Charlotte & Sigerd Boehmer

What do you get when over a hundred potters descend on a country park in North Nottinghamshire?

No punchline, but a rather special event!

The annual Earth and Fire International Ceramic Fair at Rufford Abbey Country Park kicks off this Friday 21 June at 10am. Outdoor market stalls in and around the Abbey ruins feature potters selected from national and international applicants.

Robin Welch ceramics backdrop Rufford Abbey

Expect a feast of  clay in all its forms from the humble mug to substantial sculptural pieces with opportunity to meet and talk to the makers.

Over the three day event (Open 10am to 5pm daily Friday 21, Saturday 22 and Sunday 23 June) there’s a free programme of demonstrations and talks plus trade stalls with everything from hand tools to potters’ wheels. Recent graduates from courses around the country get to show their work in the “campus” stalls area plus a smattering of  ”one year on” makers given a chance to have a stall at this prestigious event.

After its great success in Olympic Year there’s rumour of the return of the fabled “potters games” though quite what they are up to this time hasn’t been announced! Last year’s throwing a pot by touch alone was quite a spectacle!

Throwing a pot by touch alone at Earth and Fire “2012 Potters Games”

The only charge for all this is for the parking, which is £5 per car.

Rufford Gallery will be opening a new exhibition of work by Peter Beard on Friday. Known for his ceramics Peter is celebrating his 40 years as a studio artist with new works including some in stone and bronze. Admission free.

For the latest information as the event unfolds give Rufford Craft Centre’s Face Book page a like.

Diana is one of our team of bloggers with a vested interest in telling people how wonderful Earth & Fire is! Just like in the previous four years she will be found working at the event or she can be contacted diana@creativenottingham.com and followed on twitter @AnaidMPA for more waxing lyrical about goings on at Rufford Craft Centre!

So this morning, out and about on my business around the goodly suburb of Basford, I noticed our resident librarian in a phone box had been doing his/ her work overnight. I’ve spotted books in the boxes before and there was another lot today. I love this idea.

A friend then put me in touch with this as a wider idea. John Locke (no, not the father of classical liberalism, another one) has had the idea of converting phone boxes into guerrilla libraries in New York. He’s working on the same idea as the Book Crossing movement – sharing second hand books in public places – but has gone one step further to reclaim a public space to do this properly. You can read more about how it’s going here.

The pop up shop works on a similar premise too. There are more and more of these, selling the wares of independent crafters and designer makers who cannot possibly afford business rents but still have a viable product. Reclaiming the retail space of failed businesses, reclaiming the high street, what a treat to go round these and find interesting unique non-commercial well made goods, right on your doorstep.

I love this idea too. In fact I love anything that removes bland faceless corporations from every aspect of our lives. Is this the recession which will be characterised by a revival of independent crafts, of personal recommendations? Perhaps I’m going too far. But bearing in mind how much the current administration seems set on destroying libraries, any kind of arts funding all the while encouraging more bland faceless corporations to take over more and more, it’s a relief more than anything to see some kind of fightback.

I’d been idly thinking this sort of thing when I then came across this in last weekend’s newspaper. What a lovely idea – displaying art where we are used to seeing crap adverts. It ties in nicely with what our friends at Screens in the Wild are trying to do (if you haven’t read last week’s blog post about them yet, I recommend you do so, and not cos I wrote it.)

Taking the best of what we already have, and giving it back to the people, brightening our day and broadening our minds. I LOVE this idea. And who knows what will come of it? Perhaps some kid who likes drawing but has never been to an art gallery will see one and remember that day forever as he/ she goes on to become the next Damien Hirst. Or perhaps not. But as a nation, we own this stuff and we should get to see it every day. Celebrate it, make it a part of us.

Can you think of anything better than going about your daily business, the long commute into work, the shopping and so on than being stopped in your tracks by the sight of a lovely painting? By the drama of a scene, the skill of the brushwork, the colours and vivid imagery? No me neither. So let us know what you suggest – what painting would you like to see on display in Nottingham and where?

Last Sunday 9 June I enjoyed the summer sunshine (remember that?) at the 21^st Park Garden Trail, a biennial open garden event. A chance to explore the beauty of usually hidden aspects of Nottingham’s Park Estate.

