Artists space; pop-ups or permanents?

I was very surprised to hear Duncan Smith director of ACAVA studios say, at a recent gathering, that there is more demand than ever for artist studio space. I was under the impression that, due to migration of practise from oil painting and sculpture, to project based or desk top activity, the days of community studios were declining...I'm pleasantly surprised. Perhaps I had been basing my assumptions on the set ups I have seen in Milton Keynes where there are no groups of 'fresh out of college' zealots looking to create 'love-in' Bohemian art movements to change the world. There are the few however, who do wander back here with big ideas but unfortunately they seem to quickly become diluted by those whose practise has not been challenged or moved on since the dinosaur times! 

Red dress, public performance with Manuela Benini

Perhaps if I am honest though, my perceptions may be more to do with my own practise having moved on from painting, sculpture and installation towards performance, into the realms of street theatre and dare I say it...'social engaged practise' (otherwise known as community arts!) I gave up the dream of creating the 'Bohemian love-in' after so many 'dinosaurs' had worn me down. I moved on or went underground...anything to get away from the snobbish, hierarchic, categorising of art forms which seems to get magnified in the inward looking collective. 

For many artists, choosing an 'art house' or studio environment to make work within, understandably, has less to do with physical facilities and more to do with levels of quality and professionalism, which at best is essential to keeping work invigorated but at worst creates a stayed and unchallenged environment. 

ACAVA (The Association for Cultural Advancement through Visual Art Limited), grew out of initiatives started in the early 1970’s to provide facilities for the support of the visual arts in the Hammersmith and Shepherd’s Bush areas of West London.
In 1973 artists, politicians, local authority officers and the visual art officer of the Greater London Arts Association met in the first public consultation in Britain on artists’ needs, it was called “The Hammersmith Art Experiment”.

If there are any young (or old) bohemians out there by the way, who do still have that dream, I recommend you make use of ACAVA . Sign up for membership, make good use of their expertise and latest news. 

The artist gathering which I was attending was hosted by the South East arm of NFASP (National Federation of Artist Studio Providers) which is another support organisation well worth linking up with. They have published many useful documents and undertaken a great deal of research over the years, into the nature of artist studio space.
The discussion was about Finding and Managing Property and there was representation from artist groups from across the country, all with different pictures to paint of spaces, funding cuts, opportunities and differing artists needs and solutions. There is the regional differences for example; large empty factories and ware houses which are available in the North are scarer in the South but demand for space is higher as you get nearer to college overspill areas like London.  
Interesting there are approximately 15,000 artists in studio spaces in the UK at present, only 7,000 of whom are in affordable space. Affordable space equates to paying one third of the commercial rent for a space.

The meeting was at Phoenix Space in Brighton, a long running artist studio facility itself, which, it became evident, is not without its own funding problems at present. As the picture became clearer stories came out of: cuts to some of the longer standing studio facilities, councils taking back properties, sliding levels of discretionary business rate rebates and collectives unable to pay to maintain expensive properties...it became clearer that perhaps my initial instinct was right, that the age of the 'permanent' studio space is at least under threat but perhaps not for the reasons I had first thought.

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Paintings by Dan Brodie on WHITEWALL, until recently an exhibition space in the heart of Milton Keynes shopping centre which I was curating

Since my trip to Phoenix, I've heard of several wrangles going on at this very moment, between local authorities and artist studios across the country, all disputes over discretionary rate rebates. It seems that unless these artist groups have full charitable status they now have no leg left to stand on and councils are attempting to charge full business rates. I wouldn't be surprised if we see The Artist Information Company following this story up quite soon.
 
Even if these studio groups become charitable trusts and do everything they can to prove their benefit to the community, there is still no getting away from the fact that permanent buildings are expensive to maintain with out the dwindling Arts Council subsidies or without organisations being forced into charging higher studio rents.
 
It is time to get clever then, artists must be much more business like. (where have I heard that before?) There is no shortage of empty buildings after all and many of these spaces are owned by landlords who, since a change in the law, are now paying full business rates for their empty properties. They can actually save money by housing arts charities who can claim rebates from local councils. There are many already taking full advantage of this regulation on empty property, the East Street Arts organisation for example who currently run three studio complexes in Leeds, CADS (Creative Arts Development Space), based in Sheffield and my own space in Milton Keynes, Centric MK, which now houses several artists and artist organisations including Festive Road, MK Festival Fringe and The Drawing Machine.

Appropriately we heard next from Dan Thomson who I've been following for a while. He set up The Empty Shops Network, and has spent time building mutually beneficial relationships between retailers, councils and artists to make use of the increasing number of empty shop units across the country. Dan has also written a very interesting book, 'Pop Up for Dummies', I keep meaning to get a copy. This is a fast growing area, as you can see from the recent Arts Council commissioned research into 'Pop-up people' and Dan is doing some incredibly exciting work. Most of these potential 'pop-up' spaces, if you are interested in making use of them, are more and more likely to be in retail areas, empty public buildings, dis-used churches...a symptom of our dying high streets. 

So if these spaces are increasingly temporary this means thinking in a more flexible way and I'm sure this is not going to suit us all but as Dan Thomsons work demonstrates, the age of the 'pop-up' is here. 
"A man's vision is his own responsibility..." so go out and make it happen! 

From Beardy to Birdy or Weirdy to Nerdy?

"And remember; a bird in the hand...is not worth a criminal record, so don't touch the birds!!" 

There I was kicking my heels around after a full on summer, when how exciting, I was called up by my old friend Mary Eddowes, to be told that her application was successful and that the Research and Development work on her new show the 'Nerdy Birdies'...is to start the following week! How could I resist?


My role in the 'flock' was to create costume ideas, supply materials and be on hand to dress, make, create, respond, advise and buy the bird seed.

The Birdies gathered at South Hill Park Arts Centre for the week leading up to the 'Big Day Out', which is an annual one day performing arts festival in Bracknell.

The Birdies were directed by Matt Feerick who helped each of the performers build real characters; both bird persona's and bird watcher personalities. He carefully managed the potential over comedising of the subject matter so that the characters that the birdies explored were more than surface parody of 'Bird watchers' or hilarious over acting birds.

They explored the motivations behind the act of bird watching, they looked at documentaries and on line sites. They worked on the classical flocking characteristics of birds through dance and used the neutral bird masks which I created during the week to look at movement.


It was a real in depth look at the motivations of 'birders' and the cross over behaviour of the watcher and the watched, the bazaar behaviour of both, when taken a little out of context. The 'birder' characters were asked to build nests and the birds were dressed up in green parkas and hats.

Being R and D, meant that the options were kept open throughout, so it was virtually impossible to create any permanent costumes -all was play and experimentation. I'm sure that this underlying belief and understanding, in their own characters which has been built up over this week, will pay off, whatever shape the final show takes.

The Nerdy Birdies were invited to share their work at a special scratch night which I organised at Festive Road HQ in Milton Keynes. They had a excellent response from the select few...but watch this space because the Nerdy Birdies will be coming to an event near you... And remember; a bird in the hand...is not worth a criminal record, so don't touch the birds!! 

A Festival of Fringe in Milton Keynes

"The birth of the long awaited and long needed Milton Keynes International Festival in 2010, brought a complete sea change to the new city." 

How did I get here?!! Director of Milton Keynes Festival Fringe 2012. It was a bit by accident but when I looked around, all I could see were people around me who seemed to need me to fight their corner, to represent the unseen and emerging.  

When I tested the temperature it seemed to me that the Arts community in Milton Keynes was fed up. Tired of the warring factions and empire builders, fed up of the silo mentality which grew up organically in a frontier town where historically, the Council had little centralised power and if you had an initiative you hung on to it like the mast of a sinking ship - every arts organisation for themselves. 

Terrible Shamen, Fringe performance (photo by Legge)

 The birth of the long awaited and long needed Milton Keynes International Festival in 2010, brought a complete sea change to the new city. This ambitious outward looking vessel on the landscape brought about a call to arms from those open minded and metropolitan enough to see the opportunity for the arts in Milton Keynes to 'up it's game'. This could and can only be done collectively in my view.

 
Suddenly it was time for working together, for connected programming, a time to nurture the emerging talent and bring them into the big tent to feed the old roots. The voices in the wind were calling...'collaborate or face extinction!'

