Inspiration

Featured Creative – Eleanor Bennett – Photographer

Featured Creatives

Eleanor Leonne Bennett is a 16 year old internationally award winning photographer and artist based in Manchester who has won first places with National Geographic, The World Photography Organisation, Nature’s Best Photography, Papworth Trust, Mencap, The Woodland trust and Postal Heritage. Her photography has  been published in the Telegraph , The Guardian, BBC News Website and on the cover of books and magazines in the United states and Canada.

Her art is globally exhibited, having shown work in London, Paris, Indonesia, Los Angeles,Florida, Washington, Scotland,Wales, Ireland,Canada,Spain,Germany, Japan, Australia and The Environmental Photographer of the year Exhibition (2011) amongst many other locations. She was also the only person from the UK to have her work displayed in the National Geographic and Airbus run See The Bigger Picture global exhibition tour with the United Nations International Year Of Biodiversity 2010.

We had the wonderful opportunity of speaking to her to find out more…

So what is your creative background?

I am a self-taught artist and started entering competitions as soon as I picked up a camera. I learnt a lot from the rejections I received but also gained experience in getting published in the real world. I have had over 70 front covers of magazines and books within 12 months.

What other career paths have you taken?

When I was younger I wanted to take care of animals or become a stop motion animator. I would still find it hard to pass up the chance to create and animate if it was given to me. When I was younger I never thought photography would become my chosen medium. Until my teens I have had more experience with holiday snapshots than Cindy Sherman. The internet is a great tool to widen young horizons.

Who inspires you both locally and universally?

Everything and all. I like to make the weird into fine art and the dull into splendour. I like to change opinions and minds.

What would you like to achieve in the future?

At least 1000 front covers, interviews and featured artists, I plan to be taking images when I am 70, at this time I am barely 17. I want to retain my style no matter what education I may receive in the future as a professional artist.

Can you recommend a creative website you love?

Duotropes Digest – All markets. Something for everyone you have ever met, loved or hated. A read can be found for all those with minds in the now, future or past.

We love your work Eleanor, thank you for speaking to us. We look forward to seeing even more of your photography and art!

You can keep up to date with Eleanor at www.eleanorleonnebennett.zenfolio.com

All image copyrights belong to Eleanor Bennett.

Area:   UK   Britain   East of England   East Midlands   London  North East   North West    Yorkshire    Scotland    South East South West    Wales   West Midlands

Arts Council Empowers North Kent’s Creative Community

Creative and Art News, Creative Opportunities

Arts Council England have announced that a community consortium from Swale and Medway has been successful in applying for a commissioned grant from its Creative people and places programme – designed to empower communities to take the lead in shaping local arts provision.

Swale and Medway is one of seven successful consortium applications across England that have been awarded a total of just under £16 million over three years, with Swale and Medway receiving £1,476,000.

Creative people and places takes a new approach by supporting communities and grass roots organisations to play a leading part in inspiring others to get involved with the arts.

The projects all employ innovative ideas for reaching new audiences. The Swale and Medway consortium comprises Swale Council for Voluntary Service and Volunteer Centre; Medway Council for Voluntary Service; Artlands North Kent; LV21; Kent Architecture Centre; Creek Creative Studios; FrancisKnight – project managers for Leysdown Rose-tinted ; and FellowCreative. The consortium will showcase and test new arts activities, support local people to develop their own creative ideas, help strengthen existing arts provision and celebrate what’s great about the arts. Three local authorities (Medway, Swale and Kent) will work with the consortium to develop the project. The consortium will be working with locally based arts and cultural partners to do this, including: Royal Opera House Bridge Organisation, South East Dance, and Kent County Council Libraries and Archives.

Carl Jeffrey, Founder of FellowCreative and a member of the Swale and Medway consortium, says: ‘We are thrilled to have the support of Arts Council England. This substantial investment will make a real difference to the communities of Swale and Medway. The long-term aim of our Creative People and Places vision is to enable a spirit of creative experimentation and the art of doing, together.

‘Initiated by an ever-developing network of small-scale, grass roots individuals and organisations, we hope that Swale and Medway become widely recognised as places where all forms of creativity can thrive; where communities directly benefit from the power of the arts to make positive changes in people’s lives; where new routes for engagement are opened up through testing out pioneering and experimental approaches.’

Sally Abbott, Regional Director, South East, Arts Council England, says: ‘We have a long history of working with artists and arts organisations in North Kent and we know that there is a real desire among people locally to get more involved in the arts and culture. We’re looking forward to seeing what ideas the community come up with to encourage more people to feel the benefit that taking part in the arts and culture can bring.’

Alan Davey, Chief Executive, Arts Council England said: ‘I’m excited by the possibilities of this programme and by the vision of the successful applicants.

‘All the projects have the potential to make a visible and lasting impact on the places where the work will happen and, very importantly, they all share the ambition to unite increased access with excellent art.

‘We’re looking forward to working with them to help them develop their ideas for creating and sharing great art for everyone – which is crucial to the vitality and long-term sustainability of the arts.’

