As the visual arts officer in Halton, based at the Brindley Arts Centre in Runcorn, I manage a wide variety of projects, curate exhibitions and work with many interesting artists. There’s always so much going on that it’s difficult to find time to stop and reflect, so in this blog I’ll try to show some of the work we do in Halton’s arts development team.
5 August
Had a lovely morning with the Hazlehurst artists at Old Town Bloom, their celebration of everything artistic and green fingered in the middle of Runcorn today. Follow @Studio_73a for pictures of the fabulous creativity that can happen when artists are commissioned to revitalise a small town centre. Every day I work with artists I feel that a difference is being made to people’s lives, and certainly the 300+ people and 40+ organisations who took part in Old Town Bloom would agree.
Today I have been working my way through our collections project database, finding all the items in our local collections which are related to World War I. This is in preparation for an exhibition at the Brindley in October and I have already found a few gems, including the Certificate of Honour seen here.
I’ve also been clearing the backlog of email, arranging things for Heritage Open Days, making appointments to see artists and making contact with our local branches of the British Legion. All in an interesting day’s work.
For various reasons I haven’t posted in a while, but it’s nice to be back. I’ve been kept busy with the great news that the Heritage lottery Fund bid I was working on with colleagues has been successful. Working Lives: Working Together will support Halton’s Heritage, a partnership of public and community collections to catalogue objects, documents and photographs, making them publicly accessible online, and will also record oral histories and create new history trails in the borough.
Plus we have a fabulous exhibition A Landscape of Marginal Encounters by artist Claire Weetman at the Brindley. Find out more about Claire’s work at www.claireweetman.co.uk
Hazlehurst artists have been working on a project called Old Town Bloom they have been developing to improve the look of Runcorn Town Centre. The culmination of this project will be a celebration on August 5th, so if you are local, pay them a visit at the Memorial Gardens, just opposite the bus station. You can follow their progress on twitter @Studio_73a
I seem to have been doing all kinds of things in the past week – and seen a lot of people. On the 25th and 26th April I was accepting works for our annual Open art exhibition. We had 92 entries and it was great to catch up with people whom I hadn’t seen since the last Open, from local art groups, people who pop up with an interesting new work just for this show, but also to talk to a few artists whom I work with regularly. Maria Tarn from Hazlehurst Craft Studios came for a chat on Friday morning, and in the afternoon I had a visit from Natalie McGahan, who is the artist looking after the New Art Spaces in Widnes, managed by Castlefield Gallery, Manchester.
We had the selection of prizes for the show on Monday, so I can’t give anything away, but I did enjoy working with Derek from Warrington Museum and artist Derek Couturier on this.
Then I’ve been visiting the Years Ahead art groups (painting & drawing, Tap dance, crafts and creative writing) for older Halton residents, sitting on the Halton Heritage steering group, and last night seeing a great performance by Parlor Dance, here at the Brindley. Roll on the weekend!
16.4.14
A lot going on here at the Brindley this week. Our latest exhibition Castlefields of Dream & Inside, Outside In-between is being well received by visitors – it’s been a great opportunity to showcase the talents of local young people, within the Brindley youth theatre and at Cronton 6th Form College.
Meanwhile we have 3 new arrivals outside the Brindley. Back in 2009 artist Angela Sidwell was commissioned by Halton BC to create three large stone sculptures depicting the heads of Vikings for the Wigg Island country park. Now they have had to be relocated due to the new bridge (giant construction project) that is being built over the Mersey. They’re looking pretty good.
Also I hope Claire Weetman is having a nice time in Southend. Claire is there in residence at METAL and she’s using the time as part of her research for her solo exhibition coming up at the Brindley at the end of June.