Partly this was down to survival of individuals in the financial climate and a need to respond to the 2012 Cultural Olympiad projects, also a defence against the 'culture commute to London', a disease which exists in many places. But among the collective which became 'Milton Keynes, Summer of Culture' this year, there were some genuine team players who could see the bigger picture, 'for the greater good'. I wonder if this was also a symptom of a young city which is finally maturing?

Shake n Speare, one of the 6 Beach hut commissions

It was obvious, what was needed was a broad tent so that no body felt excluded but a tent which could also provide a system of appropriate placing of work; less of a 'curation' role and more of a 'facilitating, staging and framing' role, so that everything could be included without quality being compromised or without, what has been described as, the 'bun fight' that goes on at other Fringe festivals. 

I think I spent 2 months in meetings just listening to people, trying to gauge the climate. One of the first things I did was to sketch a framework together, something which all art forms could find a place within and which provided opportunities for all levels of professionalism and quality to find an appropriate artistic platform. It included open entry artist markets, open mic and busking, to commissioned installation and performance. There were also some invited artists who created links and relevance to the overarching themes. This framework provided a useful working document which was circulated for the arts community to respond and contribute to. I was also able to present this working plan to the guardians of the so called 'public spaces' otherwise known as shopping centres, the various retail consortium's which seem to have mushroomed up in the UK with no national strategy or any overall body to answer to...Always the profits over the prophets and the answer always seems to be 'it's what the people want', (just like they want trash TV and junk food)...oops I'm ranting. 

Walking with Giants, community parade produced by Festive Road

The other thing which I did early on was to talk to Monica Ferguson, Milton Keynes International Festival Director and Chief Executive of The Stables. It was important to find out what kind of Fringe would support the International Festival, how a Fringe could complement the Festival and what we would call it? I also had regular chats with Bill Gee, the International Festival's Creative Producer, mostly to ensure that our programme content was truly providing a 'fringe' to the International Festival and that there were no serious clashes. 

From the point of view of the International Festival and others in Milton Keynes, the growth of a healthy, thriving, locally/regional focused Festival Fringe, is of great concern, as, without one, there is always the more negative contingency of the local arts community, the 'moaners on the sidelines' who make life difficult. There is always a need for somewhere fringey, edgy and seemingly 'outsider' to focus creative energies. This allows the International Festival to focus on International horizons but it also provides a supportive space for new and experimental work to develop and get showcased.

Cycle cinema, produced by MK Independent Cinema

The MK Festival Fringe 2012 was awarded the London 2012 Inspire mark and is also signed up to the Greener Festival Awards' scheme. The themes and strands that ran through the Fringe were an attempt to make links with the Cultural Olympic events such as Godiva Awakes visiting MK, (hence the giants parade and the focus on cycling), The Boat Project, (hence the beach hut commissions, Dip your Toe Bathing machines on tour from Brighton Fringe and the wave paintings of Alexandra Leadbeater).  But the strands also reflected the interests of the people who coordinated and pulled the whole festival together -the team, many of whom were volunteers. And my particular interest in ecology and recycling projects gave the programme a strong 'green' flavour.

The programme -all 220 different audience opportunities; including live performance, street theatre, dance, music, visual art exhibitions and participatory workshops... which were on offer over the 19 days of the Festival Fringe, can be found in the full Festival Fringe brochure which was designed by Allan Davies.

Next years MK Festival Fringe will be taking place 19 -21 July 2013 -get it in the diary now!

Brewing Up -the show

"A show for all, which investigates the quintessentially English action of drinking tea, and tells the story of our multi-cultural history. 
The performance fuses carnival arts with street theatre, facilitates new partnerships and creates experimental new work. Produced by Festive Road’s Director Jessica Rost and co directed by Sian Thomas and Manuela Benini, with musical direction by Daniel Clark, this blend of talent will reach and infuse the parts that other blends just can’t refresh."
 
I wonder if any other outdoor theatre piece has ever developed via such a windy journey, as Brewing Up has done over the last three years?

Three years of Arts Council investment, three years of collaboration and partnership work with artists, funders, producers and venues across the South East and most importantly ...three years of artistic development for Festive Road


Once upon a time we were a small community carnival company but nowadays I look around me and see that we seem to have become a fully fledged street theatre/outdoor arts production company. The core family of creatives, which we've collected along the way, all have one thing in common; they can't be squeezed into any box that's been invented yet!