The projects will be delivered by consortia and partners which include arts organisations, museums, libraries, local authorities and commercial organisations working in collaboration with the local community, grass roots organisations and the amateur sector.

The successful applicants will now receive a small percentage of their award in order to develop their plans. Receipt of the full award is dependent on the Arts Council approving each consortium’s full business plan. Round two of the programme will open to applications in September 2012.

The Creative people and places programme is one of a number of initiatives designed to help the Arts Council achieve its goal of more people experiencing and being inspired by the arts – as set out in Achieving great art for everyone, the Arts Council’s ten year strategic plan.

Keep up to date with news here: http://creativepeopleplace.info

Area: South East

Treasure Or Trash? – Artistic Freedom In A Digital Age – Free Conference on 20th September 2012 – Folkestone

Creative and Art Events, Creative Communities and Inspiring Websites

(CC BY-NC 2.0) by naoyafujii

The future is digital. Traditional distribution channels are changing,
and whilst this offers unprecedented opportunities for artists and
creators it also raises issues around censorship, cultural identity,
ownership and quality control.  If the gatekeepers are removed and
artists, writers and musicians can be their own distributors, who makes
judgements about quality?  Should anyone? Or should we embrace an
artistic and social free for all? 

This event will be of interest to artists, performers, musicians,
writers, entrepreneurs, academics, students, philosophers and social
commentators. 

Venue: University Centre Folkestone 

FREE to attend but booking required – contact Jane Seaman – jane.seaman@canterbury.ac.uk

Key speaker Chris Meade, writer and Director of if:book UK

Other speakers include:  Matt Wright (composer, sound artist, Senior
Lecturer at Canterbury Christchurch University), Shane Record (visual
artist), Danuta Kean (writer and journalist), Greg Klercx, Director of
Reauthoring, and others to be confirmed.

Area: South East

An ebook is for life…..by Jane Ayres

Editorials

(CC BY-NC-ND 2.0) By alienratt

In a previous post I quoted author Jonathan Franzen, and do so again as his views are thought provoking. Regarded as one of America’s greatest living novelists, he is not a fan of the ebook.

“The technology I like is the American paperback edition of Freedom. I can spill water on it and it would still work! So it’s pretty good technology. And what’s more, it will work great 10 years from now. I think, for serious readers, a sense of permanence has always been part of the experience. Everything else in your life is fluid, but here is this text that doesn’t change.”

When I first read this quote I immediately thought, what a strange thing to say.  An ebook is forever.  Once it’s out there, it’s there until the writer takes it down.  A printed book only exists while it is in print.  And paper and ink can rot, burn, fade and be physically destroyed. Therefore lost in that way.

Then I thought some more about permanence/impermanence.  When it comes to matters digital, different formats need different hardware to read.  We have a choice of formats  –  kindle, kobo, nook  – to name a few, that all vary.  But if you can read, you can read a print book without needing some special device.

And of course, some digital formats become obsolete. We only have to think about  Amstrad (my first proper computer!), cassette tapes, video now replaced by dvd (which will undoubtedly disappear in time). Content on these formats has been lost.

When I started writing, my work was stored on big floppy disks, then smaller versions for the Amstrad (not compatible with any other format!), then pc floppies, and memory sticks.  Now we can store data on wafer thin cards and out there in the cloud.  All these changes in the space of a relatively few years.  So now I can get a handle on what Franzen is saying.   And it is so easy and cheap to alter digital content compared to amending a printed copy of a book.

Personally, I am a fan of both formats.  I love printed books and I love my kindle.   I’ve also read extended pieces on my blackberry. I can’t help wondering what the future will hold…….

By Jane Ayres

Area:   UK   Britain   East of England   East Midlands   London  North East   North West    Yorkshire    Scotland    South East South West    Wales   West Midlands

The Hoodwink Project – Bringing Art Into Unexpected Places

Creative / Artist Wanted, Creative and Art Events, Creative and Art News

Suzie Plumb and I work as Cultural Projects Managers for the Arts Development Unit at Tunbridge Wells Borough Council. We’ve recently received funding from various bodies, including Arts Council England, Kent County Council and Medway Council to embark on a 3 year audience development project: Hoodwink. This article aims to introduce the reader to the concepts behind the Hoodwink philosophy and to stimulate debate about the value of contemporary art in everyday life.

The Hoodwink team are trickster do-gooders, working at the very edges of curatorial practice. They target non-users of museums and art galleries and expose them to art practice in the most unlikely, surprising and exciting of places. By bringing the art to the people, their work creatively challenges current perceptions of exhibiting space and environment, and often deliberately subverts the traditions of curatorial practice in order to break down the barriers to engagement. They provide opportunities for museums and artists to expose their work to new audiences and develop their own practice through working in new site specific ways.

60 Large Aerial Photos have been on display in Chatham town centre, Kent. for a number of months. The alternative photography exhibition has brought a new look to the high street and has been a positive influence on the general public.

Hoodwink Venues

We will be commissioning work for 9 commercial venues across the next 3 years. Unlike other arts projects that have used empty shop spaces, Hoodwink venues are already occupied for commercial use, for example: supermarkets, sports centres and public houses. Showing work in these spaces targets non-users of galleries and museums by exposing the venues’ existing customers to the work on display in a comfortable and familiar setting.

