Grayson's Art Club is a Channel 4 television documentary series hosted by artist Grayson Perry and his wife, psychotherapist Philippa Perry and first broadcast during the early months of the COVID-19 pandemic. The first series was broadcast between 27 April and 1 June 2020. It was filmed during the first national lockdown period in the UK in spring 2020. A second series commenced on 26 February 2021, filmed and broadcast during England's third national lockdown. Season 3 began on 18 March 2022, this time without COVID-19 restrictions, and lasted a further 6 episodes.
Format
In the context of the coronavirus pandemic and the resulting lockdown measures, Perry asked viewers to submit artworks on a given theme each week. Perry selected several pieces each week to be part of an exhibition to be held after the lockdown ended, and spoke via video link to the creators. Both Perry and his wife were also filmed using mainly static cameras placed around the studio making artworks for the exhibition. In addition, Perry conducted remote interviews with artists including Maggi Hambling, Antony Gormley, and The Singh Twins, and with celebrities with artistic hobbies, including Noel Fielding, Jessica Hynes, and Jim Moir.
Pieces from the celebrities and professional artists were also to be included in the exhibition, which was to be held at Manchester Art Gallery from 25 November 2020 – 18 April 2021. A further exhibition was held at Midlands Art Centre, Birmingham in 2023.
By 22 May 2020, part-way through the series, the programme had already received over 10,000 artwork submissions. The first series had over a million viewers a week.
The music for the series was by Alexander Parsons and is available to buy in digital formats only.
Writing about the first series in The Guardian, Claire Armitstead noted "Grayson's Art Club was conceived as a quickfire reaction to the pandemic, with Grayson repeatedly emphasising the creative potential of boredom and confinement. Perry said of the art 'We're saying the finished thing doesn't have to be good, but the process has to be genuine. And it has to be heartfelt and enjoyable. We're not saying make art like a professional, we're saying get stuck in and lose yourself a while in it ... I am trying to democratise art, but I'm not saying it means a drop in quality. It just means upping the accessibility and entertainment. Entertainment and humour are often denigrated, but they take just as much skill as the so-called intellectual level of high culture'."
Series and episodes
Series 1
Series 1 comprised six one-hour weekly episodes: