Fresh eyes. It’s rare that you get to see the work of an artist, or group of artists, that seem so familiar, with fresh eyes. Turner. Monet Twombly at Tate Liverpool http://www.tate.org.uk/whats-on/tate-liverpool/exhibition/turner-monet-twombly-later-paintings,  manages this majestically. Bringing together the work of artists who are so well known, whose work is mass produced endlessly on mugs, tote bags, umbrellas etc etc and more etc, with an artists whose work is a little less well know is a bold move and this exhibition pulls it off successfully.   

 

I felt that I knew the work of Turner and Monet quite well but I was wrong: I just thought I knew their work, but it was more an idea of what they were like, y’ know Turner does the skies and Monet does the lilies, Twombly, does he do sort of abstract work? This exhibition not only made me an avowed Twombly fan but it also gave me a real appreciation of the work of Turner and Monet as progressive artists in their own time. The things I found that tied the work of all three artists together was colour and movement: Turner with his brooding skies full of motion and danger, Monet with the almost luminous yellows and oranges on a ever shifting surface of water and Twombly with rages of colour exploding all over the place. Absolutely loved it all. And this is rare for me. Without wanting to sound too (or more pretentious, your choice) I found the combination of the works of these three artists together incredibly inspiring and well thought out. To my eye you could see clear lines running through the work of them all that tied the exhibition together. Separating the work out into loose themes (Atmosphere, the vital space) was a great way to hang it but the thing that was refreshing was that it gave you space to enjoy the work and come up with your own interpretation. It’s something at Bury which we have championed for a long time: Gone is the restriction imposed by the A5 interpretation panel instead there are booklets to access if you wish and simple guidebook that does just that, guides rather than dictates. Wonderful.

 I was secretly pleased to see so many people fly by the Twombly’s to get to the next Monet and Turner, to ignore the power and dynamism of his work as it left them free for me to enjoy even more. I loved the little additions of a word here and there or an allusion in a title to a wider theme. Vibrant, alive, thought provoking: I’m now a total Twombly fan boy. 

 

 

As an added bonus i was there as part of the Creative Tourist www.creativetourist.com #blognorth event I was given a press pass which meant I could take pictures. I still think everyone should be able to take pictures of everything in exhibitions but I’m guessing the old trouble “copyright” still rears its ugly head. Question: If I can find a picture of every work in your exhibition with a simple Google image search, is it still necessary or productive is disallow photography for the normal punter? Discuss. Marks will be awarded for all essays handed in on time.

I think I’ll save the wonderful sculpture exhibitions on the other floors at Tate for another post as they were so stunning they deserve their own little corner.
If you get chance I would highly recommend a visit to this exhibition, at £12 its pretty steep but well worth every penny

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Reinvigorated, energised, inspired. These are all words. I have used to describe the way I feel after having been to this year’s MuseumNext www.museumnext.org 
 conference in Barcelona. I was lucky enough to be sent by work (due to some project funding)  and have been busy trying to start turn some of the things I have seen into practical changes. The conference brings museums professional, digital/media specialists and academics from all over the world to a three day conference of all things cultural and digital.
There is more than I could fit into a hundred blog posts, and rather than try and paraphrase each of the talks I went to I will give you a very brief overview as well as summing up the headlines which I have taken away.
Before diving into all that, it needs to be said that the organisation and delivery of the conference was excellent. All the venues involved ( Museu Picasso, MACBA, CCCB took excellent care of us as did the organisers Sumo ( http://www.sumodesign.co.uk/home.html. )Everyone was very approachable and open and they managed to create a genuinely welcoming atmosphere where then people felt able to get beyond the networking awkwardness and get down to business. The sumo team were all visible, approachable and friendly, they put on a great conference and kept the wheels turning
I would highly recommend checking out the museum next site for videos of the talks.
You may be asking why it has taken so long to write all this up, well, I’ve been busy trying to implement some of these things as well as preparing for a career change starting my PGCE Primary in September. Woop

For me, these were the key points:

Know who you are, what’s your story and where you are going!
It’s seems almost childishly simple but I found that it needed someone to say it to remind me of what was important. Although I hate the term mission statement, having something on hand you can refer back to and run all your decisions by is a really useful tool. I think often cultural organisations assume this is a given and everyone will just know, as we the people who work there know why we are here’s why this picture/object in  our collection. Telling that simple story of why you exist and what you have can be a good way to reappraise what you have and why you do it. Sometimes we need to walk through the front doors as a visitor and try to look at ourselves through fresh eyes and see if we are telling our own story very well.