We’re using Arts Council England research to define and target our non-users. ACE arts-based society segments define the majority of non-users into 3 categories: time-poor dreamers; a quiet pint with the match; limited means, nothing fancy.

http://www.artscouncil.org.uk/what-we-do/research-and-data/arts-audiences/arts-based-segmentation-research/

Targeting is realised through community engagement undertaken by the commissioned artist during the research and development of their work, which will include creative sessions with venue staff, and from the approach to and presentation of interpretative material displayed with the artwork. The effectiveness of this approach was established through qualitative evaluation of previous audience development projects undertaken by Tunbridge Wells Museum and Art Gallery: Kentish Delights (2010 – 11) and Public Art House (2011-12, http://publicarthouse.tumblr.com). This evaluation exposed some exciting revelations:

  • Customers enjoy seeing things out of the ordinary in their daily lives because it gives them something different to talk about than the weather (Kentish Delights)
  • When staff are confident about a display, they enjoy talking to customers about it (Kentish Delights) Perceptions of customer service are improved if staff are able to engage with customers about objects on display in their venue (Kentish Delights)
  • Customers enjoy having an activity associated with the art on display, even if they don’t think it has anything to do with the art on display (Public Art House)
  • Customers are able to make meaning in their lives from engaging from art in this way (Public Art House)

Hoodwink will allow us to explore these concepts in greater detail, by commissioning artists to create work on a larger scale, and through experimenting with different types of interpretation.

Pubs will be one of the spaces used for the Hoodwink project.

Hoodwink Artists

Our commissioning process is very simple: once we’ve secured a Hoodwink venue, we agree an artist brief with the venue management, and advertise it as widely as possible across the UK. The brief asks that the artist respond to any aspect of the venue, its community, or the environment the venue sits in.

We also offer the artist the opportunity to work with a museum from Kent, by researching and selecting objects from that museum to be displayed in the venue. For many artists, this can give a local or historical context to their work, providing an access point to engaging with their work. This commission offers the artist opportunities to:

  • Engage with a new audience in a meaningful way
  • Expose their work to a large number of people
  • Develop their work in new directions, through responding to a commercial, competitive setting

Hoodwink Interpretation

Interpretation is a vital component of good engagement with contemporary art, and is an element that will be experimented with during Hoodwink.

Hoodwink aims to realign interpretation with marketing, and borrows from commercial practice to do this. Selling concentrates on informing the customer why a product is important to them, and therefore why they should invest in it financially and in many cases, philosophically and intellectually as well. Customers think carefully about what they purchase and what meaning this has to their lives. Decisions are based on having the essential information about a product accessible and available. Access to this information depends on the success of the marketing campaign in exposing it to the right audience.

Hoodwink draws its audience by selling information about the works on display, and this is approached through many different media and interactions.

Firstly it will look at building an audience in advance of the exhibitions of work at the venues, by generating interest through social media communities, exposing the story of the artists’ work as it develops from ideas to installation.

Secondly, interpretive material will accompany the artwork on display. This material will offer customers different ways to engage with the work on display, avoiding presenting a single-voiced textual interpretation and encouraging meaningful interaction. This is a creative and exciting curatorial challenge for the Hoodwink team and offers them the opportunity to:

  • Find and showcase effective models for meaningful engagement in real situations
  • Grow a vast audience for contemporary art
  • Work with different and unexpected specialists to achieve our aims.

Hoodwink has enormous potential to change arts practice and display, and it is something that we expect to gather momentum as it progresses. The social benefit of this change in practice can be enormous and life changing for everyone involved. We welcome your thoughts on our model and ideas at every stage of the project.

Our second commissioning opportunity is about to go live – we’ll be announcing it on our Facebook pages soon, so please join us at   http://www.facebook.com/groups/396956693682730/

By Polly Harknett

Hoodwink Project Manager

hoodwink@tunbridgewells.gov.uk

Area: Kent    South East

Awesome Websites: IdeasTap

Creative Communities and Inspiring Websites

IdeasTap is a creative network and funding body for emerging arts talent. They are a not-for-profit organisation, bringing young, creative people together and offering funding, opportunities and a portfolio to showcase your work.

It’s free to join and only takes about two minutes to sign up.

You can find out more about them – including history, meet the team behind the site and check out some of the IdeasTap alumni they have supported with their funds and briefs in the past – in the About us section.

Twitter – @ideastap

Area:   UK   Britain   East of England   East Midlands   London  North East   North West    Yorkshire    Scotland    South East South West    Wales   West Midlands

Artists Display Their Spare Parts – Exhibition – 25th August to 9th September 2012 – London

Creative and Art Events, Creative and Art News

Spare Parts is an exhibition that brings together a diverse range of artists using pre-loved prosthetics as their canvas.

The exhibition runs from Saturday 25th August – Sunday 9th September 2012. It will be open from 10am – 7pm daily. Entry is FREE.

OPENING NIGHT is Saturday 25th August 2012, from 5pm.

