Archives for posts with tag: Whitworth Art Gallery

What’s on in Greater Manchester in October

17/10/2011 //
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What’s on? Lots on…

I love Manchester: it’s the funkiest, edgiest, dirtiest city in the UK. It’s a mish-mash of architecture and a melting pot of people. Living here, we can dip our fingers into many cultural pies and take a nibble of this and a mouthful of that. Below is a list of things to see and do during October that should accommodate all tastes:

October

  • Royal Exchange Theatre: Good from 12 October until 5 November; Dagmar Krause on 25 October.
  • The fabulous Manchester Literature Festival kicks off on 10th October and runs until 23rd October. Quite a few of the events are free, but you’ll need to hurry to reserve your ticket(s).
  • We are ExtInked exhibition at Manchester Museum. You can view more exciting things to see and do at Manchester Museum in October here.
  • Here’s what’s going on at Mad Lab in October.
  • The fabulous Cornerhouse not only shows the latest world films, but also hosts art exhibitions and educational courses too.
  • Want to get out and about in the fresh air? The National Trust are holding a Walking Festival during October.
  • The wonderful Ford Madox-Brown: Pre-Raphaelite Pioneer exhibition, is a must-see event at Manchester Art Gallery. There’s also still plenty of time to catch the Grayson Perry exhibits which will be on show until February 2012.
  • The Gallery of Costume’s latest exhibition is on the brilliant French fashion designer, Yves Saint Laurent.
  •  Until 13 November, the People’s History Museum is hosting an exhibition of artwork by J Chuhan as part of the Asian Triennial 2011.
  • Hot Bed Press in Salford, offer fine art courses in printmaking, book-making, photo-etching etc.
  • If you like modern architecture then you may be interested in what’s on at CUBE (Centre for the Urban Built Environment).
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Cornerhouse meet and mingle: thanks for coming

19/09/2011 //
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HwaYoung from Mad Lab

Hwa Young (above) talks geek and bio

Isn’t it great when a bunch of interesting, creative people get together in one room?

Friday’s event at the Cornerhouse was such an occasion. Community partners, WEA staff and tutors, prospective learners, film makers and cultural partners all gathered in the Cornerhouse annexe to meet and mingle and learn more about Peripheral Vision.

Apart from a slight glitch with my beloved MacBook (well it is four and a half years old), which decided, on a whim, to go mute. “What?” I said, “What?” staring in disbelief at its white, shiny loveliness. “Today, of all days,” I scolded. Thank goodness Hwa Young had brought hers along and I’d had the foresight to pop my presentation on a memory stick. Crisis averted we got on with the presentations:

Thank you

Thank you to everyone named above, and to Jenny from MCC, Niall from City South, Amanda from the Booth Centre, Zoe from Manchester City Council, Harriet from Manchester Camerata and the film-makers Barney and Liz for attending.

Also thank you to my colleagues, Fiona, Mandy, Andy, Susan D, Susan A, Karen and Catherine for being there too. Finally, thanks go to Pat at the Cornerhouse for organising the room (which everyone loved) and the teas and coffees.

Looking back, from my perspective the morning was a success. However, I sort of wish I hadn’t mentioned the pickled gherkin and plum tomato nibbles, while telling an anecdote about a male life-model…

We send our best wishes to Connie from Manchester Art Gallery who had a cycling tumble and couldn’t attend. Get well soon Connie x

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Peripheral Vision is now ‘out there’

01/09/2011 //
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Jaume Plensa: Irma-Nuria, 2010 (Yorkshire Sculpture Park, August 2011)

Spread the Word!

Today, Peripheral Vision officially went live. I sent an email to everyone at WEA in the North West, with the project PDF attached and a link to this blog.

I also finalised the arrangements for the Peripheral Vision presentations which will bring together the four main partners: Cornerhouse, Whitworth Art Gallery, Mad Lab and People’s History Museum. This will take place on Friday 16 September from 10:00 – 12:00, in the Cornerhouse annexe (thank you Pat). WEA staff, tutors, some learners and volunteers and community partners will also be invited to make up the audience.