Change: be radical not revolutionary
It being her talk, Nancy Proctor can put it better than me but paraphrased to death: radical change goes deep and makes lasting differences, revolutionary change reacts to current situations and needs to be done over and over again. Be radical, go for root and branch and you are more likely to make a lasting change that has a real impact. Go go go! Follow Nancy on twitter, always has something interesting to say about museums, digital, or both www.twitter.com/nancyproctor

Open up your spaces, your collections, your data…unexpected things will happen, and this is a good thing
Let people in. I think as museums we are often opposed to non professionals coming into our spaces and touching our things! Time and time again people raised the point that the person who may be the expert on a particular thing, may not work for you. In addition to this, when you are too close to something it can be difficult to see a new and unexpected way to use it. Again this ties in with the story element; everyone has a story to tell, as does everything, how do we get those stories out and share them. Nobody is saying open up the stores and let everyone grab what they want , but are there ways you can open up those collections to people to use in new, and here is the key, unexpected ways. I have a big thing where I believe galleries and museums should, in part, be spaces where things are allowed to fail. I was trying to think or a good analogy and a came up with this: you throw a house party and someone comes in, looks at your record collection and puts something amazing on you had totally forgotten about (like, Echo Beach or Addams family rap) and you love it. Also the point was reiterated a number of times: the expert on the thing you have may not be on your staff. How do you access and invite in that expert to work with you? ( See what I did there? Hammer it home)

Picture: One of the many inspiring talks I didn’t get round to writing about, they were all so good.

(Cheers to the guys from www.creativetourist.com for using an image of artwork I had prodiuced following their #blognorth event in Leeds. Talk was great too guys.)

 

Get the data
Get it, use it, share it. Make is accessible, make it usable and guess what…people will access it and make use of it. Radical or revolutionary?!

Share
Met some wonderful people who were  wiling to share what they were thinking about a whole range of things, this is good, no, it’s better than good it’s great. Just to be somewhere were there was free exchange of ideas was inspiring. I had a chat to the guy from Seso ( http://www.seso.net/ ) later on and I said to him how great it was ,that he was willing to share his ideas with us and that it showed great confidence in what he was doing and he said “I’ll never stop having ideas, something’s come up with this year might be of use to you so why not share it, next year I will need to come up with a whole load of new ideas anyway” Great. And his idea of design journalism has really stuck with me and I keep trying go back to it and use it: Imagine time and money were no object, what would you produce. When you have that ideal you will probably find you can do about 80% of it with the time and resources you do have.

Go to things, talk to people, ask questions
As a (soon to be ex) gallery/museum professional it’s really important that you get out of your dusty silo and find out what is going on out there. People are trying things you would like to try, solving problems you feel are insurmountable and having he debates you need to be involved in. Connect to the wider community, go to conferences and make yourself heard. Take that passion for art or objects, stories or ideas and share them. This way you will meet people who have different views from the people you work with all the time.

I was there on my own so it forced me to meet new people, have conversations about things I didn’t know much about and ask lots of questions…lots of questions.  I brought way more way from this conference than I thought I would simply by getting involved and making the most of it.  I hope I brought something to the table and perhaps contributed a little to the whole thing.  And the other great thing is the conversations sparked by the conference continue on line and in the real world, what more could you ask for?

Some links:
MACBA: http://www.macba.cat/
CCCB: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barcelona_Museum_of_Contemporary_Art
Museu Picasso:  http://www.museupicasso.bcn.cat/en/

As an artist as well as someone working in the (cringe) creative industries, I always feel it’s important to see what the students coming out of art school are creating. (And to prove I’m still in the painting game, thats my most recent work above) Although I try to get to as many degree shows as possible, they all seem to be on at the same time and to be honest, I’ve been that busy that it’s been difficult to get to them.
This year I only managed to get to the degree show at MMU ( http://degreeshow.mmu.ac.uk/ ) and I was really pleased that I made the effort.