The Park is worthy of a visit just for the architecture alone (you’ll find buildings by both T.C. Hine and Fothergill Watson). Then there’s the working gas lights (though best appreciated in the dark!), the incredible tunnel through to Derby Road (originally intended to be an entrance but built with a gradient too steep for carriages) I could go on but if you want to know more go to The Nottingham Park Estate website.

I love gardens (plus this garden trail also offers food, drink and music!) but the added attraction that drew me this year was an intriguing selection of art work curated by artist and Park resident Saira Lloyd.

Art amongst the alliums; Rachel Carter and Tom Hackett

Work by established regional artists Tom Hackett (“The Silicon Boys”, sited rather eerily on the lawns and amongst the shrubs) and Rachel Carter (wonderful woven spheres in willow and wire) sat well in the tiered garden of Iveston on Kenilworth Road. This was also where I couldn’t resist joining in with the family I overheard debating how many Fine Art students actually go on to make a living from their art (answers in the comments please?)

It was at the end of his performance that I discovered artists collective PRIMARY resident Frank Abbott in a live exploration with carrots!

The quirky collection by SITUATED second year Fine Art students from Nottingham Trent University was what made me stop, look and take stock. Definitely a departure from the tradition of deference to all things planted.

“Laminated Lawn”? Clare Valley

This was particularly true in Clare Valley (where I think I detected a sound piece) with the brave intrusion into the manicured grass beside the wonderful wisteria of what can only (in the absence of the artist’s advice) be described as “laminated lawn”. It made me smile and I observed puzzled and I think embarrassed visitors in equal measure. Only the resident black and white cat chose to saunter nonchalantly by to the shade of the aforementioned wisteria. Which leads to me to congratulate the owners of this and the other gardens for the divergence which I believe provoked some debate and Saira for presumably persuading them that it was a good idea? I hope to see more of this on the allotted sunny Sunday in 2015!

Diana is one of our team of bloggers. When not crouching in gardens (and elsewhere) for that jaunty angled image she can be emailed diana AT creativenottingham.com and followed on twitter @AnaidMPA

Have you seen those screens at the Broadway? Not the cinema, the ones outside. They’re at the New Art Exchange too. The interactive ones. If you’ve seen them but don’t know what they’re about it’s this.

Screens in the Wild is a collaboration between researchers at the Universities of Nottingham and London. There are four screens, two here and two in the big smoke. They are all connected and, if you have a look, you can often see people in London looking at their screen. Give them a wave; they can see you too!

The project came about because the researchers saw the dominance of screens in public spaces these days. They’re everywhere and what do we get on them? Adverts mainly. How often do you actually look, I mean really look at them? Not often, I’d wager. So Screens in the Wild was about fostering a sense of community, about using screens to connect with people and provide interesting content that wasn’t based on selling.

And what did they offer? Well, art projects, interactive music apps, Twitter/ Instagram based projects that highlighted the plight of homeless people, all sorts of things, a really diverse list. And now they’re on the lookout for more.

So here’s your chance Nottingham! You’ve been given a blank canvas, an interactive app ready to be adapted and used, software that’s ready to talk. If you’ve got any ideas about what to fill these screens in the wild with, we want to hear from you!

For more details, have a good look through the Screens in the Wild website and social media sites. And please do let us know what you think could work – even if it’s just a vague notion. We’re here to help create partnerships, put ideas people together or give you a platform to bounce thoughts off.

This is a great chance to get yourself out there? Artists/ gamers/ social entrepreneurs/ students/ thinkers of all kinds – Screens in the Wild are waiting for your call. Use them!

Sue is one of our team of bloggers. When not trying to foster community spirit with screens she can be reached on sue AT creativenottingham.com and followed on Twitter @basfordian

There is a new theory that Robin Hood may not have been from Nottingham but from Kent, a Southerner who travelled up North fighting a guerilla war, then stayed.  This trend has continued, according to the last Census Nottingham had a 13% increase in its population size, twice the national average, mostly due to people moving here, and students staying after completing their courses. This has been good for the city, as the new communities have helped develop the city and have contributed to preventing what could have a terminal decline after the demise of its industrial base in the 1980’s.

