Nucleus Arts is the Award Winning flagship Arts organisation founded by the Halpern Charitable Foundation. The Foundation was the brainchild of the late Hilary Halpern and it was his dream to promote the Arts in Medway and Kent. Nucleus Arts has become the cultural and creative heart of Kent & Medway over the past 12 years and focuses on affordability, accessibility and excellence in the Arts.
Featuring a wide variety of works by local artists, Nucleus aims to prove that beautiful, original and unique works of art can be both attainable and affordable, whilst at the same time providing low-cost studio space to artists in order to enable them to be able to practice their Art.
Now in our 12th year, Nucleus Arts has sites in Chatham, Rochester and Maidstone where artists can create and display their work. Open to the public (and free to enter), constantly updated, the Nucleus showrooms are a haven for local art lovers and a wonderful retreat for those who want a little something different from their shopping trip.

Whitstable Biennale is pleased to announce that the winners of its 2014 Open Submission Award are Louisa Martin and Rachel Reupke

What the award means

The recipients of the cash prize win the opportunity to create a new work for Whitstable Biennale 2014 providing them with huge audiences. As well as funding for the work the artist receives developmental support from Biennale curators. . . but really this is only the beginning. . . .

Artists who have exhibited at Whitstable Biennale often go on to be hugely successful. Showing at the festival is now seen as a career stepping stone. This is perhaps why applications are received not just from around the UK but globally.

Whitstable Biennale Assistant Curator, Kate Phillimore says: “I love the fact that both the 2014 Open Submission Winners will be using the opportunity to experiment with new ways of making work and pushing boundaries. Rachel Reupke is a filmmaker but will be presenting live performance work for the first time in her career and Louisa Martin will be breaking new ground by collaborating with a dancer, set designer, and DOP to create a dynamic, multi-layered 5 part film.”

Keep up to date with Whitstable Biennale news through Twitter @whitbienn

Global catchment area

There were a massive two hundred and thirty two entries for this award. This is a very big number, given the amount of work involved in the application process and it also confirms and demonstrates a high level of interest in Whitstable Biennale amongst contemporary artists. It adds huge support to the idea that artists see the Biennale as something that will greatly benefit their careers. Whitstable Biennale regularly receives approaches from all over the world, Japan, India and the USA, this time there was an increase in entries from mainland Europe including Austria, Germany, Spain, and Poland.

About the winners

Image: Rachel Reupke, film still from Wine and Spirits (2013)

Rachel Reupke often works with film. The use of a static camera combined with precise art direction that employs the language of advertising make her films highly distinctive. The new 2014 Whitstable Biennale commission will be the first time Reupke has presented live performance to an audience.

Image: Video still from ‘Of Course’, 2013, by Louisa Martin

Louisa Martin’s Whitstable Biennale commission will investigate the ‘performance of identity’ and look at ideas around intimate but non-physical human contact exploring the wider ramifications of living through digital images that are used to both construct and conceal identity.

Where stars are born

The Whitstable Biennale’s track record indicates that the artists it selects (often very early in their careers) are ‘stars in the making’. One only need glance at the Whitstable Biennale’s back catalogue to recognise that this is real and demonstrable.

Whitstable Biennale is an organisation that commissions new work from young artists or artists who are at an early stage in their career and it also has a great reputation for being very supportive of those artists.

Seeing the future

This ability to ‘read the future’ to predict a trend and to pick up on future ideas is no fluke. Before moving to the Kent coast, Sue Jones was previously curator and then director of London’s Chisenhale Gallery (1995-2000) where she worked with a series of young artists including Gillian Wearing, Hilary Lloyd, Tomoko Takahashi and Tim Noble & Sue Webster.

Whitstable Biennale, Director, Sue Jones says:

“The Whitstable Biennale enjoys spotting potential and developing raw talent. Like everyone else I’m attracted to new and thought-provoking ideas, artists probably more than any other group of people have the most outrageously exciting ideas and it is a real privilege to be able to realise some of them. I enjoy working with the relatively unknown, I encourage artists to take risks. It is, therefore, immensely satisfying to see so many of them now doing so well. I’m very much looking forward to working with Louisa Martin and Rachel Reupke over the coming months.”

Feeding the market

Catherine Herbert, Whitstable Biennale, Head of Strategy says: “We are increasingly seeing more and more gallery owners, collectors and curators at the festival. Artists have told me they are being approached and made offers either during or just after the Biennale. It is gratifying to think that each new commission has a very real life ahead of it. Some of the works born out of the Biennale are being shown all over the world.”

It is perhaps why the Biennale enjoys a very good reputation amongst artists themselves, it is the ‘place to be seen’ and a great platform for new work.

