Becoming Part of Something

As someone who is very sensitive to criticism one person’s negativity can completely plummet me into doubt about what we are striving to do in the gallery rather than actually looking at the other many many people who are completely positive and thrilled with our progression as a gallery and for whom there are many tangible benefits.

So it is time to evaluate and look at the positives.

Liz and I saw the potential that lay in the idea of the gallery and brought in energy. Yes it’s a lot of work but we both thrive on the challenges and the

Benefits of Core Gallery….Part I

Inspiration

We are bringing external international, local, professional, emerging, outsider, student, and community art to the space, to inspire and create dialogue and excitement in an underused space.

Developing our presence and reaching more audiences= increased opportunities

By establishing new relationships with these people we can attract more of an audience to our space for Cor Blimey Events.

With each show, with a further online presence we can reach more people.

As many people are professional artists in the studios, this is exactly what they want to develop and further their work, to increase sales and opportunities and even if just to increase their audiences, whoever they may be, and not necessarily sell work

We have also had and shall continue to have several CBA members shows throughout the year which are fully supported of course by those who work on Core Gallery

As a gallery we regularly receive Deptford Art Map tours for shows which is very beneficial

www.deptfordartmap.com

Networks

Core Gallery helps to nurture and support these relationships between external artists and our CBA members You can meet other artists and curators : strike up a dialogue and a collaboration could be fostered or even just a friendship! As a result of work done on the gallery so far there is tangible evidence of benefits:

Artists have sold artworks, been invited to exhibit in future curated show and had career opportunities, increased profiles etc.

Elizabeth Murton has been commissioned to create an installation at DX

Education

Engine Chat chat , peer on peer critique , Art Talks with professional artists and curators

Artists workshops

Community drawing

All of these are interesting and educational to both our studio artists and external members

Skills

The gallery is offering internships to new graduates interested in the arts to develop their skills and knowledge in the arts sector and gather valuable insight into a working gallery space.

‘ Rosalind consistently assigned worthwhile projects and was very mindful of the individual strengths and interests of those involved., I especially liked how much freedom I had when approaching certain tasks. Ros was always open to new ideas and welcomed the opinions and suggestions of others. Finally, her advice as a gallery manager and practising artist was incredibly valuable to my ongoing exploration of the contemporary art world.

Overall, this experience allowed me to work on challenging projects in a dynamic arts environment.’

Emily. Our first intern June 2010

Part II shortly

Studios currently available! Please see coregallery.co.uk for more info

PLus coming up: why external artists benefit from showing in artist led spaces!

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The benefits of Core Gallery to studio members is now about 5 pages long and I shall oublish excerpts onto here- it shall be a good guide for anyone who wants to know about setting up an artist led space as there are many benefits which everyone is aware of but its good to have something in writing, so its there on record and clear as things have been moving so fast, we have hardly taken a breath; it helps with new studio member s as well , so they can see all the activites we undertake as part of a cooperative

. The trustees will also benefit from seeing the fruits of our labours.

It begins thus ‘ Art isn’t just something you trip over to get to your studio…’

Also 2 more exhibitions for the gallery. Monochrome set sees ex studio members Pat and Hanz ( Patrick Morrisey and Clive ( Hanz) Hancock return to us with their brilliant collaborative exhibition with Leyla Folwell.

Patrick studied at Goldsmiths a while ago and then left art and has now returned with works about utilizing ‘systems’ which are basically geometric/ numeric and ultimately tangential.

As Patrick explains:

‘ This work has sympathy with the neo-concrete/neo constuctivist methodology of the late 20^th centuryThe title of the show is intended to bind the works together under a theme which may evoke any number of associations with Pop culture, kinetiscism etc. This is deliberate.

Clive Hancock ( Hanz) has evolved his method as an ‘outsider’ artist, having had no formal art education. His work again, has its routes in the late 20^th century and also the contemporary practice of neo constructivism ‘

Bringing in the talented Leyla Folwell- a current CBA member who explores similar themes in ceramic work; concentrating on the deconstruction of simple everyday forms. Her unique making method captures energy in motion which she turns to stone. The show starts on the 8^th October.

We are also slotting in Pleasure Parlour, a 3 day festival , Enver Gursev and Kelda Hole ( 2 Cor Blimey Members) , work with invited artists: Holly Revell and my very own father Pater Davis. An exhibition of photography, painting, installation and sculptures, exploring the naked form / nudes with live music and performance art along the way …..pretty exciting and alternative. My father was thrilled to be asked by Enver and so too was I. His sculpture is incredible, even if I do say so myself. His work is in the South Africa National gallery amongst other big South African Collections, where he began his work and I hope we get him some good exposure with Core Gallery At 78 my father is not slowing down a bit and he loves getting peoples reaction and engaging people with his work. I guess that may be where I get some of my passion for engagement from him. He has also written some interesting articles on sculpture that will be interesting to have in the gallery during the show as an educational tool.

Okay to page 6 now of the benefits of artist led spaces…….

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Storms in Teacups

We recently had a studio / gallery meeting with our studio members. As with all these meetings, getting 22 people in the same room on the same day is difficult but we try and have as many as possible to make sure everyone knows what is going on, to bat out ideas and update.

In the meeting we introduced the future gallery plans and sponsorship idea. I sent through an email as well with all the info to our members.