I have to admit that I am also a migrant from London who moved here from London in 2002.  When decided to move here we had no connections in the city, we wanted a city with some of the vibrancy of London, but was also small and compact so the work and family life had some balance. Nottingham was perfect, ten miles across, two Universities, and a creative and cultural waiting to burst. Also I am ashamed to say we knew London was only a couple of hours way, at the time not much longer than my daily commute from Muswell Hill to Ealing.

These are some of the factors that have helped Nottingham withstand the worst effects of the economic recession over the past five years. Though, lets not kid ourselves that everything is rosy, we also have a city with huge disparities in health, mortality rates, and employment levels according to postcodes. Life is hard in the city for some young people now, (which is probably why Jake Bugg sang “I got out, I got out, …. So I hold two fingers up to yesterday”), and just to bring the point home we were named as the poorest city in the UK last week. 

The Creative Quarter is just one (small) component of a strategic plan to redevelop the City and tackle some of these issues.  Writers such as Richard Florida have been pushing the idea that a ‘creative class’ is an important component to redevelop cities for over 15 years, and over the past decade the arguments supporting a growth plan based which is centered on the creative sector is well researched. BioCity in Nottingham is a good example of a ‘creative class’ bringing economic benefits to the city.

The Growth plan will probably bring new industry and people into the city, but the real challenge is to get these people to stay here and spend their income. This is role for assigned to the Creative Quarter project, as research shows people choose to live in cities where they can make lifestyle choices and be with people with similar attitudes, the creative community help create the fabric which develops these cities.

It is a real challenge to see how it can manages to achieve this, but there are real examples of creativity being used to make city spaces more interesting desirable places to live. This doesn’t mean cleansing the city of its poor in the way of Paris, as the new wealth comes from Moscow, China, Mumbai, Shang Hai, and London, and people nowadays are comfortable mixing with different communities and classes.  Just look at Brick Lane, Portobello Road, Spitalfields, or even Camden, shabby building, poverty, ethnic diversity and class all mingle to create vibrant markets everyone wants to visit.  A vibrant art sector, good cheap food, craft markets, and mixed community will all help make the city a buzzing place, that’s not just reliant on people shopping in the usual shops.

If you thought that the Creative Quarter project will help you get project funding, well there are no handouts for local business, there will be a loan facilities. However, aside from this the Creative Quarter component of the Growth Plan will affect the quality of life for many people in the city, and in some respects will project a vision of the city to the rest of the world.  There doesn’t appear to be a coherent plan how this going to happen, though I assume the recent appointment of Kathy McArdle will change this.

As someone with a local business I know the area has huge potential, with a huge number of creative businesses both at the shop level, but also hidden away on the first, second and third floor of the old Lace Market buildings.

Here’s some simple ideas

• Rather than keeping the graphic designers inside their offices on the second and third floors, let them create all over the buildings of the Lace Market, if you have walked around Bristol you will see how surreal the areas becomes( see the images above), and attracts tourists, and we have loads of talented graphics designers.
• Get ‘Creative Quarter’ to mean the independent local creative shopping sector, it is what make the quarter different to the main shopping areas. Encourage and support and brand the area. Currently we have loads of ‘creative quarter’ signs but it has no identity for anyone.
• Get people onto the streets, have a Sunday market, get some of the great ethnic food from across the city selling on the streets, and get rid of Sunday parking tickets.  Currently I can go to London on a Sunday, visit a gallery, park for free and great nice cheap food.  We should be able to do this in Nottingham.

If you have any ideas please send them to us. If you want take part in the discussion, then go to the local business meeting on the first Friday of each month. John Lennon once said “life is something that happens to you are you are busy making other plans”, we local businesses should note, the Creative Quarter will happen whether you are involved or not, so if you really want to see the area develop, and have views or energy to make this happen you really have no choice but to get involved.

The Lace Open Mic is a monthly gathering of local business. It meets on the first Friday of every month: 16:30 to 18:30 (BST)

For further details go to http://www.eventbrite.co.uk/org/3195432540?s=14444827

____________________________

Jagdish Patel is a Nottingham based photographer and a Director at the Nottingham Photographers’ Hub a social enterprise helping vulnerable communities enter the creative sector.

www.jagdishpatel.com

www.nphub.org.uk

In the next of our occasional series offering practical advice to creatives, Tim Bellamy of Artisum accountancy firm, writes for us about looking after the financial side of your business.

