Valley Artists respond…
Drawn to Rawtenstall
We’ve heard from Stephie Jessop of Culturapedia that they are organising a follow-up event to ‘Drawn To Rawtenstall’ last October and that there’s a call out for artists.
Stephie says:
We want to turn Rawtenstall into an outdoor public gallery. Working mainly off Bank Street we want to fill empty walls and interesting side nooks with banners (or other weather durable reproductions) of your art.
Ideally, the artwork will be of Rawtenstall or the surrounding area. The idea is that these banners will encourage people to take a moment to see their local area in a new way. We are, however, open to all styles and interpretations!
We have scouted out some interesting spots already (bricked up doorways, and windows that could frame a piece, empty walls on the side of shops, hanging banners from trees, lamp posts or railings) but we are also open to other suggestions if you have a spot in mind that you’ve always wanted to fill with art. The only caveat is that the space must be in Rawtenstall, and open to the public.
The idea is that we will reproduce your artwork, onto weather durable, high-quality banners. This is important as we are hoping the “exhibition” will remain in place for several months and will need to endure all the weather of Rossendale. We may produce several banners of the same piece of art to display in different areas/sizes etc.
Fee
We are offering a fee of up to £100 per artwork to artists who have something they are happy for us to reproduce in this format. The banner will also credit the artist and have room for either a social media handle or website. We are still confirming how long the banners will be up but we are imagining around 3 months. Once the exhibition has finished we are happy for you to then keep the banner. There may be further opportunities in the future, for these banners to be used in other ways, but we will come back to you to discuss this, and further fees, if those opportunities arise.
How to apply
If you are interested in submitting a piece of art work for the exhibition, we ask that you email Stephie stephie@culturapedia.co with a photo of the piece, or pieces, you’d like to put forward by Friday 22nd April. We have a limited budget for reproductions and we can not guarantee that every piece submitted will make it into the final exhibition, but we will reply to everyone the week commencing Monday 25th April.
More Haslingden food art!
Follow the trail and meet nine fabulous Haslingden Food Heroes. From street food to butchers, from tea rooms to bakers, Haslingden has it all. Caroline Eccles, from Huckleberry Films, has produced a series of stunning portraits accompanied by interviews. You can follow the trail physically, sampling the wares as you go or find all the images and texts on Instagram @HaslingdenFoodHeroes
Trail gallery runs from 15th – 28th November.
The Haslingden Alternative Pie Shop
Haslingden is well known for its food offer and not least the excellent pies available from the likes of Cissy Greens and Manning’s.
For the alternative Pie Shop, community artist, Emma Long asked local people what would be in their perfect pie 🥧.
Market shoppers, visitors to the Dearden Tea Rooms and Haslingden Crafternoon group, amongst others, contributed their ideas which they made out of clay.
The shop window display offers some curious recipes: fillings include dinosaur, pot noodle, haggis and strawberry.
The alternative pie shop at 13 Deardengate (former hospice shop) has a limited lease and the pies will be on display to 28 November. The pie shop is part of the Haslingden Food Heroes Project culminating on 28 November with a grub bazaar at the market, a Christmas fair at the Dearden Tea Rooms and live music.
Instagram: Haslingdenfoodheroes
The Alternative Pie Shop and Haslingden Food Heroes is supported by Rossendale Borough Council’s Wellcome Back Fund.
TOGETHER, WE GREEN
Emma Long has sent us this post:
Co-creating with tenants of Together Housing Flats surrounding Central Square and local residents in Haslingden and participants from Rawtenstall during July – August 2021, ‘Together, We Green’ are 2 sets of bunting flags of selected images which celebrate people’s interactions with the green of the South Pennines Park from their homes, on their doorsteps and to th’ills.
On each pennant are repeated images which depict my co-creators’ identification of significant places on the South Pennines Map and captures their experiences of both the urban and the rural; the essential or the inspirational…they are repeated as this activity formed the basis of each session which introduced new co-creators to the project and overall concept.