The venue is The Rag Factory (E1 5LJ), which is just off Brick Lane in East London. It is very close to public transport, and awesome curry. The Rag Factory is 100% accessible for wheelies.More information will be added to this event over coming weeks. To read more about the exhibition, friend us on Facebook, follow us on Twitter, and subscribe to our RSS feed on the website!

www.facebook.com/sparepartsexhibition
www.twitter.com/spare__parts
www.spareparts2012.com

Any questions feel free to email Priscilla: contact@spareparts2012.com

Area:   UK   Britain   East of England   East Midlands   London  North East   North West    Yorkshire    Scotland    South East South West    Wales   West Midlands

Grandmaster Flash To Hit The Decks In Rochester – 9th November 2012

Creative and Art Events

Hip-hop pioneer, Grandmaster Flash, is set to hit the decks in Rochester High Street on 9th November, at the Casino Rooms. The era-defining icon created the loop and cross-fade DJ techniques, spinning minds and decks across the globe in the 70s and 80s. Scratch the surface of hip-hop and experimental rock of the past 35 years and the Furious Five godfather is at the heart of it.

It’s rare to be able to witness a legend at work, and even rarer to do so at just £12 a ticket. But that’s the small price to pay to see the man who was inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in 2007 and stoked the musical fires of greats including Run DMC, Public Enemy, Beck and Jay Z. Grandmaster Flash was also the first person to use the turntable as an instrument. 

Since launching in September 2011, with a headline gig by prog-rock and Can icon Damo Suzuki, Medway-based TEA Concerts has focused on bringing to the towns artists that are shaping the current musical underground. In a short ten months they’ve put on bands on the up that knock the knees of indie darlings, including: Tigercats, Stuart Turner, The Bobby McGee’s and Darren Hayman; BBC 6 Music A-listers one and all.

To book tickets for Grandmaster Flash visit seetickets.com or teaconcerts.co.uk Tickets will be available from 9am on Friday 3 August and cost £12 in advance. This is a late concert style event in the main upstairs room with Re:fried DJs spinning tunes before and after the main act.

TEA background

• TEA put on shows in Medway, London and Brighton

• Aim to put on new or era defining acts in interesting spaces

• Formed in 2011 from the now defunct MILK

• Former acts include Jeffrey Lewis, The Mae Shi, Damo Suzuki, TEETH!!!, Sister Mantos, Com Truise, The Bobby McGees, Seafood, Blackbird Blackbird, Mystery Jets, Darren Hayman, Euros Childs, UpCDownC, BITCHES, Moustache of Insanity, Honey Ride Me A Goat, Let Our Enemies Beware, and Trash Kit.

Area:   UK   Britain   East of England   East Midlands   London  North East   North West    Yorkshire    Scotland    South East South West    Wales   West Midlands

Splashing In The Sea – By George Langridge

Editorials

Last week I found myself in Menorca, well I say found, I mean went on a family holiday, where I spent ages taking photographs.

Soaking Up The Sights

I spent a good while flicking through the folder before actually being able to decide on ten photographs, so here are three of those.

I started with this photograph because it is that classic/vintage European bicycle and small street combination. I thought this almost represented the entire set of photographs. Just before I took this, a little old Menorcan woman got off of this bike and walked in to the bakery opposite. For this photograph I thought the rule of thirds needed to be followed here as to not give an ‘over importance’ to the bicycle. When I imported this in to Lightroom I think I made around six or seven virtual copies and spent an entire afternoon just playing with them.

On the north coast of Menorca there is a small fishing village named Fornells, here the coast-line is very rocky and can be a little rough at times. After about five or so minutes of burst shooting I finally got a decent breaker shot. I thought it was stunning, especially relative to the coast two or three miles along where it is complete calm. In Lightroom I didn’t actually have that much that needed to be done to make this remarkable photograph. I think all I did was pop the vibrancy, drop the highlights and add some contrast whilst crushing the blacks ever so slightly.

This photograph was taken in Cuitedella, the old capital city, which was the most traditional Menorcan/Spanish city/town that we had come across. It is safe to say that I had an absolute treat of a day here, with its purposely narrow streets and hidden shops and large houses. This photograph in particular I wish I had spent longer composing the shot and maybe coming out from 24mm to 18mm. As far as editing this photograph I think all I did was fiddle with the shadows and vibrancy.

I am always excited to hear feedback from anyone.

Please check out my Flickr -where you can find more of the photographs from my recent trip- and enjoy.

Select pieces of my work are available to purchase on Redbubble, please check it out. I do vary which photographs are available at different times during the year. If there is a specific image you would like to purchase, drop me an email: georgelangridge95@gmail.com

Follow me on Twitter/Instagram: @georgelangridge

Remember to enter the ‘Creatabot Creatives Competition‘

Before I Die… Arrives in the Midlands – Participatory Interactive Art Project – 7th to 26th August 2012

Creative and Art Events, Creative Communities and Inspiring Websites

Before I Die… Savannah by Trevor Coe

From 7th-26th August, visitors to Leamington Spa will be able to take part in ‘Before I Die…’, a moving and thought-provoking, public participatory art project that will be hosted at Gallery150 in Regent Court Shopping Centre.