Financial aptitude is not a trait we readily attribute to most creative types, and the average tax return is enough to send most of us back to the drawing board. I thought that this preference for writing books over balancing them might be utilised to set up an accountancy firm that specialised in working with the creative community in Nottingham.

Artisum (ed: see what he did there?) was founded last February after I worked with promoters Farmyard Records and Very Eventful for their yearly tax returns. I really enjoyed the work and loved getting the chance to meet lots of new people and get involved in the city’s flourishing creative sector. I decided to set up an accountancy business just for creative businesses.

Artisum’s flexible service can involve everything from acting as a virtual finance department for larger business to acting as a friendly helping hand to sole traders daunted by numbers and tax (all of us?).

I came to Nottingham to study in 1999 but, like many visitors to the city, decided to stay thanks to Nottingham’s creative scene, which I think is under-rated.

Nationally people just aren’t as aware as they should be of the diverse network of creative individuals and small businesses which are operating independently and creating work of real substance.

I’d like to see more collaboration between different sectors, artists and businesses and also a growth in confidence… with the level of talent out there people have every justification to be shouting from the rooftops about what they do.

Artisum is here to set your creativity free! We believe creativity can be hindered by worries about financial paperwork and administration. We can help with everything from self assessment support to business start ups as well as funding advice, monthly bookkeeping, payroll and VAT.

You can visit Artisum at their website or on Twitter

This is a really exciting inaugural exhibition for Castle Galleries‘ new space in Nottingham (a few doors down from its original spot in the Exchange Arcade, but much bigger and brighter). There are other notable names on display (and for sale!) that will draw in collectors and music fans – Billy Connolly and Bob Dylan, for example – as well as work by Dali and Govinder, among others.

Personally, I favour Dylan’s work; it’s simple and unintimidating, with familiar subjects and scenes depicted in strong, confident colours. There’s a painting of a bicycle that I snapped up immediately (…in my imagination), because it made me think lovingly of riding my own bike on a sunny day. Billy Connolly’s stylised monochrome drawings, heavy with lines and patterns, were also striking – odd and humorous little ideas carefully put to paper, with nature as an underlying theme.

I liked the energy and movement in Wood’s paintings of the Rolling Stones and other musicians in performance; he’s used his remarkable experience to capture the drama of live music. Yet it was the triptych of pencil sketches entitled ‘Geronimo Country Tucson Arizona’ that I preferred. Simple lines formed reflective scenes where no human figure was demanding attention, and I appreciated this more private insight into the private life of a ‘rock star’.

It’s quite difficult to separate the artist from the work – and it will be irresistible for fans of their music to come and see if they can divine something new about their heroes from it. However, they should not overlook the handful of lesser known artists whose work is also displayed. There are wonderful pieces to look out for, especially (for me) the cosmic and mesmerising colours of Wendy Satchwell’s compositions, and the moody Thames scenes painted by self-taught artist Alexander Millar.

All in all, there is something here to make everyone wish they were a collector; it’s also great to have such major pieces displayed outside of London, and hopefully Castle Galleries will keep them coming. This particular exhibition is only on until Sunday 9th of June, so don’t wait about!

Rosy has recently moved to Nottingham after three years away, and is really very happy to be back. She’s particularly enjoying the charity shops, the new record stores and exploring the area by bike. Follow her on Twitter @HowManyRoses.

Matt Stokes – Long After Tonight

Have you seen the exhibition at Nottingham Contemporary at the moment – The Universal Addressability of Dumb Things? No, me neither. However, the chaps at One Thoresby Street have gone one better and this week sees the opening of their new exhibition idea. As a  response to The Universal Addressability… their new show is called OD.

OD alludes to on demand TV and to an overdose of information created via constant additions to mass media content. (Or, as I might put it, there’s just not enough time to watch everything on YouTube.) Therefore nine artists have been invited to display a video work of art for one day and one day only.

The films focus on hypnotic and alluring responses to the moving image, ranging from the contrast of youth culture and clubbing to television and the accessibility and meaninglessness of internet content.

Each artist’s work will be open to the public 12-6pm and there will be a soft launch for each new work 6-8pm each day.