Emma Leach, Whitstable Biennale, Performance Curator, perhaps encapsulates the spirit of the festival when she says: “At Whitstable Biennale you might see a work of art at its rawest. A work that is in the process of turning from chrysalis into butterfly. To witness this transformative creative process, the very beginnings of a work of art, will give you real insight into the nature of creation.”

The Whitstable Biennale effect

After showing at Whitstable Biennale, artists have been nominated for awards including: Art Angel Open commissions, The Jarman Award, Leverhulme Awards, South Bank Sky Arts Award, Cannes Film Festival awards, New York Film Festival awards.

Works commissioned by Whitstable Biennale have gone on to be shown at venues including Whitechapel Gallery, London; Serpentine Gallery, London; Tanya Bonakdar Gallery, New York; Imperial War Museum North; PKM, Seoul, Korea; Manifesta 9, Genk, Belgium; Modern Art Oxford; South London Gallery; British Film Institute; Bucharest Biennia, Romania; Art Unlimited, Basel; New Art Gallery, Walsall; Heidelberg Kunstverein, Germany; BAWAG Contemporary, Vienna, Austria, CCA Derry.

A number of artists previously commissioned, and artists they are working with in 2014, are currently included in Tate Britain’s prestigious survey show, Assembly: a survey of recent artists’ film and video in Britain 2008-2013, including Margaret Salmon, Mikhail Karikis, Clio Barnard, Rachel Reupke, Karen Mirza, Neil Henderson, Adam Chodzko, Cara Tolmie and Jananne Al-Ani.

Rochester Film Society has brought back to life a cinema last regularly used in the 1920s.

During 1910 the Clock House on Rochester High Street became Rochester’s first cinema known as ‘The Old Corn Exchange Picture Palace’.  the cinema ran until the 1920’s with the corn exchange running from the new hall until 1960.

Now Rochester Film Society, who already screen films from Chatham Odeon on a Thursday night,  will be screening films from Rochester Picture Palace every Tuesday evening.

The Rochester Film Society was formed 5 years ago with the intention of screening films not usually shown at local cinemas, from Independent British and American, Contemporary World Cinema as well as Documentaries, Avant Garde and Experimental Films. They also screen classics, from musicals and dramas to more obscure classics.

Rochester Picture Palace

The Corn Exchange, Princess Hall, High Street, Rochester

Every Tuesday evening at 7.30pm

For more information and to book tickets please visit:

http://www.rochesterfilmsociety.co.uk

RENOIR [12A cert, 112 minutes]

TUES 15 OCT

Director: Gilles Bourdos [French]

Cast: Michel Bouquet, Christa Theret, Vincent Rottiers, Romane Bohringer

Synopsis: French Riviera in the summer of 1915, a young woman enchants, and inspires both young Jean and his father Auguste Renoir, after WW1.

THE SPIRIT OF ’45 [U cert, 94 minutes]

TUES 22 OCT

Director: Ken Loach [UK]

Cast: Winston Churchill, Tony Benn, Clement Attlee

Synopsis: Documentary on how the spirit of unity, which buoyed Britain during the war years, carried through to create a vision of a fairer, united society.

A HIJACKING [15 cert, 101 minutes]

TUES 29 OCT

Director: Tobias Lindholm [Denmark]

Cast: Pilou Asbæk, Søren Malling, Dar Salim

Synopsis: The crew of a Danish cargo ship is hijacked by Somali pirates who proceed to engage in escalating negotiations with authorities in Copenhagen

 

THERESE DESQUEYROUX [12 cert, 110 minutes]

TUES 5 NOV

Director: Claude Miller [French]

Cast: Audrey Tautou, Gilles Lellouche, Anaïs Demoustier

Synopsis: An unhappily married woman struggles to break free from social pressures.

 

LIKE SOMEONE IN LOVE [12A cert, 110 minutes]

TUES 12 NOV

Director: Abbas Kiarostami [Japan]

Cast: Rin Takanashi, Tadashi Okuno, Ryo Kase

Synopsis: In Tokyo, a young prostitute develops an unexpected connection with a widower over a period of two days.

SOMETHING IN THE AIR [15 cert, 122 minutes]

TUES 19 NOV

Director: Olivier Assayas [French]

Cast: Clément Métayer, André Marcon, Lola Créton

Synopsis: Post-May ’68, a group of radical young Europeans search for a way to continue the revolution believed to be just beginning.

The Skywatcher will be an exciting mix of interactive, site specific theatre and scavenger hunting around the City of Rochester.  The audience will visit six scenes, in different Rochester locations, each based on a piece of classic science fiction stories.  They will also solve puzzles, explore and have loads of fun on the way.  We love Rochester and think this is a great way to share this with other people.

Please support the project – we really need to make this happen!

http://www.indiegogo.com/projects/the-skywatcher

The Community Crafts Centre on Ashford High Street has started offering artists an opportunity to promote their work for a month for £30. That’s about £1 a day!

