4 d. ago ‘Her need to make is off the scale’: why Nnena Kalu’s Turner prize nomination is a watershed moment for art

The Glasgow-born artist makes huge cocoon-like sculptures out of found fabric and videotape. We meet the team who helped her become the first learning-disabled person to make the award shortlistOne day, out of the blue, everything changed for Nnena Kalu. For more than a decade, she’d been making a certain kind of drawing, in a certain kind of way – repeated shapes, clusters of colour, all organised in rows. “Then, in 2013, she just suddenly started to go whoosh,” says Charlotte Hollinshead, Kalu’s studio manager and artistic facilitator, making big, swirling, circular hand gestures. “Everybody in the studio just stopped. She was somebody who had such a set way of working, for years and years and years, repeated over and over. For this to suddenly change was really quite shocking.” It was a shock that would set Kalu on the path to becoming the first learning-disabled artist to be nominated for the Turner prize, as she was last month.Her drawings are incredible: vast, hypnotic, swirli...

Politics

1 week ago Assisted Dying in Scotland passes first stage as MSPs vote in favour of historic law change

Campaigners hailed a "watershed" moment in the history of Scottish devolution and praised MSPs for "listening to dying people and reflecting their views".

Politics

2 w. ago Artist Rene Matić: 'I'm nominated for the Turner Prize but my gender is up for discussion'

Non-binary artist Rene Matić takes photographs that celebrate their trans friends, and once got a tattoo of a far right slogan they found on Pinterest. Now they’re one of youngest nominees ever for Britain’s prestigious art prize

Politics

2 w. ago Texas governor signs largest US school voucher law in win for conservatives

State becomes 16th to allow public funds to be used for private schools, which opponents say will benefit mostly wealthier childrenThe Texas governor Greg Abbott on Saturday signed a law making more than 5 million students eligible to use state funds for private schools, a watershed moment in the conservative campaign to remake public education in the US.Texas is allocating $1bn for the first two years of the program to offer parents vouchers to pay for school. It is the 16th state to make all students eligible to receive public funds for private education. Continue reading...

Politics

3 w. ago How motherhood changes the way women listen: An extract from Alice Vincent’s new book

In her third book, bestselling author Alice Vincent tries to reconnect with lost parts of herself through sound. In this chapter, she speaks with Mercury Prize-nominated musician Bat for Lashes about why becoming a mother alters how – and what – we hear

Politics

4 w. ago UK banks set to reassure households as tariffs ‘watershed’ moment for economy

Some of the country’s biggest high street lenders will publish their latest financial results next week.

Economics

4 w. ago Who is shortlisted for the Turner Prize 2025? Check out the four artists

A guide to the artists nominated for the 2025 Turner Prize, with the exhibition taking place in Bradford this year...

Politics

4 w. ago Social media giants ordered to protect kids or risk breaking law in 'watershed moment'

Social media giants have been sent a final list of measures they must put in place to protect kids online by July - or risk being fined 10% of their global turnover

Events