and affects the way that I exist in the world more than the others (I don’t shave my legs for comic book purposes). It feels healthy to have some kind of a life away from the art world. A few particularly memorable rides include:  

The few weeks I spent last November riding the gravel trails through the woodlands around Helsinki, through snow and ice and the coldest weather I’ve ever experienced – my  riding was cut shorter than I had intended after falling and cracking a rib on a patch of black ice. But it was still magnificent.  

The summer before, I spent a few weeks following the Tour de France through the Alps with friends, it was beautiful and physically the most difficult thing I’ve ever done. Sleeping in a tent in a thunderstorm on a mountain side was wild. It was also deeply humbling to watch the pro peloton casually cruise up the climbs at maybe 3 or 4 times the speed that I was able to.  

More typically I spend evenings and weekends rolling around Worcestershire, Warwickshire and other lanes to the south of Birmingham. I also ride to and from work and usually average around 150 or 200km each week.  

I grew up skateboarding, and cycling is the same impulse – both are physically demanding, both are rooted in exploration or some kind of engagement with the outside and both build communities with shared languages, icons and calendars. Crucially both cycling and skateboarding have funny outfits. 

Meadow Arts is proud to announce Monument to the Vanquished Peasant, a solo exhibition by artist and writer Leah Gordon, commissioned by Meadow Arts and presented at the Herbert Art Gallery & Museum this October, in partnership with Coventry Biennial. Head to our news section to learn more.