Artists will exhibit their work at the Community Crafts Centre on 27 High Street Ashford for a whole month including an open viewing event with cheese and wine. They offer to market the event as much as possible through social media channels and email marketing; they will promote through word of mouth and even work hard to sell some of your work (for a small commission).

Betsy Aidinyantz founder of Joining Hands who runs the Community Crafts Centre had this to say:

“With Ashford Festival of Arts and Technology around the corner we want to show people how many talented artists and creative people there are in Ashford. To help Ashford Town get back its vibrancy we need to focus on local people and local businesses. Even small things like helping an emerging Ashford artist sell some work can have a really positive effect on our town.”

Last month the Community Crafts Centre exhibited the work of local contemporary artist and craftsman David Hover. David Hover is a member of Ashford Visual Artists and was very happy with the success of his exhibition. He said:

“The Community Crafts Centre is a little gem on Ashford High Street! The support I have received from the staff while my artwork has been on display there is fantastic. I’m sure the gallery will continue to grow in Ashford as there are many artists in need of a gallery space such as this. I just hope more artists such as me will benefit from the Community Crafts Centre.”

The Community Crafts Centre is looking for more artists to take up slots in July and August as well as throughout the year. If you are interested you can call Betsy on 07837 896122 or email info@communitycraftscentre.org to find out more.

Area:  South East

Passionate about Art since 1927, The Rochester and West Kent Art Society is glad to announce its programme starting from July 2013 to March 2014.

For July and August 2013, the Summer programme is rich with weekly painting trips to scenic locations in Kent. This includes Queenborough, Aylesford, Bearsted, Upper Upnor, Faversham , Whitstable and Lower Halstow. Other outings include painting day trips to Kent Life Museum and Bredhurst village. There will also be a trip to London at the end of July 2013 to attend a day of workshops organised by the Society for All Artists (SAA).

Prominent speakers and demonstration artists are booked to give talks and demonstrations to the Society’s members and guests who meet at the Old Town Hall at the Brook Theatre in Chatham. Amongst the speakers is Artist Roy Sparks who will be delivering a lecture on Multiplication of Styles. Artists Bill Newton, Sue Williams and Ben Manchipp will be providing a variety of demonstrations including different mediums and techniques.

The Society, which will be celebrating its 90th anniversary in four years’ time has launched its new website and facebook page which aim at keeping the community abreast of all the society’s activities. Established in 1927, The Rochester and West Kent Art Society exists to encourage the appreciation of Art in its different styles and mediums and to reinforce the artistic skills of its members.

The society holds around 4 Art exhibitions per year. Presently, the Society is running an exhibition at the Strood Library in Medway until the 29th of June 2013. The next exhibition will be in September 2013 at Rochester Adult Learning centre.

(Follow this link for the schedule: Schedule 2013-2014 )

New members are welcome, Art enthusiasts are encouraged to join and to get in contact at: rochesterandwestkentartsociety@yahoo.com

All the details are on the newly created website http://rochesterandwestkentartsociety.org/

Art enthusiasts are encouraged to follow the Facebook page to be updated on all the society’s activities and events.

www.facebook.com/RochesterAndWestKentArtSociety

The lovely Creatabot contributors have been very busy in their creative adventures, so I thought it would be nice to have a little catch up with some of them and see what they are up to!

Badge

“I’m currently working on a new body of work in preparation for my first solo show which is scheduled to open around Halloween this year in Bocs Gallery [http://www.bocs.org.uk/] in Caernarfon, North Wales, so I’m locked away in the studio drawing lots of birds and skulls!

My day job in MOSTYN [www.mostyn.org] takes up the rest of time, its Wales leading contemporary art gallery, and I’m currently co-managing the shop which specialises in contemporary applied art and craft, so I’m incredibly lucky to be surrounded by lots of inspiring artwork and craft.” – Badge

Jane Ayres

Lots of change in the pipeline for Jane.  Her contract for University Centre Folkestone (part of Canterbury Christ Church University) as Marketing & Outreach Coordinator ends in July, when, sadly, UCF will no longer exist, with academic courses moving back to Canterbury. Although Jane will be teaching a few hours a week from September on the BA Creative and Professional Writing, she will be taking on freelance projects in the creative industries and is open to new ideas and challenges.  She’s also doing a few talks and workshops locally, including work for Stepping Stone Studios.  For more info on these go to http://janeayres.blogspot.co.uk/p/news-and-events.html

Jack Burrows

” I’m currently volunteering at a company in Sheffield called Trivoloution, I’m doing all of their marketing for them.  So that’s rather exciting!  Also, as you know – I’ve been doing filming projects and things with a couple of friends with Fir Trees Productions – which has been slow, I must admit – but we’ve simply been planning anything we can…and attempting to gain clients whom we can create adverts for.  (Including my volunteer work, we have 2 clients which is great!).  As for future plans, I’m hoping all this experience, as well as my A-levels from last year will get me into University, when I re-apply in September for Marketing & Advertising”. – Jack

Really glad everyone is busy with creativity! Keep it up! – Natasha x

We had great fun making the site responsive theatre show – Survived.