The artists are:

Matt Stokes – Long After Tonight

Thursday 30 May Matt Stokes

Friday 31 May James Richards

Saturday 1 June Laure Provost

Thursday 6 June Alex Da Corte

Friday 7 June Tom Godfrey

Saturday 8 June Oval Office

Thursday 13 June D+M

Friday 14 June Zoe Williams

Saturday 15 June Candice Jacobs

For more details have a swing by One Thoresby Street’s website. The gallery is open: THURS – SAT 12pm – 6pm

Sue is one of our team of bloggers. She can be reached on sue AT creativenottingham.com and followed on Twitter @basfordian

It’s Degree Show season, and collections from NTU’s Fashion design, Fashion Knitwear Design and Knitted Textiles BA courses graced the catwalk Wednesday and Thursday this week, as part of the New Talent Unleashed festival.

Eighty students exhibited collections of six outfits each, in front of representatives from Vivienne Westwood, Preen, and other members of the fashion community. Twenty four of the best designers from the shows will exhibit their work on the runway at the prestigious Graduate Fashion Week, taking place at Earls Court in London, from 2-5 June.

Alice Wedge, a representative for Vivienne Westwood, herself a NTU graduate, and infinitely more qualified than myself to comment on the standard of this years’ cohort, noted:

“The collections on display were very strong and really varied in terms of concept and design. Many stood out for their realistic approach, commercial focus and creativity. It’s great to see that the students are being encouraged to express themselves as designers and individuals, an approach that Nottingham Trent University is highly regarded for within the industry.”

A couple of examples of the huge variety of work on show (also, check out our new gallery system!):

Meanwhile, degree show festivals for a wide range of subjects are taking place around the city, including Architectural Technology, Decorative Arts, Fine Art, Product design, Textile design, and, closest to my own heart, Photography. The BA Photography degree show in particular is very accessible to Nottingham’s creatives, being liberally spread over various galleries and ad-hoc exhibition spaces throughout the city centre (check out the exhibition map for the venues closest to you).

This is an exciting time of year for sampling fresh new work. Catalogues for many courses’ degree shows are available online in PDF format, and you can view work from other NTU students at the following locations at NTU’s main City campus:

Bonington building: Fine Art, Textile Design and Photography (plus various locations across the city)

Waverley building: Costume Design and Making, Design for Film and Television, Fashion Communication and Promotion, Fashion Textile Management, Fashion Marketing and Branding, International Fashion Business, Multimedia, Theatre Design

Arkwright building: Architecture, Architectural Technology, Graphic Design

Newton building: Decorative Arts, Fashion Design, Fashion Knitwear Design and Knitted Textiles, Furniture and Product Design, Interior Architecture and Design, Product Design

So it’s a grey morning. The sky is grey, the pavements are grey, the square slabs are grey, the Council House is grey. Get the picture? It’s still too cold for bare legs at this time in the morning and I’m contemplating a warming shot of caffeine when something catches my eye. Something pink. And blue. And woolly.

Nikki gets to work!
(picture courtesy of NCN)

If you were in the Market Square today you must have spotted New College Nottingham student Nikki Charlesworth taking her exam. Nikki is taking her A level in Textile Design and for her final project has chosen to yarnbomb one of Nottingham’s most loved landmarks.

Yarnbombing, as readers of this blog will know, is something close to my heart and it’s so great to see someone else share my love of it in such a public and important manner. Nikki was inspired by New York-based Polish artist Olek (who covered the Wall Street bull statue in crochet last year.)

“When I learnt about yarn bombing I became fascinated by the break in stereotype,” says Nikki. “Everyone associates crochet with older people, but this new art movement is breaking down the traditional methods of crochet and making it artistic, young and fresh. Yarn bombing has mainly been done in America and has not featured much in the UK, so it could be a first! That’s really exciting.”

Nikki will be at her exam again tomorrow (Thursday) so get down to the square and take a look. And then get yourselves planning the next yarn bomb in Nottingham. We could get really good at this – the possibilities are endless! *gets out crochet and knitting needles*

Sue is one of our team of bloggers. When not manipulating wool into weird and wonderful shapes (some of them are even wearable…) she can be reached on sue AT creativenottingham.com and followed on Twitter @basfordian