When Candy Chang, from New Orleans, lost someone very dear to her, she struggled to maintain perspective and wanted to find out what was important to the people around her. With the help of friends, she turned the side of an abandoned house into a giant chalkboard and stencilled it with the sentence “Before I die I want to_______”. Anyone walking by could pick up a piece of chalk, reflect on their lives, and share their personal aspirations in a public space.

To Candy’s amazement, the very next day, the wall was covered with the hopes and dreams of hundreds of people and continued to grow. But, what initially started out as an experiment has fast gained worldwide momentum, appearing as far afield as Australia, Canada, Lebanon, Italy, Mexico, Peru, Scotland, Spain and the United Arab Emirates.

Over the next few weeks, the public will be able to add their own thoughts to a dedicated wall at Gallery150, and, if they wish, they can also have the moment captured by a professional photographer, using equipment kindly sponsored by the London Camera Exchange in Leamington. Each day, the best of these portraits and statements will be documented and exhibited in the gallery, becoming an integral part of the exhibition. The event will culminate in a human and fascinating reflection on life, death and love, which will be presented in a private view on Sunday, 26th August 2012.

Situated in 9 Livery Street, Leamington Spa, Warwickshire, CV32 4NP, Gallery150 is open Tuesday-Saturday 11am to 6pm and Sunday 11.00am to 4.00pm.

Credits: Image by Trevor Coe.

Area: West Midlands

Craft Club – Strood Library – Kent

Creative and Art Events, Creative Communities and Inspiring Websites

Strood library have a craft club that meets in the library on the 1st and 3rd Monday of the month, 1.30pm – 3.30pm.

People bring along their own projects. Beginners, experts & enthusiasts are all welcome. 

For more information, contact Strood Library: 01634 335890

 Area: South East

Crafty People Wanted For New Craft Market In Rochester

Creative and Art News, Creative Opportunities

A new craft market is being planned for Rochester and the organisers – Craftybunch – are looking for people to sell their lovely creations there. Leigh from Craftybunch says “I would love to bring a Greenwich style market to the area for a Sunday afternoon once a month. I noticed how arty Medway is and want to provide an event to cater for the expanding creativity”.

If you are interested in selling your creations in Rochester please contact Leigh through craftybunch@live.co.uk

Twitter @craftybunch

www.craftybunch.wordpress.com
www.facebook.com/craftybunch

Area – South East

SDNA and Digitalize – Brighton

Creative and Art Events

As part of my work experience, I helped out at on a Brighton Museum and Art Gallery Exhibition today and thought it was so brilliant you need to know about it. Over the next week (Today Tuesday till Saturday of this week) a Digital Art company called SDNA (http://www.sdna.tv) with Ellie Newland, are setting up an art exhibition for people to get involved with and on Saturday there will be a showcase of the work. The exhibiton is called ‘Digitalize – an artist in residence project’.

Here is an example creature of which I created.

The public can get involved throughout this week by visiting the free exhibition and creating a creature of their imagination. This creature is constructed out of paper of photographs from other exhibitions present in the gallery, particularly from World Stories:Young Voices.

http://www.brighton-hove-rpml.org.uk/WhatsOn/Pages/BMAGworldstoriesyoungvoices23jun12.aspx

These creations are then photographed and using SDNA’s software they will create animations to bring these creatures to life. They will then be projected on to art cabinets to display to others as they move and the public to interact with.

Another way to get involved is to take part in an interview. This interview is asking questions about what you think of the afterlife, what things would you take with you and what you would look like as a mythological creature. The answers people were giving were fantastic from taking their Pokemon cards into the afterlife to describing themselves as creatures with giant wings and a hippo’s head. These recordings over the week will create the soundtrack to accompany the projections of the creatures and text of quote’s people have said from interviews and post it notes from another exhibition where people have answered more questions.

This is taking place free in Brighton throughout this week, so with this weather why not pop in then spend some time on the beach!?

For more details:

Royal Pavilion Gardens
Brighton
East Sussex
BN1 1EE
United Kingdom
Telephone 03000 290900
Fax  03000 290908
Email  visitor.services@brighton-hove.gov.uk

Opening times

Tuesday – Sunday 10am – 5pm

Closed Mondays (except Bank Holidays 10am-5pm)

(World Art gallery closed for redevelopment 3 January to 22 June 2012)

http://www.brighton-hove-rpml.org.uk/Museums/brightonmuseum/Pages/home.aspx

Alice Stansfield your friendly neighbourhood vlogger: http://www.youtube.com/user/HisLittleEmo

Feel free to Tweet me if you have any questions or feedback:  @hislittleemoo

Email me for anything extra: aostansfield@hotmail.co.uk

Area – South East

London Design Festival Celebrates A Decade Of Design – 14th to 23rd September 2012

Creative and Art Events, Creative and Art News

This September sees the London Design Festival, one of the most important events on the global design calendar, mark its tenth anniversary. Conceived by Sir John Sorrell and Ben Evans, the Festival was originally designed to pay tribute to the capital’s creativity and innovation; ten years later, this aim has been achieved beyond all expectations. “It is especially exciting to be staging the 10th London Design Festival in September during the year of the Olympics and the Diamond Jubilee,” says John Sorrell. “Over the last 10 years, we have grown the Festival across the world’s creative capital and this year, the Festival will be better than ever as we join in the celebrations and put the spotlight on design.”

