ART MOVES ART An exhibition and four performances exploring the fusion between music, movement and drawing:
A CONCLUSION OR A BEGINNING?
Kate Brundrett
ART MOVES ART
Contents Art Moves Art: A brief outline About Bluebell Bookshop The Exhibition: Workshops at the Cumbria Institute of the Arts The Performance evenings: The people involved A conclusion or a beginning? Press cuttings Budgets Poster
ART MOVES ART:
“An inspiring evening”
A brief outline The idea about ‘one art moving another’ erupted from a challenge: How to integrate sound and music in a bookshop. Discussions led to the merging of different art forms and how they might work and ‘respond’ to one another. The resulting performances were experiments merging sound, movement and drawing. There was no set brief: musicians, performers and artists were invited into an informal setting with a participating audience, the outcome of which was entirely open.
ART MOVES ART:
“Absorbing and relaxing”
About Bluebell Bookshop Situated in the centre of Penrith, the Bluebell Bookshop is a source of information and inspiration, and a hub for forwardthinking ideas. The Insideout Art Programme within the Bookshop has run over18 months with a series of exhibitions of local artists’ work. The space has been used to create an open environment, offering an opportunity and a platform to create new work and room to experiment. The exhibitions are part of Bluebell’s wider intention to move towards creating a community space that is alive with its environment, a place to meet and a hub of social creativity and enterprise, a space “that invites, engages and empowers without qualification and is spirited with artistic, intellectual, musical, young people-centred and imagination-changing ideas.”
ART MOVES ART:
“Fantastic - lets do more�
The Exhibition: Workshops at the Cumbria Institute of the Arts The exhibition in the bookshop was the result of drawings produced through workshops with art and dance students from the Cumbria Institute for the Arts in June 2003. Asked to encapsulate the sensation of movement from a dancer model, the students had to adjust their observations and open up both the canvas and their thought processes to capture a sense of movement itself. Involving fifteen drawing students, invited professionals and an entire cast of performers, the participants worked in ways many had not practiced before and produced an enormous body of work over the two days. The resulting exhibition forms a lively show bringing alive the energy of the dancers into visual compositions. The workshops were assisted by funding from The Cumbria Institute of the Arts.
ART MOVES ART:
“I really enjoyed the evening - it will stay with me”
The Performance evenings: People involved
The musicians: Dike Okoh, London. Dike is a singer and composer whose work encompasses hiphop, jazz, European art songs and rap. He is currently under contract to EMI as a songwriter. Ben McDougall, Colby, Cumbria. Ben is an outstanding flute player who studies at Chetham’s School of Music. He is as comfortable performing as a soloist at classical international festivals and playing with chamber orchestras as improvising jazz, folk and contemporary free music.
ART MOVES ART:
“A long time coming”
Rob Steels, Appleby, Westmorland. Rob plays upright bass, fretless bass, guitar, mandolin, accordion and more, bringing a host of musical traditions and colours into his improvisations. He is currently playing in jazz bands and a world folk group.
Jon Bowie, Stavely, Cumbria. Jon is a guitarist, singer and songwriter whose love of the blues infuses whatever genre he is playing in – folk, rock or jazz. He has his own blues band and plays with many groups around the NorthWest.
Jilly Jarman, Penrith, Cumbria. Jilly is a pianist, singer, percussionist and composer whose improvisations draw on jazz, African, world and contemporary music. She has improvised and written for many multi-media events and especially enjoys working with movement and visual artists.
ART MOVES ART:
“I have really appreciated this opportunity to contribute to an evening of inspired improvising”
The dancers: Miranda Tufnell, Renwick, Cumbria. Miranda has been improvising dance in galleries, theatres and workshops internationally since the 70’s. Well know in movement circles she has written a handbook on working with improvisation in performance called ‘Body, space, image’. Sharon Higginson, Hexham. Sharon trained in theatre and became a lecturer in choreography at Dartington College of Arts. She has been involved in a wide variety of performance and improvisation projects, working with composers, visual artists, writers and theatre practitioners. Tim Rubidge, North Pennines. Tim has been devising and performing dance for over 25 years. His work has taken him across the UK aswell as North America, Singapore and most of Europe. Since 1990 he has been exploring dance in a number of settings and is joint director of the company Body Stories with Miranda Tufnell.
ART MOVES ART:
“Excellent�
The artists: Doris Rohr, St Bees, Cumbria. Doris is Head of Drawing at the Cumbria Institute and works on large scale mark making in her artistic practice.
Paul Clark, Kendal, Cumbria. Paul is a painter and a member of the Greendoor Studio group in Kendal.
Victoria Relph, Penrith, Cumbria. Victoria uses alternative materials such as stick painting in her work.
Wayne Poland, Penrith, Cumbria. Wayne is a well known abstract painter in the Penrith area whose colourful images describe indepth narratives.
Brian Cowper, Calthwaite, Cumbria. Brian is a sculptor of organic and spiritual forms using a range of materials. He also teaches around the country.
Rebecca Mellor, Carlise, Cumbria. Becky is a student at the Cumbria Institute for the arts, her energetic drawings have featured throughout the project.
Kate Brundrett, Newby, Cumbria. Kate is a graphic designer and sculptor working in a range of materials exploring the line.
ART MOVES ART:
“Great this is happening I love the informality”
The audience:
Local and visiting participants intrigued by open ended improvisation, and wishing to be part of a combined experiment.
The audience were a diverse group, young and old, who had heard about the event by word of mouth and reviews in the county’s newspapers. They were invited to respond through drawing and mark making, given a range of sketchbooks, paper, pens and pastels. Because the events were free there was no restriction and many people came again. The feedback was fantastic with many requests for similar events in the future. 71 people attended over the four evenings, and travelled from as far as Hexham, Wigton and Kendal.
ART MOVES ART:
“ I’ll definitely be at the next one�
A conclusion or a beginning? The Art Moves Art evenings at Bluebell Bookshop have proved an enormous success. The audience were delighted at being active participants, and even though we were not able to pay them, the musicians and performers felt it an important part of their artistic practice to contribute and be involved in the experiment. The requests for more events by all involved - the musicians, performers, artists and audience alike have reflected both the success of the event and the lack of similar activity in the area. Because of this significant demand, we are now looking to start a regular monthly programme. The first session will take place on Saturday 22nd November at the Playstation in Penrith, a larger venue which will accommodate more people and allow more space for interaction and experiment. This session is planned as an active dialogue to see where we can go, using the sound, movement and art as conversational tools. The event will be open to all.
ART MOVES ART:
“ Amazing to find something so different in Penrith�
Art moves Art has been organised by Kate Brundrett with the assistance of Jilly Jarman and Doris Rohr. It is registered as part of the Big Draw national drawing event and has been made possible by the kind support of The Cumbria Institute of the Arts, Eden Arts and Bluebell Bookshop.
ART MOVES ART
Press Cuttings
ART MOVES ART
Press Cuttings
ART MOVES ART Experimental performance evenings at Bluebell Bookshop
explore the fusion between
music,
movement and
drawing
Four evenings featuring professional musicians, artists and performers, responding to each other to produce a time-based work You as the audience are invited to become involved and respond through mark-making alongside the artists. Drawing materials will be available.
3rd, 10th, 17th and 24th October 7pm @ Bluebell Bookshop
This is a free event To book please phone 01768 866660 or pop in to Bluebell Bookshop For enquiries please call 07866 638159