Our journey is captured in this short video. But the final shape of Brewing Up ended up being a professional, tour able out door theatre piece ...of course we had to try out everything in between from installations to parades and having got to that 'professional, tour able outdoor theatre piece' there are inevitably more questions than answers...

This 2012 production was directed by Sian Thomas, who co-directed, or rather mentored, the show last year. The show became a fixed 20 minute performance in the round with original music directed by Daniel Marcus Clark and with Manuela Benini once again leading the choreography.

 
With the development of the show spanning over two years, it was understandable that we'd attract some interest when it came to auditioning for paid performers, we already had a following. All the previous work had been with community groups and volunteers and we found that we were in the very lucky position to have a huge number of applications from a range of very talented people; physical performers, musicians, dancers, actors...who applied from Nottingham to Brighton. Out of the 40 odd who we shortlisted for audition, eight were taken on initially.



Due to commitments elsewhere, I was unable to both project manage and co-direct as I had done before. So we recruited Helen Wright as tour manager and I became a producer as well as lead designer. This was the best possible scenario for me as I was at last able to concentrate on the creative side of the production; working closely with Sian, Manuela and Daniel to develop the narrative and in response to the work at rehearsals created the designs for the costumes and set.

This was a new way of working for our company -when the visual design responds to a pre-developed narrative and devised performance, although probably the conventional way round to do things in the world of theatre. Our leadership very much springs from our visual arts background; we are used to devising around the visual design and I for one, found the performative lead challenging at times.
The lead artists/directors of the company had been disposed to being mere prop builders...but this is what we had invited people into the company to do, it was the only way to find out what kind of company Festive Road can become.

Perhaps Festive Road's strengths will always lie in our impact visually, the power of our design and inventive use of materials but we watched, learnt and responded to the challenges with relish. The company has successfully assimilated the right people to extend the skills base and I think that we are stronger for it.

Brewing up is now a finished production (as finished as any production ever is). It is ready to tour and looking for bookings for next year at arts festivals and events around the country so please spread the word. 

Wild and Free

I was interested in the conflict or ambiguity of the wilderness and the harnessing of nature by man; the windmills, the wild heron, the wealth and power held by Norwich and it's merchants in days gone by and the continual struggle between the land and sea's take over of the land.

So I am now a 'Lead National Designer', at least that was my job title for a recent commission I was selected for this summer...Carnival Cross Roads East Bound.
This project was chosen by LOCOG to represent the East of England’s and the carnival sector’s contribution to London 2012 Festival. It was funded by Arts Council England and Legacy Trust UK.

Led by UKCCA's Creative Director, Pax Nindi, and working with local partners across five hub towns, Carnival Crossroads East Bound brought together local carnival artists, community groups and schools with a team of five national designers, (one of which was me), to create a carnival showcase of the East of England and celebration for London 2012 Festival.
I'm still not sure why I was selected and I'm certainly not among the 'usual carnival suspects', I don't ship feathers in from all over the world, I never use sequins and I make carnival out of the most unconventional materials? All I can think is that Pax had an ulterior motive by bringing together such a diverse group of designers, perhaps an attempt to infiltrate the carnival world with a big dose of womblism?

I was given the job of designing up to 100 costumes to represent the people of Norwich, a place that I'd previously never even visited before.

But it turned out to be a fascinating exploration for me, into the stories, histories and characteristics of, what I realise now, is a very independent and quite rebellious region of the UK. From Boudicca to Nelson, the Norfolk folk have never stood by and watched anything passively or gone away quietly for anyone!

Three sections were created. Boudicca's army was the largest, made up of 40 or more musicians and young people; our Norwich hub street band. They were led by Boudicca's chariot, a large 'Queen' costume on wheels and two wild horses (back pack mounted puppets)...




The next section was inspired by the Green Man, an iconic symbol which occurs in such large numbers, carved into the wood and masonry of the many ancient churches in the region. And there really are so many churches...and pubs I discovered.

The Green man 'King' costume was designed for an operator to hide inside; the arms were animated from the inside and the whole costume was really a large puppet on wheels, about 16 foot high.

The last section was inspired by the 'Norfolk Broads'. And I was very lucky to have the opportunity to design these costumes for a group of young stilt walkers, the Hi -Jacks. In my designs I combined the symbol of Nelson and the wading birds of the broads, forever fishing for gold, as in the peddler of Swatham's tale; the real treasure ends up being right under your feet!