 Since 2003, the Festival has been responsible for showcasing a range of exciting and ambitious projects, from installations in London’s public spaces to commissioned projects, highlighting emerging talent, in museums and galleries. Year on year, the Festival has evolved and developed in terms of its partners and its audience with 2011 seeing over 300 separate events and projects in London as part of the ten-day celebration. For 2012, a year when the global spotlight is firmly on London, the Festival is delighted to present a programme that will more than equal the quality, imagination and innovation that it has demonstrated for the last decade. “The London Design Festival continues to present design in new ways to an ever expanding audience. We stay ahead by being different and more relevant each year,” says Ben Evans, Director of London Design Festival.

Craft Central will also be involved in London Design Festival and have an interesting programme of events planned:

Craft Central Events For London Design Festival

To see the programme of events please visit www.londondesignfestival.com

Area:   UK   Britain   East of England   East Midlands   London  North East   North West    Yorkshire    Scotland    South East South West    Wales   West Midlands 

Creatabot Conversations: Music – 25th July 2012 – Rochester

Creative and Art Events

What turned out to be an invite to a few people to come to coFWD to see the space has turned into something much more interesting. There are now a number of people coming to coFWD on Wednesday to have a look at the space – and they all have one thing in common – making music. 

Having spoken to various people recently about possibilities and needs in Kent, Medway is quickly becoming a place bubbling with inspiration and like minds who want to create and collaborate. 

If you would love to meet other musical creatives and discuss where there are needs and also help others find out about things they maybe didn’t know, then we would love to see you Wednesday: to indeed see coFWD but also to have a nice relaxed (emphasis on RELAXED) afternoon to chat about creativity, collaboration and ideas.

We would love there to be a wide mix of people attend such as:

Songwriters
Singers
Musicians
Photographers
Gig organisers
Music Video Producers
Record Labels
Social Media peeps
Web designers
Illustrators

Place – 161 Rochester High Street – ME1 1EH

Time – 3.00pm until 5.00pm

Facebook event page: https://www.facebook.com/events/296198113812612/

For more details email: natasha@creatabot.co.uk

#creatabotconversations

Please note, our venue (http://coFWD.org/) is a very old bank building that is being slowly shaped by a community of individuals for long-term Community Interest. Sadly the startup project is in its infancy and being run on limited funds so the building currently has some accessibility issues. If you have specific access or disability requirements and would like to attend an event or activity please let us know at least 5 days before the event date so that we can do our utmost to resolve any potential problems to accommodate.”

This reason for the above is two fold:

1. by law we (coFWD/161/CreativeMedwayCiC) are required to make any ‘publicly promoted’ events or activity accessible to all and failure to be ‘accessible’ or not provide advanced notice of building/space accessibility limitations will likely land us in trouble.

2. it is very important that all of our events are measured for capacity and that we know who is coming to or has been through our doors, this is important for safety and security, and it also means the person running such activities can easily update participants of any changes or additional correspondence.

Area: South East

Stories we tell ourselves – by Jane Ayres

Editorials

Writers think instinctively in terms of narrative, of story.  It’s how we make sense of the world.  The brain, our computer, processes what we see, feel, hear and looks for meaning in this input, based on our internal database of past experiences, of what has already been recorded and stored.

“Our brain casts us as ‘the protagonist’ and then edits our experience with cinema-like precision, creating logical interrelations, mapping connections between memories, ideas, and events for future reference.  Story is the language of experience.”

(Quote from Wired for Story: The Writer’s Guide to Using Brain Science to Hook Readers from the Very First Sentence by Lisa Cron, Ten Speed Press.)

A story isn’t just about an event, a drama, a character.  It’s about how what happens affects that character and changes them, however subtle or enormous that change.  At the end of the story, things will never be the same.  A story is life.  Life is a story.

We learn from stories and engaging with characters, real or imagined, teaches us about ourselves.

Many people have a profound need to seek solutions and resolutions, to solve the puzzle that is our life, and I wonder if this need is enhanced in those driven to create.  We can explore this desire and feed this compulsion through our work, our stories.  Our therapy and remedy. Imagination is both a blessing and a curse. Reading other people’s stories, whether through fiction, painting, photography, film, music, is just as vital in helping us understand our own stories.

Maybe it explains the human instinct to document, record and collect.  By compiling evidence of your existence, you are assembling your story, or stories, proving that these things happened.  It is saying to yourself and the world; I am, I was.

The phenomenal success of Facebook testifies the depth of this need.  Author Jonathan Franzen is quoted as saying,

“We star in our own movies, we photograph ourselves incessantly, we click the mouse and a machine confirms our sense of mastery….. It’s all one big endless loop. We like the mirror and the mirror likes us.”

The revolution that is the internet has changed the world, presenting us with a dazzling array of creative tools and distribution channels.  We all have a story to tell, to share with the world.  And now all of us can.