These are supplemented by playful plant and human portrait analogue photography, homages/temporal shrines to ‘particular’ plants and their associated stories, intuitive ink drawings of those plants, collagraph prints of bouquets assembled from a communal garden space and cellulose acetate shoe sole shapes capturing a selected view along with descriptions of the objects, sounds and scents encountered on the walk to get there.
You’ll notice that one set of bunting is looking a bit worse for wear – this has already been displayed for almost 2 months in the communal garden space in Haslingden whilst the other has been produced for the exhibition over the weekend and will be fastened to the trees adjacent to the former Whitaker entrance for the remainder of the year.
This project was commissioned by Beam and South Pennines Park, formerly Pennine Prospects.
For more information, please visit: https://www.beam.uk.net/events/south-pennines-park-launches/https://southpenninespark.org/2021/09/11/beam-inspiring-communities-through-art
2bArt studio – Philip Pearson
This weekend the 2b-Art studio is open with an exhibition to celebrate the life of co-founder Philip Pearson who died in September 2021.
RAT 21…
The number of open studios and other events making up ROSSENDALE ART TRAIL 2021 have been growing and the programme now looks very good. There are still one or two to add, so in terms of the number of participating venues the new-style Art Trail we can say that it has been a success.
I’m aware that we all now need to help in publicising the event, as we don’t have brochures or posters to distribute in the way we’ve had in the past. This website and, in particular, the ART TRAIL 2021 page is one of the main ways of doing this, so please forward links to it to you contacts, whenever and wherever possible.
All best wishes…
MOTHER RED CAP
In the first of two live theatrical adaptations, the tale of ‘Mother Red Cap’ will be brought to life by David Chatton Barker and Sam McLoughlin. Narrated by the poetess Emily Oldfield | With an ensemble cast | Sets designed by Vincent James | Masks designed by Helen Davies | Percussion and voice by the Turney family | Featuring members of The Whitworth and Healey Vale Brass Band.
The Tale of Mother Red Cap tells of the vengeful witch in red and her raven who curse passers by from the top of Monstone. The innocent couple Ted and Grace fall victim to Red Cap’s wicked ways and it only the astronomer and alchemist John Dee who can lift the curse.
Adapted by David Chatton Barker from the book ‘Tales of the Monstone’ with artwork by Bob Frith and Lucy Atherton. The Rossendale legend of Mother Red Cap will be brought to life in a thrilling theatrical experience!
ANALOGUE FARM – Slacks Farm, Acre St, Whitworth OL12 8XH
PARKING: please be aware that Analogue Farm is a 5 minute walk from the nearest road parking. It’s at the top of Acre Street, and you can only drive part way up the road. Road parking is available at the bottom of Acre Street, Long Acres Drive and Market Street – please be mindful of our neighbours.
WHEELCHAIR ACCESS: Analogue Farm is a real farm! There are no steps to the venue but the road is uneven. If you require wheelchair access please contact us on analoguefarm@gmail.com.
TOILETS: our toilets are compost toilets only. There are no baby changing facilities or disabled access toilets.
October Wellness Event
We’ve had an email from Stephie Jessop who is organising an arts event on the 28th October in Rawtenstall. There’ll be a range of creative and art activities and various things are planned throughout the day. The theme of the event is wellness – and taking the time to appreciate what’s on your doorstep.
Stephie is hoping to have some of the Rossendale Arts Trail Artists involved in the day.
One idea she has is to have various artists based around the town painting and sketching different buildings/sites, and encouraging passersby to take notice/have a go themselves.
She has a budget to pay artists for this work, so would like to get an idea of people’s fees so she knows how many people she could ask to help in this way.
Her contact email is stephie@culturapedia.co . You can see that she works for culturapedia – please contact her if you are interested in helping
Illustration courtesy of Alan Birch
The Boo: Artists Networking Event
Here’s a tempting invite from Jenn Trethewey at The Boo to join her for an Artists Networking Event on Friday 6th August.
It doubles as a relaunch of the Boo’s Gin Bar, and an unveiling of Caroline Johnson’s mural at the Bar. I’ve seen photographs of this and it looks stunning.
Please note that Jenn is asking for RSVPs as space will be limited.