Introducing the six artists selected for JR’s inaugural Artist Development Scheme

Following the 7 October, JR is more committed than ever to supporting the creation of Jewish culture, as well as reporting on it. Therefore, in 2025, we’re running our Artists Development Scheme. We’re delighted to announce the six artists chosen to participate: Bruno Grad, Coral Harding, Emma Grant, Esther Gabrielle Kersley, Sam Belinfante and Yael Roberts.

Over the next year, our participants will have masterclasses and lectures from Jewish artists, art historians and curators. They will be given individual mentoring and professional skills training and provided with a stipend to support their creation of new work. The scheme will culminate with a showcase exhibition in November.

Our final six were selected from an interesting, contemporary and diverse range of submissions, by:

Jacqueline Nicholls, Creative Director of the programme. Artist and Jewish Educator who has exhibited and presented internationally.
and
Aviva Dautch, Executive Director, Jewish Renaissance. Aviva has developed projects for the British Museum, the National Gallery and the Royal Academy of Arts.

Alongside the following judges:
Monica Bohm Duchen, British Curator and Art Historian. Worked on exhibitions for Tate, the Royal Academy of Arts, Sotheby's Institute of Art and the Courtauld Institute of Art.
Tobi Kahn, American painter and sculptor. His art has been shown in over 70 solo museum exhibitions.
Mirta Kupfernic, award-winning contemporary Argentine Jewish artist. Currently directing an artists and scholars residency at Brandeis University.
Dvora Liss, Curator, Museum of Art, Ein Harod. Curator of Matronita, the first exhibition of Orthodox Feminist Art in Israel.
Andrew Renton, Professor of Curating, Goldsmiths College. Formerly Curator, Marlborough Contemporary.

Get to know our six artists below.

Sam Belinfante

Sam Belinfante is an artist living and working in London, UK. Along with filmmaking and photographic work, his practice incorporates curating, sound and performance. Recent exhibitions include I See a Voice, The National Festival of Making (Blackburn, 2023) and On the Circulation of Blood, Creative Folkestone Triennial 2021. Recent performances include On Falling Short (ICA, London 2024) and The Long, very long Journey with Laure Prouvost at Kunshalle Wien, Vienna (2023). In 2023 he was the inaugural Artist in Residence at Sir John Soane's Museum, London.
www.sambelinfante.com
Instagram @sambelinfante

*Sam Belinfante: On the Circulation of Blood – Creative Folkestone Triennial – Thierry Bal*

BRUNO GRAD

Bruno Grad is an artist and writer based in Margate. He studied English Literature at King’s College, University of Cambridge (2009). His work is concerned with Jewish identity and practice: what it means to be a Jewish artist in the contemporary world. Primarily through the media of painting and drawing, it explores the possibility of a distinctively religious artistic endeavour within the idiom of contemporary art. His paintings, imbued with the vitality of a lived tradition, offer a space for connection and reflection, inviting viewers to engage with the rich tapestry of Jewish life and identity. Most recent exhibitions: People of the Body, 4 Garden Walk Gallery, London (2024), Standing Ground, Thames-side Studios Gallery, London (2024)
www.brunogradartist.substack.com
Instagram: @bruno_grad

Emma Grant

Emma Grant is a sculptural ceramics artist, almost exclusively working with porcelain with the occasional bit of something else thrown in. Her practice is deeply influenced by themes of her identity, disability, family and cultural heritage, exploring the intersection between them all. Through her work, Emma creates emotive pieces that evoke personal narratives and universal thoughts. Emma is committed to pushing the boundaries of her craft and fostering artistic growth. Emma’s work continues to evolve, as she deepens her understanding of her body’s limits and further develops her unique process.
Instagram: @emmagrantceramics

CORAL HARDING

Coral Harding (b. 2001, London) is a recent BA graduate from the Slade School, UCL. Her work explores the sensuality of memory, tradition and cultural experience in the forms of site-specific sculpture, drawing and painting. Coral communicates the sensitivity and vulnerability of materials through her presentation of their exposed and overwhelming sensory potential and tactility. Working with existing architectural features, Coral highlights specific structural details through her utilisation of the sensory. She explores the emotionally penetrative and reminiscent nature of smell and its ability to destabilise spatial boundaries. A lyricism between compression and diffusion, containment and expansion, architecture and atmosphere.
www.coralharding.com
Instagram @coralhardingart

ESTHER GABRIELLE KERSLEY

Esther Gabrielle Kersley is a research-led visual artist working with photography and photomontage. Interested in the boundary between truth and fiction in documentary storytelling, her work focuses on harder-to-visualise topics such as our online information environment, conspiracy theories, and contemporary antisemitism. Based in London, she holds an MA in Documentary Photography from the London College of Communications, University of the Arts London. She has a background in Politics and Conflict Studies which informs her practice.
www.esthergabriellekersley.com
Instagram @esthergabrielle__

*Esther Kersley: Raven - Space Lasers (And Other Fantasies)*

YAEL ROBERTS

Yael Roberts is a London-based artist working in large-scale printmaking and sculpture. She prints from found objects, exploring themes of place, memory, and belonging. She holds an MA in Printmaking from Camberwell College and a BA (English Literature and Studio Art) from Yeshiva University, and has exhibited widely, including at Victoria Miro, the Manchester Jewish Museum, and Ein Sof Gallery. She has participated in recent residencies at Casa Ceniza in Guadalajara and CAST Cornwall, funded by a DYCP grant from Arts Council England. Yael is Director of Community & Adult Education at Westminster Synagogue and Chair of Cubitt's Public Programmes Committee.
www.yaelroberts.com
Instagram: @yael_roberts

By Dani Silver