Artists from St Helens have come together to address the lack of affordable, accessible, studio spaces in the town. Highs and lows from the group’s inception and along their journey towards more space for art in this North-West town.
Mark the Day on the Street – 15/12/10
Resulting from our pop-up studios day, Joan Birkett produced this piece of work. She says “I’ve called it- Mark the Day on the Street – 15/12/10. Two young graphic art students from the college drew onto my canvas which I have now worked into. Found it interesting to do because I felt I needed to be aware of their marks as part of the development of the work,”
Well, Platform applied for a NAN bursary, but didn’t get it, but on the plus side, the local paper featured our pop-up studio event:
From St Helens Star website:
Artists campaign for studio space
6:00pm Sunday 2nd January 2011
A GROUP of artists seeking an affordable ‘platform’ to work in St Helens took their campaign the town’s streets.
They produced artworks in the town centre to highlight their need for affordable and accessible studio spaces.
Calling themselves Platform, the 15 strong art squad – made up of painters, photographers, poets and filmmakers – produced their art in public.
Claire Weetman, one the art campaigners, told the Star: “Whereas in Liverpool and Manchester or other towns there is studio space for artists to work in together that is affordable, there isn’t any in St Helens.
“If you want studio space, you have to go out to one of the cities. We are looking at suitable venues and are trying to access bursaries to support us.”
To keep up to date on the campaign see platformarts.blogspot.com
Platform is a group of artists based in St Helens, UK, who are working together to share their practice and to address the lack of affordable, accessible, studio spaces in the town. On Wednesday 15th December 2010, the artists took to the streets of St Helens to produce artworks within the town in order to highlight this to a wider audience.
Claire Weetman produced ‘Recording the Journey’ a drawing intervention on the pavements of St Helens, which visually charted an audio recording of a journey through the town, and used snippets of overheard conversation.
Joan Birkett created a temporary exhibition of some works in progress and invited the passing audience to make marks on canvas which she could later develop. Photographers Jon Holden, Tony Glover and Angela Wilkinson exhibited some of their works, produced new work and documented the event, whilst Tony Maher from the organisation ‘Art from a bag’ invited the public to take photographs and email them back.
Michael and Adam from Renaissance Film Productions filmed the event, and Tina Culshaw from T5 magazine was present and will no doubt feature Platform’s efforts in an upcoming issue.
Audience pulling events came from poet Raphael Hart, who performed his works to gathered students and shoppers, and the installation ‘Restricted Movement’ by Pauline Heyes brought humorous responses and engaged debate from those who saw it.
Platform plans to hold more events in 2011 in its efforts to work towards the establishment of affordable studios in the town of St Helens.
To keep up to date on Platform events see platformarts.blogspot.com
