Inspired by her recent residency in the former mining town of Lens, Northern France, Sophie Dixon’s exhibition explores memories of the coal mining industry and the physical traces left upon the landscape.  Working across video, writing and sound, Sophie draws connections between seemingly disparate fragments of experience to examine the unifying power of memory. Resonating with the story of the Kent coalfield, this two day exhibition takes place between the Turner Contemporary and Crate Project Space in Margate.

La Mort de L’Arbre  (running time 15 minutes) will be screened over the weekend at the Turner Contemporary,  accompanied by Time Pressure Decay, an exhibition of photography, text and research on display at the Crate Project Space.

Sophie Dixon’s work is rooted in extensive historical, social and cultural research. Concerned with the boundaries between fiction and non-fiction, she deconstructs and expands narratives to explore the tenuous relationship between ourselves and the environments in which we live. Using personal research and writing as a narrative backbone, her work is less interested in portraying a historic truth than in exploring the connections between events across time – an attempt to open up the spaces between the experience of an event, and our later interpretations of it. In 2014 she was awarded the CVAN Platform graduate award and has recently undertaken residencies with Mission Louvre-Lens Tourisme in Northern France and the UK based artists group Blast Theory. 

Elements of Time Pressure Decay will also be on display at the following group exhibition:

[Dis]place
August 21st-23rd
Private view Saturday 21st

17 Harts Lane
SE14 5UP
NEW CROSS GATE
London

Christopher Sacre a visual artist specialising in sculpture, has been working with Stuart Bowditch a recordist, artist and musician specialising in sound. Aperture invites the public to explore Rochester Riverside. During their research time, Christopher and Stuart led a series of walks around the Rochester Riverside development site gathering contributions from participants on the sights seen and sounds heard, which has informed a detailed map of the site and surrounding area. 

The Aperture is an ear trumpet and eye lens, one end for listening and one end for looking through. With an accompanying map of 15 locations indicated by yellow place marks, the public will be guided to vantage points to explore the site.

www.sacrebowditch.tumblr.com

@ccsacre @stuartbowditch #ApertureProject

An exhibition of Owen Davies work which sees stunning art collaborating with light, is being held at Sun Pier House during August. 

The paintings themselves mix digital vinyl prints on plexiglass and back images that can be viewed through the transparent areas on the surface image. Each piece is illuminated from within by LEDs and function as wall hung lamps that bring dark spaces alive.The exhibition will open with a Private View on Thursday 6th August at 18:00,and run until the end of August.

Owen’s work explores and is deeply inspired by his faith in the teachings of Buddha. In particular he is interested in the wisdom teachings which deal with the ultimate nature of reality, emptiness.

“Everything we experience is a mere reflection of our mind and thus dependent upon it. In this respect my work is saturated with Buddhist imagery and symbolism, abstracted and seen through the prism of our busy modern, lives. I am increasingly influenced by this wisdom in relation to our environment. Unless we can understand how we are all interconnected in our fragile world and learn to live in harmony with ourselves and our environment we face very real danger or a planetary extinction event in our lifetime”.

Find out more at www.owendaviesart.com

Medway Open Studios & Arts Festival takes place every July throughout the Medway Towns. Run by volunteers the aim of the festival is to celebrate the wealth of creativity in Medway. The first festival took place in July 2012 with the aim of highlighting the quantity of artistic talent in the area. More and more artists have signed up year on year, benefitting the aims of the festival and promoting a positive opinion of Medway.

Now heading into its fourth year, the Medway Open Studios and Arts Festival has doubled in size since its conception in 2012.

Click the image to view the programme.

Following the success of Take One back in March, Threads brings you .mov

This moving image night showcases film work from short film documentaries to conceptual moving image pieces.

Water Lane Coffee has kindly opened their doors once again to host this event. Come and get the best coffee you will have in Canterbury, and arrive in time to grab a comfy seat.

This style of moving image night is designed to be both supportive and inspiring. Threads welcomes you to come along to this free event, bring a mate and meet some new people! Try and sit next to someone you don’t know!

Although this is a free event there will be a contribution pot to help reimburse Threads for the expenses made for running this event. We would really appreciate any small donation.

Please book at https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/mov-tickets-17423650608

The ArcelorMittal Orbit is a 114.5 metre (376 feet) tall sculpture and observation tower in the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park in Stratford, London. It is also the largest piece of public art in Britain. It is made of tubular steel and more than 60% of it was made from old cars, washing machines and steel building materials. The construction of the ArcelorMittal Orbit took around 18 months and used 560 meters of tubular red steel. It was created by Sir Anish Kapoor along with the designer Cecil Balmond.

When I first saw the sculpture it was a lot bigger then I expected it to be. It was very intimidating because it curved around differently and was a very weird shape. It also looked like it could tip or fall over at any minute. It made me wonder what the artist was inspired by.