First big tip: Avoid preview night. While its great for free beer/wine ( this year provide by little known and obscure barkeeps The deaf institute www.thedeafinstitute.co.uk) you never get to really see any work.
Second big tip: take regular breaks. I’m all about loving the art but it’s really easy to succumb to art fatigue and simply stop looking.
Although it was a bit of a pain, I’m glad in the end that that show was part at the uni and part at spinning fields because it gave me a chance to clear my mind before seeing all of the design work (which was great)

I popped down on Saturday morning and found the time absolutely flew by as each room had a fair selection of excellent work. There will always be things you don’t like or work you don’t quite get or understand, i think if there are few things that catch your eye than its been worthwhile. I also took advice from arts journalist Jessica Lack at the www.creativetourist.com  #blognorth event, I tried to approach each work with this in mind: when the artists decided to exhibit that work they must have felt there was some value to doing it and that this was the piece, or pieces, that you should see.

While adding a number of things to my list of art school cliches to avoid ( the top of which is Paper dresses! Every year!) I was genuinely surprised and impressed by the variety and quaility of work that was being produced over all areas. In the past I have found the fine art a little weak while the design and more craft based work has always been strong. In the past I have been annoyed that “fine artists” don’t seem to  understand that the need to try and sell this work, it is a arts business after all, while the craft and, design student do seem to get that. This year it was a little better but perhaps part of the course needs to be focused on how you actually make a living as an artist. You can’t eat kudos guys.
I won’t go through everything as there is too much but these were my top picks.
 Check out the work, and if you have a bob or two and they have the sense  to be selling their work, why not support a young artist.

Rafal Topelewski www.rafal-topolewski.com. Bit of a downer but this site doesn’t work on mobile devices but take the time to have a look. Or try www.topolewski.daportfolio.com  Strong confident landscape/object painting that takes the mundane and elevates it. Loved the fact that he had a stack of one-hour paintings that were available to buy which were priced at minimum wage. £6.08 for a painting which I’m really pleased with and is now part of the ever growing Minta collection.

Frederic Garcia Trujillo http://federicogarciatrujillo.tumblr.com/.  Wonderfully strong painting. Images of refugees from the Spanish economic crisis based on the work of Dorthea Langes photographs of economic migration in the 1930’s The painting mixed a photographic quality with a strong painterly quality which had a wonderful style and effect. Loved them. I also liked the use of an early event and the way it was recorded to create work on a current crisis, connecting the themes through the creation of these new paintings.  Prices? Works for sale? (picture above)

Jason Edmunds http://jasonedmunds.tumblr.com/. Illustration gay sailors. I loved these daring images of semi- nude sailors rendered in watercolour and fine point illustration.  In part they reminded me of the photographs of Robert Mapplethorpe and part the detailed illustrations you would find in an old manuscript. This description doesn’t do them justice at all. They felt at once modern and ancient and the skill of the fine point work was phenomenal.

James Green works on rust and stone. Excellent portraits and architecture executed on rusted panels or by gouging out stone, plaster or wood. Really stunning work and One of the few artists who was on hand to discuss his work. Lack of website is a bit of a fail but is no website better than a crumby one??

James Lencki. www.jameslenckiart.wordpress.com.    Sound installations…that I liked. I usually can’t stand sound installations and tend to pass by the noise as soon as possible. This however was great. Set in a dark room with bright lit circles on the wall the sound, a low resonant humming, responded to your movement through the space. It’s was disorientating, interesting and playful all at once. Well done that man.

Leanne Richardson. www.leannerichardson.com  These collages of Leanne’s were made up of fashion/lifestyle magazines, overlaid with animal heads made up from shredded fragments of magazine. I loved the construction of these pieces and also the mash up between the beautiful models (made headless) and these beautiful animals. I was sad to hear that Leanne just missed out on a first for this work which seemed a little harsh. It is a subjective thing but I felt these works were not only excellent but stood out, and stood their own in a pretty talented field.

