INTRODUCING… 5 BY 5
Last night was the first of our monthly events. We’d invited 5 East Sussex artists to talk about their work Pecha Kucha-style. The brief was that each artist should talk for 5 minutes about their work, and show 15 slides with 20 seconds for each slide.
None of the five are particularly used to talking about their work – but that’s the point really – to go through the process of preparing the talk; making decisions about what’s really important in their practice – what to focus on in that short 5 minutes; to select images, practice fitting the talk into the time slot, and then, finally, stand up and do it in public.
When the evening came about 20 people including Towner’s Exhibition Curator, Sanna Moore, came to hear the talks. All the hard work and preparation on the part of the five really paid off as they all gave interesting, articulate and well thought out presentations. They were enthusiastically received by the audience and the whole evening seemed to be a really positive experience for all concerned. A good start!
WEBSITE WONDER!
Exciting news for the Network this week is that Towner have just launched their new website and we are very proud to have our very own pages!
We’re also getting quite excited about the first of our regular monthly events which will take place next week. We’ve got our five artist-member-presenters all primed up and ready to each give a five minute presentation about, or relating to their work. www.a-n.co.uk/p/1381448
… AND ON TO THE NEXT ONE!
Well, the launch is done and now it’s on to the next event. We have got the next four events mapped out so all we have to do is make sure that people know about them and then make them happen.
Our focus for these early months of the Network is very much about getting to know each other, so for July we’re offering five of our member-artists a special opportunity to introduce themselves by giving a five minute Pecha Kucha-style talk about their work. The five are going to have to make some tough decisions about what to say about themselves while sticking to their alotted time and the fifteen slides they can use to demonstrate exactly what it is that they do.
So far we’ve got four of the five just about sorted and have plenty more people who could fill the fifth slot, but we’re just waiting for the four to confirm before we settle on number five as we want to make sure we have a really good mix which will demonstrate the breadth and diversity of art in the area.
AND ALSO…it was lovely to meet Matt Roberts of Matt Roberts Arts last week, who very kindly allowed me to pick his brains about the amazing things his organisation has achieved. I have followed the development of Matt Roberts Arts since it started in 2006, but could not have predicted that in 2011 Matt would be running an organisation with several thousand members and which offers opportunities for artists to submit work for 3 annual prizes and exhibit their work in a central London gallery. I am full of admiration at the selfless drive and passion that goes in to making these sort of opportunities available to artists.
WE’VE LAUNCHED!
Yes, we’ve done it! We held our launch event at Towner last night which was well attended by about 40 artists who poured their energies into enthusiastially networking and who mostly seemed to think that the new Network is a grand idea. We gained 10 more members in addition to those who have already joined, with the promise of several more who took membership forms away to fill in at home. A good start.
AN INVITATION…
(if you haven’t received yours, here it is!)
Friday 10 June, 6pm – 8pm at the Junction Box, Towner, College Road, Eastbourne.
Blue Monkey Studio is pleased to invite you to the launch of the Blue Monkey Network. If you’re not sure what the Network can offer you, do come along for a chat and to find out more. To help us plan the evening, please RSVP to Judith at [email protected]
To make the evening even more special, Gallery 2 at Towner will be open exclusively for artists attending the launch to visit or re-visit Elizabeth Magill’s exhibition of paintings before it closes on the 19th June.
Blue Monkey Network is an artists’ network run by artists for artists, creating opportunities for conversation and the exchange of ideas, information, skills and knowledge among East Sussex artists. We are pleased to be working with and supported by our gallery, Towner, who will host our events and the Networking Artists’ Networks initiative (NAN) through a-n The Artist Information Company who awarded us a NAN Futurific! bursary for the setting up of the Network. You can follow our blog at www.a-n.co.uk/p/1102904/
Membership information will be available at the launch or by e-mailing [email protected] . Membership costs £25 per artist per year.