You could definitely recognise it from a long way away because it is such a tall sculpture and it was quite a bright colour red. It is also very original, there is no other sculpture like it.

I loved how the top has a big loop round and none of the parts are the same. I also like how they put a spiral staircase of 455 steps all the way around it.

If you go up close to it you can see how big the tubes that are used to make it are. They were much bigger than I thought they would be. It was very strange and gave me mixed emotions, as it was so weird I couldn’t quite understand it.

By Keryn Veal

As part of her Arts Award coursework at the Nucleus Arts Centre

The University of Kent’s School of Music and Fine Art presents the Fine Art Degree Show 2015 in the extraordinary environment of the Historic Dockyard, Chatham, Kent, featuring the work of forty  graduating BA and MA Fine Art students.

Opening with a preview on Saturday May 23rd 2pm-6pm, they are proud to announce an introductory speech at 3pm, by international, award-winning artist, Lindsay Seers.

Opening hours: 24th, 25th, 28th May – 1st June 10-5pm

Contact the university on 01634 888 980 for more information.

The exhibition is open to all and is free to attend.

Continuing a tradition of showcasing bold, exploratory exhibitions curated by the University of Kent’s Fine Art students, framed by the stunning backdrop of one of the country’s most iconic locations, the Historic Dockyard Chatham, visitors will encounter a broad range of artistic styles and media, an explosion of imagination and a celebration of art’s potential for society.

This exhibition offers the public a fascinating insight into contemporary art’s most recent practices and processes; from an installation imagining a future Kent submerged below the sea, to psycho-geographical explorations of Rainham marshes and the communities along the Hoo peninsula. Visitors will discover art installations revealing acoustic experiments in an abandoned psychiatric hospital, human ‘hosts’ dispersing half-remembered childhood smells, a personal archaeology of colonialism in South Africa and bizarre kinetic feeding machines.

 The Degree Show’s aim is to encourage audiences to explore the potential of Medway as a dynamic hub for the creative arts, with the School of Music and Fine Art as a major conduit for these activities, positively impacting on the community and offering imaginative suggestions and visionary strategies for cultural regeneration.

As well as involving students from Kent, and elsewhere in the UK, this year’s Degree Show exhibitors include student artists from Japan, Latvia, Malta, Nepal, Italy, Cyprus, Poland, Hong Kong and Sudan.

Kent Wildlife Trust have organised free film workshops in August with an industry professional. The workshops are aimed at adults but suitable for age 13 plus.

To book or find out more please call 01622 662 012 or email natasha.steer@nucleusarts.co.uk

Nucleus ArtsFest year will celebrate the Arts in Chatham and will follow on from the success of the last three year’s celebrations. Incorporating live music, poetry, dance, comedy, alternative street theatre, film, free workshops, artisan market.

The ArtsFests will be held in Chatham on Saturday the 16th May, 13th and 20th June, 11th of July and 19th September 2015. The acts will mostly be performing at our main Chatham Centre, with some acts roaming through the town centre to engage with the public this year.

The festivals will include live music, theatre, dance, contemporary street theatre and the visual arts, and will showcase both professional and amateur artists throughout the event, with particular focus on artists who are connected with the Medway Towns. There will also be free craft workshops happening all day for young people to join in with, including Play-doh making, wool dyeing and paper crafts.

All acts are free to watch.

Confirmed acts:-

Jamie Johnson
Ella Halpern-Matthews
Nathalie Jobbins
Lupen Crook
Jemimah Dean
Ben Richards
Barry Fentiman-Hall
Halcyon

Please note there will be more ArtsFests in 2015 – on the 13th June, 20th June, 11th of July and 19th September 2015.

The Underground Cinema at Nucleus Arts will be screening its second film for 2015 on the 1st May – “The Empowerment Project”.

The documentary is the incredible journey of a crew of female filmmakers driving across America to encourage, empower, and inspire the next generation of strong women to go after their career ambitions.

Driving over 7,000 miles from Los Angeles to New York over the course of 30 days, the documentary spotlights 17 positive and powerful women leaders across a variety of lifestyles and industries.

In celebration of the all-female focus in front of and behind the camera, the filmmakers turned the cameras on themselves, capturing their transformational journey.

The film challenges the audience to ask themselves, “What would you do if you weren’t afraid to fail?”.

Tickets cost just £5 – book at www.eventjoy.com/o/nucleusarts

Find out more at www.empowermentproject.com

Special guests from women’s wellbeing groups from across Kent will be present to talk about the brilliant projects they run locally.

This venue has disabled access.

There are girly goody bags for the first 10 people who book and make a donation!

Kent Creative Live would like to invite you to their next Meet-up with the Lilford Gallery and Susimagin.