Mark Robinson http://www.artistmarkr.moonfruit.com/. Graffiti style, words, stencils, black on black. Great. Loved these huge canvasses produced by an artists confident in their style and ability and not afraid to be direct. These works just had an incredible sense of energy. (picture above)

Jane Elizabeth Taylor. www.janeelizabethtaylor.wordpress.com.  Overplayed photographs these delicate works were made up from a number of overlaid images and documents. Beautiful captured moments that while small and seemingly fragile had a beauty and complexity which was stunning. Love love love these. (picture above)

Rebecca Sampson- Jorge www.rebeccasampson-Jorge.tumblr.com   I usually avoid the sculpture section as although I am aware of the history and validity of automatic sculpture I feel that re-arranging some things you have found in a space or the workshop is just a little bit lazy. It’s been done. Unlike these works, which were part embroidery part geometric architecture/sculpture that looked fabulous in the space. A piece started in an embroidery hoop, struck out and through a hole in the wall, and commanding the space and demanding your attention. Stunning, well thought out and well executed.

Thomas Harnett Omeara www.thomasharnettomeara.com  the site seems not to be working at the moment but I seem to recall these were intricate pattern drawings, sometimes patterns inside figures.

Sarah Fisher www.sarahfisherillustration.com    Excellent portrait illustrations. Simple portraits works, beautifully executed and going beyond the “this is how the thing looks” and actually capturing the person. Really difficult to do and done really well.

Joanna Houghton www.joannahoughton.com strange other worldly pencil sketches that brought together lone creatures, architecture and people in a sort of Hollywood suburbs gone bad dreamscape. Reminded me of the tv series Wild Palms which I bet no-one else has ever seen as wells the work of Rachel Goodyear ( as one of my favourite artists this is high praise in deed and in no way meant to suggest the work by Joanna was derivative, it wasn’t, it’s was aces!)

Martin Wilson www.herearephotos.co.uk  Loved these bacon-esq heads in motion by Martin. I love it when someone takes the idea of portraiture and (to use a hip and oh so current  sounding phrase)  re-mixes it. Great photos, and when I was lucky enough to meet Martin a few days later at an exhibition opening, he was a lovely chap and it was great to hear that some of this work was off to an exhibition in London. Great stuff. Wonder if he would be up for doing a show with a painter who is working with/remixing portraiture?? Hint hint (picture above)

I did also visit the college shows from Holy Cross and Bury college, both of which had some really promising work
You have to get out there, see what is being produced and support the talent. I have my list and next up I’ll be contacting these artists and asking for my bloggers discount!

(note: I took these pictures at the show on my phone, if any of the artists arent happy with me using them, let me know, I’ll cry, and then take them down)

Had a wonderful day out on Saturday on the first Creative Tourist (  http://www.creativetourist.com/ ) organised #Blognorth event. The day was comprised of blogging workshops, networking, and trips to Yorkshire Sculpture Park ( http://www.ysp.co.uk/ ) to see the Joan Miró sculpture exhibition and then to The Hepworth in Wakefield ( http://www.hepworthwakefield.org/ ) to see their new exhibitions. The morning sessions were based at Yorkshire Sculpture Park which is one of my most favourite places (yep I’ll say it) on earth. YSP seems to be growing from strength to strength with a fantastic run of recent exhibitions, Jaume Plensa, David Nash, Rachel Goodyear to name some of my top picks.They have now scored a massive coup by putting together one of the finest and most comprehensive displays of the sculpture of Miró yet seen, filling the underground galleries and many of the outside spaces with the work. Creative tourist also pulled quite a coup by organising the bloggers event with YSP which saw us using one of their dedicated education spaces in the refubished Kennel block, as well as being guided around by the lovely staff (who to my eternal shame I did not get the names of, Nina was with us most of the time but the curator who showed us round even though she was poorly, I missed the name of). Having the work put into context with some background info made all the difference for me. I had been to see this exhibition a few weeks before on a bank holiday and frankly, hated it. It was super busy and I found much of the work repetitive. I had been to the Miró Museum in Barcelona not too long before and was a huge fan of the painting which he is more well known for. Having the process of working explained and insight into repeated symbols and shapes Miró used, brought the work to life for me and actually changed my perspective on the whole show. It’s so important to have knowledgeable and passionate staff who can guide you through an exhibition if you are struggling, it’s not going to be that you will like everything but a more informed view can give you a way in. Moleskine in hand I doodled a few of the symbols and shapes which interested me most