One member who wasn’t in the meeting sent an email that questioned us and our ‘profit drive’ and wanted to see our finances (do feel free to be our accountant Mister )

The complaint although slightly wounding is actually hilarious as it came obviously from complete ignorance of what we have been striving towards for the last 6months. I dont think he has even looked at our website or newsletter. Very strange too that you complain without educating yourself about the organisation first and after 6 months of actual being an entity with plenty of meetings along the way.Fair enough to have questions and want to know more. But that was not the gist of the email.

There was a query over accessibility to studio spaces too which never has been and never will be an issue.

The benefits of having Core Gallery outweigh the possible drawbacks and here is some feedback from other members which I publish here as it is far more eloquent than me ranting .

1. ‘ Please be assured that studio members are the key to the success of our cooperative and the birth of Core Gallery is not aimed to take anything away from you, rather give you further opportunities and have a good mix to ensure continuing survival and success.’

2. ‘I just want to point out that Core Gallery is something that we at Cor Blimey Arts have been aspiring to for a few years now.

It’s a positive exposure into the contemporary Art scene, not just around Deptford, but to a wider stage.

This can be confirmed by the number of re-nowned Artists and Curators that have been through our doors and the growing number of attendance from the general public.

We (as there have been several of us working VOLUNTARILY) have put in a lot of hard work to make the space (incorporating Cor Blimey Arts members) visible and into a serious Arts Venue. Cor Gallery is NOT a profit making venture and is still very much part of Cor Blimey Arts, which is a registered charity.

Nothing has changed in the space in terms of accessibility or cost incurred since Core Gallery was set up.

In the past, whenever there was a show up or music events (mostly our own) we still had to be very aware and sensitive to what was going on around us in terms of lighting noise etc, no different to what is happening now.

Core Gallery has been open to everyone to be part of from the outset, It’s up to the individual to decide how much or little they want to be part of this.

Along with myself I think many of the CBA members have experienced the benefits of being involved in such a prolific proactive working environment.’

To work towards making the gallery sustainable is essential. It is a long term goal and a sensible ambition otherwise we wont be able to carry on forever, no matter how passionate we are.

So now I need to set out a list of all the positive benefits to show our members, just in case it is required

Nevermind . It shall be a good evaluation for ourselves to see how much we have achieved and how we wish to move forward.

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A fascinating R4 doc about solitude….

Creativity demands it…..for you to enjoy

http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b00t333g/Some…

I apologise for my little moan of exasperation in my previous post

thank you to Jane Boyer, Emily Speed

and Susan Francis

( all artists and all bloggers on a-n and for some reason the links on a-n to their artists talking pages are too long to put here ???/)

as well as a variety of other friends and supporters who perked me up with their commiseration, ideas, thoughts and suggestions all of which I am taking on board! So, thank you. Its nice to hear from you

These as well as other factors have contributed to a more positive outlook and reinforced all that we have achieved so far.

Firstly the tingle of excitement of having several marvellously strong shows lined up : the Eighteenth Emergency and Sisyphus amongst them . Both shows look fascinating and I realise how much I alone learn from having exposure to these artists and curators, their intriguing interesting ideas and all their concepts/ works/ practices.

As I said in the previous blog , the DX open submission is also very exciting, to see the wealth of talent that could show in our space is inspiring. ( 5 days left to enter! )

www.coregallery.co.uk

We also now have two new interns. Charlotte and Jo and they each have projects to work on that we tailored to their own interests and strengths.

Charlotte our press intern has written the most wonderful and illuminating press release for the Eighteenth Emergency. After her first day with us, doing admin, I handed over the artists cv’s, info etc and from it, she wove something wonderful. I am looking forward to her future input

Joanna is looking at our sponsorship programme and inspired us to move this forward as with her assistance we hope we can make it worthwhile. Jo has some great ideas and gumption. She will also be responsible for sales for our exhibitions, someone that can talk about the artworks and promote it at our shows. Not that Core is at all about sales, but we have some amazing talent in the space and they can benefit from our help in attracting collectors for their work. Both bright sparks!

I received a lovely report from my previous intern who seems to have gained a lot from her time with us , which was just 8 weeks so I hope that our new ladies shall be equally pleased by the end of their time with us. As ever I learn from them too.

A couple of friends have also said they shall assist me in my own practise on the admin side – very kind of them too!

Inb practical terms I am going to try and make a stricter schedule for myself in terms of paperwork and allocate specific time to painting and paperwork and try not to stray. In my non art job I am negotiating a sabbatical so that I can test the waters of having no financial security in order to see if it is manageable and that I can sustain myself. to have an extra days to work on the gallery and my projects shall hopefully be fruitful- I am just nervous of losing guarantedd security but more and more I know I have to make the leap. At least it shall give me time to breathe.

Finally I somehow did manage to fit in some amazing exhibitions at The Agency Gallery, Utrophia, Aubin and Wills in Redchurch street and a show which engaged me and invigorated me. A tonic for the soul.

I painted too in the end, after my wonky week , I am starting a piece about The Cadburys Factory in Stonebridge which has the most startling back story of its slow shut down and the loss of jobs for generations of communities that I initially heard on radio 4, fascinating story

Not bad for seeking a bit of clarity……group effort I say !

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