When and where:

• Friday 24th April 2015 from 9:30am to 12:30
• The Horsebridge Centre, 11 Horsebridge Road, Whitstable, CT5 1AF

The programme of the day:

• 09:15 Everyone arrives and chat with other attendees.
• 09:40 Member slot: Susimagin – Susanna Rosti-Rossini: Finding your talent and nurturing your creative soul, also overcoming a possible creative block.
• 10:10 One-to-ones between attendees randomly linked in pairs.
• 10:35 David Lilford, from the Lilford Gallery, will provide a viewpoint from a commercial gallery: how to approach, how to show work. a note on curating, pricing and presentation. David will also talk about the way his gallery operates in the current climate.
• 11:00 Full circle – opportunity for attendees to discuss a project/prototype/idea with the group.
• 11:30 More chatting and networking. Very valuable time that is…
• 12:30 Close

Price:

• Non Members: £10
• Members: £3.50 (enter your promotional code when booking to get a 65% discount off the full price).
• First timers: £3.50

CLICK HERE FOR MORE DETAILS AND TO BOOK 

***Booking is essential*** so we can organise the room set up and order tea and coffee.
Next events:

• The Basics of Social Media – Participating Group Event – 28th April – Faversham
• Meet-up – 12th May – Faversham
• Meet-up – 19th May – Margate
• Meet-up – 29th May – Whitstable
• Meet-up – 2nd June – Launch in Folkestone
• Check the calendar of events for more

Awake & Dream – Drama Workshop

The boot-camp of truthful acting an introduction

Attend this course and you will always

• Be 100% truthful and compelling on stage by using
• powerful, moment-to-moment “thoughts & wants”.

• Have an immediate and easy rapport with any
• audience by consciously employing “circles of contact”.

• Make every character you play uniquely individual
• by engaging your own experience and personality.

Only Pay if you stay

(First week of the 5 Week course only)

FAVERSHAM course

Alexander Centre, Faversham FM1 4RT

5 x Mondays   7:00 pm ~ 9:00 pm

Workshop 1 – Monday 11 May, 2015

Workshop 2 – Monday 18 May, 2015

Workshop 3 – Monday 1 June, 2015

Workshop 4 – Monday 8 June, 2015

Workshop 4 – Monday 15 June, 2015

MEDWAY course

Brook Theatre, Chatham ME4 9PR

5 x Fridays   7:00 pm ~ 9:00 pm

Workshop 1 – Friday 8 May, 2015

Workshop 2 – Friday 15 May, 2015

Workshop 3 – Friday 22 May, 2015

Workshop 4 – Friday 29 May, 2015

Workshop 5 – Friday 5 June, 2015

Tutor – Paul Doust

email mailto:pdtheatreworkshops@hotmail.com  for more details.

20% “Early Bird” saving – available until Sunday 19 April, 2015

On either booking venues @ Medway or Faversham

A new course for artists, community and activists who

care about Swale & Medway!

Creative campaigner and Higham resident Jane Trowell, has won £1300 funding from Ideas Test, the creative people and places programme for Swale and Medway to set up a new course.

It’s called ‘The Body Electric’ and is intended for people who want to make a difference. It’s unusual in that it will bring together the skills of artists, community and activists. People will learn from each other, as well as from Jane’s background in arts and campaigning. It starts 16^th April at the Sunlight Centre, Gillingham.

Participants will get out and about in the area, and get stuck into creative work, learning new skills, and sharing experience and insights.

Jane says: “I’ve lived here for over 20 years and have been involved in lots of local issues. There are so many fantastic things about Medway and Swale, from Strood to Faversham, Sheerness and Grain to Wigmore. But there are also real difficulties and challenges. ‘The Body Electric’ is somewhere where we will learn to be more creative and also effective in making things better.”

Jane ran a version of this unique course 6 times in London with arts, environmental and human rights group ‘Platform’. Over 120 people benefitted, and she wants to re-make it for where she lives.

She says: “You don’t have to have any experience in the arts, campaigning or activism, nor any formal qualifications, but you do have to care about making our place fairer and healthier for everyone.”

The 10-session course is based at the Sunlight Centre in Gillingham, and starts on Thursday 16^th April. It runs on 8 Thursday nights and two Saturdays.

On Gillingham, Jane says:

“I’m thrilled that course is at the Sunlight Centre. Sunlight does incredible work in the community. Plus, there’s a personal connection – I recently discovered my great great great-uncle William was a blacksmith at Chatham Docks and lived in Priestfield Road, Gillingham.”