 

We had a spot of lunch then had a great session on critical writing from journalist and art critic Jessica Lack. There was too much to go into but in summation Jessica gave a great deal of guidance and information to us would-be bloggers and critics. It’s always great when someone has the confidence in their own ability to share their knowledge openly for the benefit for others, often you find people like to keep it all to themselves but Jessica gave us all a real insight. Doing my digging I found that Jessica had chosen one of my favourite artists, Rachel Goodyear, as one of her artists of the week back in 2009 so I like her even more now. I hope she got a chance to read the poetry zine i gave her, I always think it’s nice to give people a little something so they know what you are all about.

We headed off to the The Hepworth in Wakefield where again we were welcomed by the team and taken round the galleries. This was my second visit to the Hepworth, the last time I was bowled over by the building itself and also the stunning Clare Woods exhibition which was on. Laura’s large scale enamel paint on aluminuim stone stacks and landscapes were a great introductory exhibition to a new and exciting gallery space. The exhibitions had changed since my last visit and I was enthralled with what I saw. In addition to the permanent collections looking at the sculpture of Barbara Hepworth, there was a excellent group of works by Heather and Ivan Morrison, and my particular favourite a whole room dedicated to post-war British sculpture and painting. The Morrison works seem to be concerned with objects of personal significance and our individual life stories. We were treated to a puppet perfomance that took place in the gallery space, where a story between a couple was acted out with reference to specific objects and their meaning. It was a powerful piece and the objects themselves, laid out in what felt like a house, had a peculiar resonance.

The post-war British sculpture and painting was a really well thought-out space and a great selection of work. The calibre of the works on show is some indication of the pull that The Hepworth has, to ask for and be lent works of such high quality. As Francis Bacon is my favourite artist, having two of his works was a great surprise and made my day, they were really GOOD Bacons as well. Hepworth…I was impressed. The works really tied together and seemed to sum up the fractured and transitory feel that one imagines was the over-riding feel in this period. After such a violent period of slaughter and upheaval, the world must have seemed a very uncertain and shifting place. Images of falling, screaming or disjointed characters and shapes gave the space a great sense of movement, the sloping and angled ceilings of The Hepworth only magnifying and complimenting the work. There is so much more there to see, every room giving something different and holding the attention. A great gallery with great, knowledgeable and friendly staff at all levels. We were treated to some lovely beer and goodie bags as well. Thanks guys.

On the way back to YSP my head was swirling with all we had seen and done, the art work, the bloggin, the wonderful fellow bloggers I met and the beautiful landscape which was made all the more wonderful for the blazing sunshine.

Great art work, conversations and experiences always inspire me to create: so far, a sculpture which I have titled

“Ploughed furrows in a solid surface”

and a poem “A story in moments”

Ruins. Re-ignighted
Stories in an unfamiliar language of co-ordinated movement.
Soundless rooms.
A wide road of phenomenal yellow,
Bones,
Ground charcoal and dust.
The sun- a shared moment of beauty on all faces,
At all times.
In the shadow,
Blue lips, and boned hips bang.
In the open space,
Objects of meaning in our individual story,
Of grief
And pain
Are a proxy for a sensual moment of contact.
Your hand through my hair
Makes my body hum with electricity.
Hands,
holding a simple wooden bowl as time drips in a silent well illuminated room.

 

I think it’s safe to say that I found the first Blog North event a huge success, I met a great group of people and was truly inspired to create new work and to share it all with you. Job done…until the next one.

