The first ever Contemporary Art Society award was granted to Katerina Šedá. The famed Czech artist brings hers and 511 others views of community and collective identity to the millennium gallery in an ambitious exhibition.

The Contemporary Art Society was established in 1910 by a group of artists and patrons who felt that the Tate wasn’t collecting enough contemporary art; there are now 64 institutions that are members. The award it issues is incredibly important for contemporary artists as it gives them freedom to create projects they may not otherwise have the means to pursue. Sheffield Millennium Galleries and Katerina Šedá were the first recipients in 2010.

The millennium galleries have recently leaned towards the theme of identity. The last major exhibition, ‘Restless Times: Art In Britain’ focused on the changing identity of Britain pre and post war. Maintaining the theme of identity, Katerina Šedá has spent the last year preparing an exhibition especially for the Sheffield Gallery.

Katerina Šedá is not a name you're likely to have heard. Czech born Šedá is however quite a force in the world of contemporary art. Her new exhibition is a profile of her hometown Lisen, but this is not the work of just one artist, whilst it is Šedás vision, it is the public contribution that makes this truly extraordinary.

In the Czech city of Lisen, Šedá orchestrated a yearlong project working with hundreds of volunteers to try and portrait her hometown to find its cultural identity. Abiding to the six rules for participation, people from all over the country came to Lisen to draw a profile of the city. The results are arranged chronologically in the exhibit, showing social trends and themes of identity more apparent than Šedá first thought.

The individual works maybe a little underwhelming; it is the vision and the determination it took to complete that most impress, the joy lies in the exhibition as a whole, trying to spot recurring themes. All drawings are to be compiled into books and issued only to the citizens of Lisen, the best drawing as selected by Lisen townsfolk will be the feature of a book by a Czech author, its artist the main protagonist.

Its difficult to explain the whole concept of this project, note that it is worth viewing, and take 15 minutes out of your day to visit and see the whole picture for yourself. Think about where you come from and what’s changed. 

(Just to get an idea of the scale, click here)