More information:

The course is £50 full, £25 concessions. To find out more and enrol, go to

https://thebodyelectrickent.wordpress.com

Facebook – TheBodyElectricKent

Call Jane on 01634 713050 / 07963 803617

email on thebodyelectrickent@gmail.com

Escape Plan LIVE is a chance to test your nerves at a brand new attraction where you and your group can pitch your wits against an unseen enemy as you frantically search for clues to solve the mystery and overcome the challenges that stand in the way of you escaping the room in which you’re now trapped. Think fast, the clock is ticking…

Our exciting and immersive games were created with everyone in mind, so get all the help you can! Whether you’re looking for a hidden cure to a deadly unknown virus, navigating creepy corridors to rescue a hostage, discovering a gruesome murder before the killer returns, or revealing the sinister secrets of a long abandoned asylum – you have only one hour to do so, and the question always remains the same… can you escape in time?

Escape Plan LIVE takes place in The Gate House at Fort Amherst. This historic building is centuries old and was originally built to defend against Napoleonic invasion as part of the Fort, which was later used a Civil Defence Centre in both World Wars. Now said to be haunted, its long and fascinating history serves to add realism and atmosphere to the games in which you can take part, all designed with the buildings real and imagined history in mind.

Find out more at http://www.escapeplanlive.com/games/

Jon Gubbay is demonstrating various art techniques using acrylic paint on the 15th May at the Nucleus Arts Centre, Chatham. at 10am.

The demonstration will include palette knife techniques, brush work, basic equipment use including tear off palettes and a demonstration of simple gilding. Ideal for people wanting to gain more skills.

Jon has 17 years experience as a professional artist and his work is currently handled by two London galleries as well as the Francis Iles Gallery in Rochester where he currently has 8 paintings in their Spring exhibition.

Tickets cost only £6

Book at: https://www.eventjoy.com/e/art-techniques-demonstration-in-acrylic-paint-with-jon-gubbay-2062922

Over 16s only.

Full disabled access.

A free-of-charge exhibition of two sound installations are taking place in the subterranean network of tunnels underneath Fort Amherst in Chatham, Kent on the 8th of April 2015 from 2-5pm.

Produced and curated by two groups of students at the University of Kent School of Music and Fine Art, situated at the the Chatham Historic Dockyard; The installations entitled ‘If The Walls Had Ears’ and ‘Sonic Memories” explore the history of the fort through the mediums of sound and image.

‘If The Walls Had Ears’ explores the specific histories of points of interest in the tunnels and Air Raid Precaution centre, through fixed found and archival sound, as well as synthesis, creating a dualistic temporal space using the present to reflect many pasts. It is as if the tunnels are neuronal passageways in the cacophony of a brain. Curated by Thomas Graves, produced by Greg Hummell and conceptualised by Luke Margetts.

‘Sonic Memories’, in the lighter part of the the tunnels uses video material as well as sound to represent a more conscious level of processing. It explores a more general history of the fort and introduces a controlled multimodality. Produced by Philippa Hardiman, Daniel Stephens, Mikey Pavlou and Ryan Daniels.

These projects are produced by third year music, popular music, and music technology students at the School of Music and Fine Art at the University of Kent.

For more information, see their website: www.excavatingsound.com or Twitter @excavatingsound, or their sound and music page: http://www.soundandmusic.org/thesampler/event/2015/04/excavating-sound

An exhibition not to be missed at POP, Chatham.

See post for details…

Jamie Johnson, who is best known for his vintage yellow mini and becoming Kylie Minogue’s Finalist on The Voice UK 2014, will be singing a selection of songs from his new EP “Footsteps” at an exclusive intimate gig in Chatham. The event will take place at Nucleus Arts, 272 High Street, Chatham on the 8th of December 2014 at 7pm.

Jamie, who worked with Kylie Minogue during the show, is excited to be performing new material that many will not have heard before. At the young age of 16, he released his first album “Shining in the Dark” that sold over 1,000 hard copies. Now aged 20, Jamie is due to release his new EP “Footsteps” and with -upcoming concerts and rehearsals for the Chatham panto Sleeping Beauty, Jamie is a busy lad.

This special evening will take place in the Nucleus Arts courtyard, so wrap up warmly and huddle under blankets with candles aglow, Chimineas and Firepits lit and listen to Jamie’s soulful voice under the stars.

Jamie will also be accompanied by Martin Morris and Ben Richards who regularly play on the Medway music scene.

Early Bird tickets: Adults £12 Child £6 (under 14) when booked in advance. Book at one of the Nucleus Arts venues, by phone on 01634 812 108 or online at www.eventjoy.com/o/nucleusarts

An introduction into creating your own basic WordPress site to showcase your work. In the workshop you will learn how to make a basic site and upload images.

Please bring a laptop

This is the first in a number of WordPress workshops that will show you how to create and manage a basic WordPress.com site.

WordPress is a simple site to use and can be used at a very low cost with no payments per month.

Tickets just £5

Book at  www.eventjoy.com

We have full disabled access.