By Jane Ayres

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‘Trails of Thread’: Exhibition inside the ‘Adain Avion’ – The Mobile Arts Space Plane

Creative and Art Events, Creative Communities and Inspiring Websites

The ‘Trails of Thread’ installation consists of artwork created during a series of Workshop sessions run by Llandudno based artist Wendy Couling. Working with the Textile-based group ‘Serentex’, including members of the Embroiderers Guild, and also a series of Masterclass sessions with members of the community. Using Wendy’s own work on perspex and aluminium as a starting point, the artwork is based on the participant’s collection of memories of Llandudno, and thus builds a connection between the fuselage of Adain Avion and the local landscape.

I was thrilled to be a part of the exhibition initially housed inside the DC plane that was the centrepiece of the Adain Avion project. The exhibition only lasted two hours and I was on hand to help with the install and take down, alongside our other studio-mates Gerallt and Toni. The exhibition then moved onto Mostyn Gallery where it will hang for two weeks [until July 25th].

Part of the London 2012 Festival, Adain Avion is one of 12 London 2012 Cultural Olympiad Artists taking the lead commissions to celebrate the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games in creative ways across the UK, and has been funded by the National Lottery through Arts Council of Wales. Adain Avion is Curated and Directed by Marc Rees, co-produced by Taliesin Arts Centre, Swansea University and receives additional funding from: Major Events Unit, Welsh Government; City and County of Swansea; Blaenau Gwent County Borough Council and Conwy Borough Council.

By Badge

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Any Questions, Uckfield? – By Alice Stansfield

Creative and Art News

Earlier this year, students from Uckfield Community Technology College studying politics, philosophy and critical thinking won a competition to have the BBC Radio 4 show ‘Any Questions’ broadcast live from the school on Friday 13 July. Although Friday 13th is known for bringing bad luck, the evening went very well and described as ‘successful’ by one of the teachers running the event, Dan Buschle. Attending the event beside an audience made up of parents, teachers and students were the panelists: David Starkey, Liz Kendall, Jeremy Hunt, Matthew Oakshot and with presenter Jonathan Dimbleby.

 

At the beginning of the event, Charles Hendry said it was ‘brilliant that students had put this together and was pleased to see how the night would go’ as at that moment students were still preparing back stage. What the audience didn’t see was behind the stage were students and some of the panelists choosing questions that audience members has submitted to be discussed on the show and then ten individuals were selected to be on air. One question submitted was by a student named James Baker. His question ‘Has the recent Tory blocking of the Liberal Democrats plans for Lord’s reform sparked the beginning of the end of the coalition government?’ was discussed on air.

Liz Kendall began with ‘it’s a good question’ and that it’s relevant to what’s been ‘discussed at Westminster at the moment’. This was the most discussed question of the night. Kendall continued the discussion to say that ‘Where do we want to take the country? When David Cameron was asked why he wanted to become Prime Minster he said because he thought he’d be rather good at it. You might question that.’ She seemed to be the best speaker of the night gaining the majority of applause from the audience, as Matthew Oakshot remarked as having the student’s ‘parents well trained’.

 

Kendall mentioned earlier ‘Politics seems so small when the problems seem so big’ and this seemed to summarise well how some audience members felt and wanted to know what was being done about it.

After the event some people involved in the event went to the Green Room to discuss the evening’s questions further off air. David Starkey said that the evening was ‘alright, but the politicians were extremely dull weren’t they? I suppose it comes with the job’. Assuming he was speaking from a student view of politicians this seems to mean he enjoyed the evening. Whereas Matthew Oakshot said how it was ‘the first time’ he’d been on the show, but loved the school’s ‘buzzy atmosphere’ and ‘wonderful students’ who made him ‘feel at home’.

 

Special thanks go to all the panelists and members of the BBC for bringing the event to Uckfield; the students for winning the competition, Dan Buschle; Helena Read; Nick Stoker and the music department for organising sound and equipment; members of the audience and everyone else involved who helped bring the wonderful evening together.

 

Content and interviews by Alice Stansfield, photography by Carl Goldsmith. 

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Introducing A New Creatabot Contributor – Kael Braham

Featured Creatives

Another contributor, woo! And from a different creative angle again. Kael, from Kent, spends most of his creative time acting and making music so will be bringing this interest into his articles. Here is a lovely mini interview so that you can find out more about him:

So Kael, what is your creative background?

I have Studied both media and drama at college.

What made you decide to concentrate on acting?

I tried my hand at everything creative I could, but acting was the one thing that made me think “this is what I want to do”.

Who inspires you both locally and universally? 

I have yet to find local inspiration but  if I had to pick one it would have to be my mum because she has always supported me through anything I have ever wanted to pursue. Universally I would have to say music as a whole inspires me.

Who would you love to work with?

The people I have done acting with have all been friends and people I know, and I actually enjoy working with them most. I know that if I try my best they will do the same and we can all work together.

Are there any other creative subjects you would love to learn?

I have always wanted to be in a band, and I was in one in the past. It was a lot of fun but I didn’t like the music we were making so I would love to be in a band where I truly loved the music we are creating and the style as a whole.