Aims for the meeting:

  • to tell people about the project and how they can get involved
  • to showcase the four main cultural partners so that they can extol the virtues of their respective venues
  • to sign up interested parties to the project
  • to enlist new potential bloggers
  • to mingle, mix and mooch
To Do:
  1. Design invitation for community partners/volunteers (01/09/11) and send out (06/09/11)
  2. Draw up list of invitees (05/09/11)
  3. Contact Pat re: refreshments and/or lunch (02/09/11 out of office reply) (Pat emailed – only Cornerhouse caterers can provide refreshments 07/09/11)
  4. Do my Power Point Presentation (13 & 15/09/11)
  5. Do agenda and timings (14/09/11)
  6. Write press release
  7. email NIACE with blog link (02/09/11)
  8. Tweet blog link (02/09/11)
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Whitworth Art Gallery

29/07/2011 //
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Whitworth Art Gallery

Whitworth Art Gallery

is one of my favourite cultural venues in Manchester. I love its park-side location and the way in which as soon as you enter the building and walk through the foyer you are in the galleries. I find this immediacy both stress free and calming. So, when Ed Watts, the Adult Programme Co-ordinator, suggested meeting up to talk about Peripheral Vision, it put a big smile on my face. Ed and I have worked together extensively over the past couple of years with excellent results. I first met Ed when he worked at Urbis. He put together a wonderful video making session for some of our adult learners who had learning disabilities. I clearly remember popping down to Urbis to take some photos of the group, opening the door to the creative studio and feeling touched by the happiness and warmth in the room. Everyone was having a great time and the learners were delighted with the videos they had shot and edited themselves. Apparently they all spoke about the experience for months afterwards.

Working in partnership with the Whitworth is an absolute joy: everything runs smoothly, and the workshop facilitators that Ed (and Wendy) have employed were all professional and inspirational, and I have received excellent feedback from the participants.

Examples of the workshops we have run at the Whitworth have included:

Printmaking with Alan Birch

Book-making with Lucy May Schofield

Fabric cup cakes with Andrea Lord

Just the Ticket

In March 2009, we held the celebratory event for our prior NIACE project, Just the Ticket, at the Whitworth. Wendy Gallagher, did an amazing job providing us with the fabulous South Gallery and various exciting workshops for over 90 adults who attended on the day. It truly was the highlight of a very successful project.

Levenshulme Inspire

Anyway, Ed and I discussed Peripheral Vision and how we could use the Whitworth’s iPads to make short films. We also thought we could run another photography and textiles course that we put on for Levenshulme Inspire a few months ago, in which the learners printed digital photographs in black and white onto cotton then embelished their pictures with embroidery, beads and sequins.

Photography & Textiles Levenshulme Inspire

You can see a short video of the learners’ work here (scroll down to the Whitworth & Inspire video).

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iPads and Book-making for Adult Learners’ Week 2011

20/05/2011 //
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iPad

Whitworth Art Gallery: iPads and Book-making

Today is the ‘Get Digital’ day for Adult Learners’ Week and I have organised two fab workshops for adults at Whitworth Art Gallery: book-making and iPad iTour.

Lucy May Schofield was the tutor for the bookmaking. Lucy is a consummate professional. She always arrives in plenty of time to set up the room. She brings all the necessary equipment for up to about fifteen participants. Her teaching style is spot on with lessons pitched at the right level and pace. I have received excellent feedback about her workshops, and her personal hand-made books are beautiful.

I first met Lucy when I attended one of her two day bookmaking courses at Hot Bed Press in the summer of 2010. I loved it! I made six or seven little books using folding, cutting and sewing techniques which I then used for my Level 3 Photography Diploma.

For the more experimental iPad iTour workshop, learners filmed some footage of the gallery on new iPad 2s then edited it down to a couple of minutes, added music or a voice over then watched their short film on a big screen. It was amazing to see what the learners produced after three hours, one of which was spent on a guided tour of the gallery. I have to admit that the new iPad 2 is a gorgeous, covetous, pretty little thing and makes my iPad 1 seem rather clunky and outmoded.

Anyway, the reason I’m telling you about this day, is because these two workshops have proved inspirational for the project idea, which is still forming in and around my head like a cumulus cloud on a sunny day.

I know that somehow the new bid will include bookmaking of some kind and the use of iPads to make films.

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