Big thanks to all the teams from @creativetourist @culturevultures @yspsculpture @hepworthgallery

It’s been a really busy and creative few weeks, and that’s always a good thing and worth sharing
It started when I heard that the wonderful Bettakultcha ( www.bettakultcha.com )was coming all the way over from Leeds to sunny, Manchester. Bettakultcha is a evening were people get together and give talks about something they are passionate about. Each person submits 20 slides and each slide is on the screen for 15 seconds. It’s a really good way of ensuring that the talks keep moving and stay interesting. When I managed to get tickets I slightly misread the set-up and thought is was a fight club like situation where if it was your first time you had to give a talk, so I volunteered, an offer which was immediately accepted. That then left me the task of coming up with a talk and delivering it. I knew I wanted to talk about the importance of creativity but also of getting out there and being creative, not just keeping it all to yourself. I was really pleased with what I came up with in the end, although I broke the bettakultcha rules by having bullet points ( to my etenernal shame). This for me was another example of getting out there and being the artist, meeting other creative types and engaging within the wider artistic/creative community. Although I suppose it wasn’t technically breaking the rules I used this “organisational diagram” to illustrate my point .

 Video of my talk here

There was a real variety of talks on the night, the future of television, conflict, bananas and aliens, but not aliens, but humans. My descriptions are a bit weak so the best thing to do is go and watch all the videos on their site.  Great night, can’t wait for the next one and thanks to all the gang and the people @thecastlehotel who made it happen

Also it gave me an idea: the lovely folk from Leeds have put something together that they wanted to share with us Manchester lot…there should be more of that. Got me thinking of all the fantastic small studio spaces/ galleries/ art shops that you know about in your own city but wouldn’t know if you were visiting. And vice versa. What you need is some local artists to take you round and show you. It gives you a chance to meet some new artists in your own city and then get a trip out to somewhere new. Cross pennine cultural exchange is the catchy title ( I am working on it although CPCE does have a vaguely pleasing communist aesthetic ) for this plan. Hopefully it will bring artists, crafters, curators and more from across the region to work on future projects together. Interested in either the Leeds or Manchester leg or both, drop me a line

 (Thanks to @martinsfp for using the aces paper app to do his talk, an idea which I borrowed to do the sketch above, lovely app)

I also attended the wonderful Arts Council( http://www.artscouncil.org.uk/ )funding for the arts session at Castlefield gallery ( www.castelfieldgallery.co.uk)   Which was a fantastic introduction to the whole funding for the arts process. I think I , like many others, found it useful as it demystified the whole process. I would quite happily put in a funding bid now and be confident it would be judged on its merits.

Jeepers. That is a lot of information. I didnt even get to the lolcats exhibition…I’ll save that for the next post

After much procrastinating and false starts (as I got to grips with photoshop!!) thanks to the excellent photos taken by good friend Simon Proudfoot, I have finally finished my portfolio of current work.

A few people have commented when visiting this page that there is little artwork. Its been one of the things I have meant to address for a long time but kept getting kicked into the long grass. The portfolio sessions at Castlefield Gallery really gave me the push I needed to get this done, so big thanks to all the team there. The artists bonfire also made me knuckle down and get done what needed doing…finally. I found the personal statement extremely difficult, but I hope the selection of work and the statement gives a good ideas of what I am doing and why. Enjoy

Oh, and if anyone needs a higher res version, please drop me an email and ill happily dropbox or send it to you.

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Although light night seems to be fast fading into the background, this was something I had promised to do as part of The Gallery of Everybody so I thought I should make good on the promise.

The pictures here are of all the work that was submitted and created on the night (sorry I couldn’t attribute the work to individuals, too many and not all works were signed)

 

 Without wanting to blow our trumpet too much, I have to say we felt it was a massive success and everyone really got into the spirit of the night and of the idea of The Gallery of Everybody. We had a wonderful evening, met some great people and got to build up a gallery from scratch, with no rules, no rejections and full participation: Mission accomplished.
It was really great to see people start off a little wary and then ten minutes walk away with a badge that said “Artist” on it having produced something and put it up on the wall.

Huge thanks to Nicola for giving us the opportunity to be involved, the light night as a whole was a massive success and I for one was proud of how Bury really got behind it and contributed to a brilliant night. Most of all we have to thank all the artists who contributed work or came on the night and made a piece to put up in the gallery, we couldn’t have done it without you, and you made our night. They were of all ages, backgrounds and abilities but they can all call themselves exhibited artists now, we are just a little bit proud of being part of making that happen.