I want to say a big thank you to the following people, who I really look forward to working with again – because they are awesome! Also thank you to all who came, we really appreciated it and we hope that these events can get better and better over time, with more and more interesting locations. Thank you to everyone that wrote scripts for the recordings too, and those who helped with recordings.

Thank you also to everyones help and support with Survived, I think you are all brilliant! 

Chris Reed – Actress – Hippy patient

Ciaran McKay – Actor – Light treatment room

Colin Marrison – Filming

Dave Norris – Actor – Coffee machine repair/swabbing

Dee Hudson – Actress – Extra Sensory Nurse

Isabella Jeferies – Emily

Katie Charlton – Actress – Angela

Lance Philips – Actor – Coffee machine repair

Lee Philips – Props

Luka Lukasik – Actor – Hydro Therapy

Nick Shannon – Assistant and receptionist

Nikki Price – Photographer and actress – Waiting Room Assistant

Richard Jeferies – Actor – Professor Smith

Riven Gray – Make up and actress – Counselling Services

Roy Smith – Audio recordings and actor – Waiting Room supervisor

Sam Froudist – Stage Manager

Sarah Hehir – Script and actress – Probe Nurse

Sophie Williams – Actress – Mad swabbing lady

Thomas Kelly – Actor – Hydro Wave Therapy

Look forward to the next show! 😉

Natasha Steer

Project Whitebird is a journey, envisaged by an artist, designed by an
engineer, and brought into being with the help of a group of dedicated
people embarking on a mission to curate the first outdoor Art
Exhibition in Space*
(* or very close to it)

This adventure starts in mundane settings, as average Joe’s, and
continues into an expedition of hope, imagination, determination and
showing that no matter who you are or where you are from, you can do a
lot more to live your dreams than you may think. If only you get off
your ass and give it a good go.

To make this dream a reality and to make history, we need to raise funds.

What you are sponsoring:
By Sponsoring this project, you will be contributing to the mission of
becoming the first team to successfully curate an outdoor solo art
exhibition on the edge of space and bring it back down safely to
Earth.
The first mission launch will be a test flight. It will be crucial for
testing the equipment, computer programs and ballooncraft designs
involved with this project.

Test Flight Cost: £1000

For your £10 sponsorship you will get:
A “Postcard from Space” Sign with a personal thank you message on the reverse
+ A special sponsors edition of ‘Project Whitebird – The Launch of a
Dream’ a feature length film documenting the actualization and
fulfillment of the project.
+ Your name will be listed as a sponsor of Project Whitebird, which
will be documented and attached to this historic flight. (your name
will go down in history)

If you would like to support the project please transfer your £10 sponsorship to projectwhitebird@gmail.com

Thank you once again.
Please keep a regular check on our website www.projectwhitebird.com or
our Facebook page www.facebook.com/projectwhitebird for updates.

P.S. If you could send us a confirmation of your sponsorship transfer
that would be grand.

A little breakdown of the flight of the balloon is as follows:

After launch, the Whitebird Balloon will steadily climb at a rate of
approx 1000ft per minute. Depending on the wind conditions it will
slowly track across the country. The balloon filled with helium will
slowly expand as it rises, starting out at around 157cm.
The ambient air temperature will decrease to a level that will start
to affect the onboard equipment, mainly batteries. It will then be
passing through the Troposphere, the layer of air where our weather is
made around 10km and rise further into the Stratosphere where the
thermodynamics are in equilibrium and the flight should be more
stable. It will now be higher than any commercial aircraft (12km)
Around the mid Stratosphere, about 20km up, the temperature will now
be down to around -50c and the air pressure will be as low as
0.08psi. The balloon which started off at 157cm will have grown due to
the difference in air pressure to 750cm. Having reached an altitude of
around 30km the natural latex of the balloon will rupture, the balloon
will burst and the payload will fall. During the descent a
parachute will deploy and bring the equipment safely back to Earth
where, with the onboard gps tracking systems, it will be recovered.

During this test flight, one of the onboard cameras will be taking a
photograph every 5 seconds for the 3hr flight. Around 104 minutes into
the flight we should reach our maximum altitude. As the balloon bursts
it will leave the payload box housing the cameras, suspended, just for
a split moment, in mid-air on the edge of space.

This is the moment when your Postcard Image will be taken.

By Project Whitebird

 projectwhitebird@gmail.com