The whole piece of work was titled 'Wild and Free'. From the start, following my first visit, I was so immediately aware of how resistant and separate Norwich felt and I was interested in the idea that a traveller, to and from Norwich and the East, must pass through the broads... Norfolk isn't on the way to anywhere!

But also I was interested in the conflict or ambiguity of the wilderness and the harnessing of nature by man; the windmills, the wild heron, the wealth and power held by Norwich and it's merchants in days gone by and the continual struggle between the land and sea's take over of the land.

Local artist, Pat Howe helped me and along with community groups both in Norwich and volunteers back at my workshop in Milton Keynes, we created the costumes. And the creations were finally presented at the 'Love Luton' event in July, which brought together all 500 people from all five hubs across the East of England, to perform as part of the London 2012 Festival.

Mandinga - Beautifully Beastly

For the last 20 years they have designed and created award-winning giant puppets, costumes, masks and floats for carnivals, festivals, community projects and theatre. They have collaborated with circus, carnival, dance and community groups in England, Ireland, France, Italy, Colombia, Cuba, South Africa and China.






As an artist, or as anyone with an urge to finger the dark edges of our familiar world, it is so important to make an effort occasionally to look beyond one's own workbench, explore the practise of others, discover new materials, techniques and methodologies, to re frame and refresh the work.

In November I participated on a two day master class  'Puppets for the Streets' at Mandinga Arts, www.mandingaarts.co.uk in London organised by the Puppet Centre Trust.

Having bobbed and floated in the current of the Carnival parade for sometime, I have admired the work of Mandinga. In the back streets of Brighton, Luton, London and elsewhere, amid warm-ups, wet wipes, cable ties and make up, at line ups and de-rigs, I often escape the Festive Road family for a few minutes, intrigued by the mechanics, attracted by the costumes and the constructions of other companies; it is always the attention to detail and depth of content that draws me in to Mandinga.

As Simon and I approached the address of the Mandinga Arts studio, walking through suburbia on a fresh winter morning, I began to think we had misread the email. Even more on reaching the place itself; a regular semi, in a leafy quiet back street. The carnivalised milk float in the drive way was the only thing to give it all away!

We entered via an alley at the side of the house into the garden and immediately knew that we had arrived; large, brightly coloured creatures adorned the lawn ...and beyond, we reached Charles in his studio, full of inventions, prototypes and beautifully beastly creations...

British and Colombian artists Charles Beauchamp and Julieta Rubio trained as painter–printmakers and have had regular solo exhibitions in London. The Fine Art world which they have organanically grown from, echoes my own path into carnival. And their on-going exploration into creative design, their cross-cultural collaboration with other artists, musicians and choreographers, is proof that carnival can be and is an evolving art form. The collaborative 'open door' policy which Mandinga employ, serves to continually feed and develop their artistic vision, extending the boundaries of carnival art for all of us.

Mandinga Arts was set up in 2002 by Beauchamp and Rubio in response to a clear need for artists to work together on performance opportunities – to practice, improve, educate, share and promote carnival arts. The company exists to bring together live music, carnival costume design and dance, drawing on diverse influences from Europe, Latin America and Africa, with community based contributions to the carnival movement in the UK.

We were there to scavenge ideas, to soak up the experience and to cross pollinate with other like minded makers. And to make use of our own time, we had set ourselves a project to work on. Within the first few minutes we realised our mistake was to expect to get anything actually made in the two days. As with many of these kind of meetings of minds, it's not what is actually achieved in the time which matters, it's more about what happens afterwards...


 
Although the surroundings of Charles's studios seemed very familiar to me; the same old materials, the same tools, the same themes and challenges which carnival presents...the approach and the disapline was delivered by a five star master, a serious craftsman who approached the art form of carnival like a it was his life's work -which it is. 



So what did I get out of my two days? I have some new ideas on how to approach some old themes and I have aquired some new knowledge on how to use some familiar materials. I have been reminded that I must take all of my work seriously, that nothing should ever be 'just bread and butter' and that quality is more important than quantity.



 

And finally, I think that I made a promise to report back to fellow participants once I had an image which I could send of the great Scylla, the six headed street puppet which I'm creating, well it may be a bit of a wait!