Now, when’s the next one? Watch this space. We would love to open The Gallery of Everybody again in a different location or as part of another event so if you know of anything coming up, please let us know so we can continue to grow the gallery.

Me and Him (the name which me and fellow artist and poet, Martin Shepley, collaborate under) are really pleased and excited to be part of the first ever Bury Light Night this Friday 14th October 2011

http://www.lightnight.co.uk/bury/index.php
http://www.facebook.com/burylightnight

 (feel free to print out and distribute the poster above)

It’s a night of cultural activities all over the town centre, bit gutted that I’m not going to be able to get round and see it all as we will be manning the Gallery of Everybody, which is where you come in.

We got a bit sick of tired of things (festivals, groups, exhibitions) pertaining to be open and accessible to all and then finding they were run buy a clique or elite or that there were ridiculous conditions or submission/involvement. In the words of someone with a better grasp of language than me “Screw that noise”

Here is the simple proposition:
If you have an artwork (or up to 3) that you would like to be shown in The Gallery of Everybody, bring the work between 12-5pm on Friday the 14th October to the Normandy room in the
Fusiliers Museum,
Moss Street Bury,
BL9 0DF.
www.fusiliermuseum.com

The work will be exhibited in the gallery for light night and then can be collected between 12-4 on Saturday 15th October. Its only for a night but its a chance to part of a wonderful cultural event.

We will also be cataloguing and blogging the gallery on the evening to exist beyond the light nights itself.

We are also running a free workshop -6-10pm in the gallery where you can come and make something and add it to the gallery, all materials provided, just bring your imagination.
Did I mention it is all FREE too?
Why wouldn’t you want to give it a go.

Drop in on the evening and see how the gallery has developed.

Really pleased to part of the first Ramsbottom festival this coming weekend(16th, 17th, 18th Sept 2011).

 http://www.ramsbottomfestival.com/

 

Myself and other crafters and artists will be running a craft market on Sunday from 12 until 6 with a wide range of handmade, boutique lovelies available for you to buy. We will also be running a series of craft workshops throughout the day to entertain the kids, and for adults to explore their artistic side by making anything from a festival hat to a flag to an insect bird feeder (and much more). We can’t let the kids have all the fun after all

 

Myself and Mrs Minta (collectively B&B Crafts) will be selling a range of handmade notebooks, cards and t-shirts (see below) and running a workshop where you can make a small flag or some bunting

 

One of my favourite Manchester Craft Centre (http://www.craftanddesign.com/ )  stars, Miss Nell Smith with be bringing a range of her highly sought after wares and running a “funky glasses/superhero mask” workshop so you can look your best in the (fingers crossed) blinding sunshine or hide behind a secret identity.

Site: http://nellsmith.blogspot.com/

 

 

The great team from Sugar Butty will be bringing their trove o’ treasures along and making some wonderful recycled flowers/insect feeders. Definitely having a go at that one.

Site: http://www.sugarbutty.co.uk/

 

Zines, books, posters etc etc and more etc from the lads at Good grief shop. They will help you put your name in lights by making your own rocking gig poster, all you need to do it come up with a brilliant band name, I’m going for “Big Jo and the rockin Mo-Fo’s”…or something

Site: http://goodgriefshop.blogspot.com/  

http://www.davidbaileyillustration.com/index.html

 

Wonderful Jewellery from Wonderhaus (another star of Manchester Craft centre). You will also be able to make your won handmade card that will beat Moon Pig hands down, because it is made with love

Site: http://www.wonderhaus.co.uk/

 

Jane Dennerly will be bringing her wonderful bags and jewellery for you to buy and will help you to look your best with a wonderful festival hat.

Site: http://janedennerly.blogspot.com/2008/09/new-to-blogging.html

 

Bury UNISON (who have kindly provided materials for the workshop) will be making sure you know the latest information on government plans for pensions, changes at the local level and how to get organised against public sector cuts. In the spirit and tradition of unions and collective action, add your message or picture to a giant festival banner.

Site: www.unison-bury.org.uk