What would you like to achieve in the future?

I would like to get more notice as an actor and I would also like to be in a band again because those are two main things I love doing.

Can you recommend a creative website you love?

TeamFourStar.net

You can follow Kael on Twitter at @kaelbraham

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‘Adain Avion’ mobile arts space lands in Llandudno

Creative and Art Events

Photo by Marc Rees

On Sunday July 8th the fuselage of a DC aeroplane landed on the promenade in Llandudno, the third destination of the wingless plane’s “flight” around Wales, having previously nested in Swansea and Ebbw Vale, it will reach its final destination in August when it comes into land at the National Eisteddfod of Wales which in 2012 occupies a former airfield in Llandow, Vale of Glamorgan.

The wreckage of the DC-9 plane was discovered by Spanish sculptor and designer Eduardo Cajal in a scrapyard, having crashed with no fatalities, Cajal decided to transform the fuselage into a mobile arts space, his artist/architect led collective Trashumante finally unveiled Avion at the international art fair ARCO in Madrid. In 2009 Marc Rees was selected to represent Wales in the UK-wide project Artists Taking the Lead as part of the London 2012 Cultural Olympiad. His winning proposal was to bring Avion from its home in Huesca, northern Spain to travel around Wales. Rees acting as the planes Captain became the temporary custodian of this extraordinary sculptural object, celebrating the twentieth anniversary of its conception with an international cultural exchange titled “Adain Avion”.

Photo by Philip Andrews

Alongside “Captain” Marc Rees were 6 Stewardesses – The AAA Troupe [Adain Avion Attendants] played beautifully by ‘Kitsch ‘n Sync Collective‘ and decked out in dresses designed by Melyn Tregwynt  they performed routines around the plane, town and Mostyn Gallery creating a homage to the town’s theatrical entrepreneur Will Catlin who hired Pierrot groups and strategically placed them about town to publicise his shows. Will Catlin’s daughter Margot worked with dancer and choreographer Cai Tomos to develop a performance which took place on the site where Will once built her a roller skating rink.

Local Artists Nick Elphick, Tim Pugh and Wendy Couling staged exhibitions and workshops within the plane, and artists selected from the Helfa Gelf Open Studios Arts Trail took part in a sound and video installation. Aeroplane related films played on screens inside the fuselage and each morning the plane hosted a different fitness class.

The events, exhibitions and performances where all recorded and along with the footage from previous destinations will be edited to produce the planes ‘blackbox’ which will be presented by Marc Rees to the National History Museum at St.Fagans, Cardiff, where it will be archived in the Contemporary Folk Archive.

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By @badgemakesart

Area: Wales

Take A Little Trip – By George Langridge

Editorials

I did have an amazing set of photographs set for this article, however, my laptop decided to die on me. I have decided to use these photographs as they show some amazing sights and it is an insight to my childhood.

A few months ago I took a trip to the north of Wales with my grand-parents. As always I had my camera by my side. So much countryside and fresh air, always good for the lungs.

Wait, Why Is It So Cold Up Here?

 I decided that I would take a walk after dinner – got me out of washing up. Next to where we where staying was a mountain that I used to always climb and walk when I was a kid. This time I had a camera, so I could remember what it looked like – some day I won’t get to go again. All I had on me was a 18-55mm lens, not great for landscapes, but what a view.

Near where we stay is a town called Barmouth, I’d say it is the main town in that area. Connecting the two sides of the estuary is this old rail and foot bridge, as I was walking down to cross it I looked in to my viewfinder and immediately shot this. I believe this bridge is roughly 1 mile long. I just love the detail in this photograph, when I was editing it I noticed there is actually a man walking on the mountain in the background.

This particular image is available to purchase HERE along with a few other pieces of my work although I do vary which images are available from time to time. I have also submitted it to the BBC’s Countryfile competition.

Further down the path I took this quick photograph, although I wish I had spent more time composing it. I think it shows how long it actually is. I went for the de-saturated look as it complemented the previous photograph and it kind of showed the bridge’s age and time. If I had properly framed this I think it would have been ‘awesome’.

For the full resolution photographs and more visit my Flickr. If you like any of my photographs and would like to purchase a print copy email me at: georgelangridge95@gmail.com

Twitter/Instagram: @georgelangridge

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HYC – Hello You Creatives

Creative Communities and Inspiring Websites

HELLO YOU CREATIVES: A collective of humans being creative.

‘Help More Make More’ is our M.O. (at the very least its a decent blog you can steal ideas from) 

A wonderful website with so much inspiration!

http://helloyoucreatives.com/

http://twitter.com/hellocreatives

The Wall Breakers – Inspiration From USA

Creative Communities and Inspiring Websites

Sometimes we hit a wall, a creative block. But there are things that can help this common part of a creatives life, something that is certain to help is the website “The Wall Breakers”. Set up by two guys from Brooklyn – James Scully and Matt Weckel – the site features inspirational artists and their work as well as various creative news and inspiring features that might just get your creative juices flowing again.

To see this website full of all round creative coolness visit www.thewallbreakers.com

You will also find the feed on Twitter and Facebook.

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