Dave Pearson Book Launch

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Dave Pearson’s ‘The Ritual Year’ book is being launched at Todmorden’s Centre for Folklore, Myth and Magic on Saturday 24th June.

The Centre is on the main road to Hebden Bridge, in the centre of Todmorden. Postcode his OL14 5BB. Dave’s close friend Margaret Mytton will be saying a few words about the Calendar Customs work of the 1970s which form the basis of the book. The event is being organised by Folklore Tapes (recently at Analogue Farm in Whitworth) and the evening will include music by their Folk Root band.

Please join us!

Artist Residency Opportunity

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Mary from Analogue Farm in Whitworth has written to tell us that they are now open for a funded Artists Residency this summer at their farm.

Go to their website for full details and the info pack, at https://www.analoguefarm.com/artist-residencies

Drawn to Rawtenstall

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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.

FULL INFORMATION CAN BE FOUND ON THIS PAGE

More Haslingden food art!

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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

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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

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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

The Boo: Artists Networking Event

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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.

The Whitaker re-opens!

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This weekend – Saturday 24th July – the Whitaker Museum & Art Gallery re-opens after a long, long break for a major rebuild and overhaul. This has been funded largely through a Heritage Lottery Grant.

It’s now open Wednesday through to Sunday, 10am until 4pm, with a late night on Thursdays until 8pm. Plus there’s a kitchen and bar that will stay open later still. There’s also a new shop area in the entrance area. The building now includes a back cobbled yard area and a ‘Coach House’, both of which can be used for a wide range of activities.

Several local artists have been involved in the process of recreating the museum. Ruth Evans ‘Irwell Tapestry‘ is a highlight of the upstairs corridors. There’s a newly commissioned film showing, which features local craftspeople and poetry. Bob Frith has created a Cabinet of Curiosities (above) in the old Drawing Room, with help from Nicola Hebson and Kay Kennedy. Liam Spencer, Paddy Campbell and the Apna group also have their artwork on display. Chinese animator Kain Leo, and Manchester musician Chris Davies, have worked with Bob to create a short animation that shows in the Cabinet at 15 minute intervals.

Current art exhibitions are spread over three galleries and show the work of Kara Lyons and David Hancock. The museum is beginning an open application process for artists wishing to exhibit in the galleries. For further details contact info@thewhitaker.org