16NSt is a Glasgow-based social enterprise and curatorial collective formed in 2020 which consists of Nell Cardozo, Aga Paulina Młyńczak and Kelly Rappleye. Currently, all directorial organisation is managed by Nell Cardozo and Aga Paulina Młyńczak.
16NSt is the newest iteration of 16 Nicholson Street, a gallery originally established by Isabella Shields in 2016. 16NSt is a curatorial collective dedicated to enjoyment of experimental contemporary art while honouring our commitment to power redistribution, with particular attention to female-identifying, queer and class-marginalised artists. In 2023, 16NSt has embarked on a new itinerant, site-specific model of curatorial programming built on partnership working to expand our community reach, improve accessibility and support more diverse audiences and artists, meeting them where they are. This model builds our focus on fostering and commissioning long-term, research-led artistic projects foregrounding a new engagement with urban spatial politics and social histories in specific sites.
We aim to challenge the sector-wide gender and class disparities in contemporary art discourses, labour conditions, professional opportunities, and cultural narratives. Since 2016, we have been supporting early career artists to develop and produce their first large-scale commissioned body of work for exhibitions. We foster ambitious, experimental, and critical artistic practice by curating publications, socially engaged workshops and art projects, and high-quality installations.
This organisation would not have begun without the generous patronage of the late Joseph Shields.
Our projects have been funded by Hope Scott Trust, Creative Scotland, Glasgow Live, National Lottery and Art Fund.
16 Nicholson Street Gallery CIC (16NSt) is a non-profit limited community interest company registered in Scotland, Company Number: SC658873.
Nell Cardozo (Director/Curator)
Cardozo is a curator and producer based in Glasgow. Currently she is a curatorial director at 16 Nicholson Street Gallery. She is the Community Outreach officer for 16 Nicholson Street and leads the community programme ‘Freedom in Abstraction, Power in Creativity’ in partnership with Empower Women for Change. The roles she has undertaken whilst at the gallery have been flexible, involving curating, communications and archiving. Her creative and critical writing has been published in Martyrdom, Body, State: Manifesting Power, AIR DIVING, and Flock Circumstance, and featured in the exhibition ‘Word Turner II’ by Aga Paulina Młyńczak. Previous to and concurrent with her position as director there, she worked at the Scottish National Galleries as a Gallery Assistant and at the Gallery of Modern Art, Glasgow, curating GROWTH, an exhibition of youth artists. Cardozo graduated with an English Literature MA and a Museum Studies MSc at Glasgow University, where her thesis focused on investigating accessibility in online databases, with an internship at Art UK. She has also taught and led activities with family and lower-income audiences in the education sector of schools and museums in Albany, NY.
Aga Paulina Młyńczak (Director/Curator)
Młyńczak (they/them) is a Glasgow-based interdisciplinary artist with a Polish/Jewish background. She has held a curatorial position at the 16NSt since 2019 and became a curatorial director in 2020. She dedicates her research to networked art practice while specialising in installation art involving photography, film, sound, sculpture and electronics. As an independent artist she works with the topics of peripheral meanings created by linguistic communication, affect theory, the notion of a secondary language and foreign bodies. Camera is among her primary tools. She holds an MLitt in Photography and Moving Image from the Glasgow School of Art, and her work was recently shown at: Studio Pavilion, Radiphrenia, Embassy Gallery, Trongate 103 and Street Level Photoworks. In February 2023, she was one of the art panellists and presented ‘Teach me a word you’re afraid to forget’ at the LingComm conference for linguistics communication. She is currently the Scotland Project Coordinator for Art360 Foundation as well as working as an Artist for Standing Tall Scotland.
Kelly Rappleye (Curator)
Kelly Rappleye is an independent curator, programmer and arts researcher working across visual arts, moving images, social histories, and critical architecture. Her curatorial practice explores collective methods of arts-led research and urban spatial inquiry, informed by her previous roles in community mental health. Kelly has curated exhibitions, workshops and talks, programmed film screening events and academic seminars, and facilitated participatory workshops in London and Glasgow.
Currently, Kelly is an AHRC-awarded PhD researcher with Glasgow School of Art, developing curatorial methods to examine the relationships between contemporary moving image art, film archives, and contested histories in urban landscapes. She has presented her research at multiple conferences, and had writing published in various arts and academic publications. Previously, Kelly has worked in arts editing and digital marketing with Artillery art magazine, completed an MA in Contemporary Art Theory with Goldsmiths, UOL and guest curated projects with the Borough Road Collection Digital Archive, SmartArtistHub, Goldsmiths Visual Cultures Society, Glasgow’s ClimateFringe (2022), and 2023 ArchiFringe.
Web Designer/Developer
Rush Johnstone is a graphic/web designer and creative coder. They specialise in designing educational and playful interactive artefacts. They like to think and learn about technology discourse, politics, imagined futures, and how those intersect.