Japonisme a la Brule le Noir...

You can all open your eyes now as you walk past the Pavilions, the Timorous Beasties work is up and looking great. We've got a photographer coming to take some images tonight, but until then you'll have to make do with my photography skills to give you an idea of what it looks like. You can't quite make it out on these pictures but on the bottom it say 'More treasure to discover...Blackburn Museum & Art Gallery'.

Timorous Beasties...

The new TB piece in Blackburn town centre will be finished on Thursday afternoon, with the final four panels being installed. Until the point you have to shut your eyes when you walk past it!

Nearly there...

The new work form Timorous Beasties for our Blackburn site, taking inspirations from Blackburn Museums Japanese print collections is very nearly finished...

Night sites...

Thanks to everyone who came and made the museum at night events a success this weekend. More pictures coming soon..

Letter press...

Just received these exciting images from artist Sarah Lawton who is delivering a programme of workshops at Blackburn Museum as part of the ReVisit project. She is making beautiful letterpress invites for some of the printing workshops that she is running.

Workshop artists...

We are very please to announce that we have recruited two local artists, Becky Waite and Sarah Lawton to deliver workshops at the Haworth Art Gallery and Blackburn Museum and Arts Gallery respectively. Their work with compliment the commissions being undertaken by Stuart Haygarth and Timorous Beasties. We have yet to pin down all the details but they will be running a programme of workshops which will give people the chance to connect with the collections of the venues and the commissions in a new and creative way. They will also be hosting sessions for the Museums at Night campaign, should be good!

Images...

I couldn't resist posting these images of past Timorous Beasties work that we received today. These beautiful images make me rather excited about what they will produce for Blackburn.

Shadow artist for Blackburn project...

We are looking for a workshop artist for the Blackburn project with Timorous Beasties as lead artists, brief as follows...

Blackburn Museum and Art Gallery

Shadow Artist for phase two of engagement programme

Creativity Works background:

Creativity Works is a consortium consisting of Pennine Lancashire Arts Officers, Arts Council North West, Lancashire County Council, Creative Lancashire, Elevate and Curious Minds. The partnership provides the infrastructure for joint working, shared approaches, economies of scale working across the sub region and alignment to the Multi Area Agreement as well as districts Local Area Agreement’s.

Creativity Works was initially set up in 2000, supporting Creative Industries in Pennine Lancashire. In 2008 it extended its remit to work strategically on four priority areas: Health, Business, Regeneration and People, to raise the profile of and participation in, quality arts practice in the region.

The engagement programme of work that this project belongs to, began in September 2009. The aim of this work is to increase engagement in the arts through working with local heritage venues. This project leads on from the success of the Open Shop Project that took place in August 2010

Project background:

The Open Shop Project that formed the first phase of this programme worked with an artist to use an empty shop space in Blackburn town centre to engage a new audience with arts and the museum. To find out more about this project you can look at the project blogs http://www.theopenshopproject.wordpress.com/ and www.blackburnbookarchive.blogspot.com

The second phase of this work aims to sign post people back to the museum. We are working with artists Timorous Beasties to develop a town centre piece of work informed by the print collections in the museum. You can read more about this on the project blog www.thespringprogramme.blogspot.com or our website http://www.creativityworks.info/. We are looking for an artist, ideally local to the area or to Lancashire, to deliver a programme of engagement workshops alongside the work Timorous Beasties are producing. We would like to engage people in creative activity at the museum, influenced by the print collections inspiring Timorous Beasties work, to give the community a chance to experience the collections in a different way. We would like to attract a new audience to the museum whilst offering its existing audience new ways of connecting with it. The workshops will take place before and during the time the work is exhibited. The artist will be responsible for engaging the community as well as existing groups (this may mean doing outreach sessions), designing, planning and delivering the workshops.

Aims:

• To increase engagement in the arts in Blackburn with Darwen

• To work with the community and local voluntary groups to engage the local people with the collections of the museum
• To use the museum as a venue for arts activity
• To raise the profile of Blackburn Museum and Art Gallery in the community
• To increase visitor figures to the museum (as part of the bigger phase two project)
• To encourage conversation and discussion.
  

Project brief:

To deliver a programme of artist workshops that will support the work being delivered by Timorous Beasties in partnership with Blackburn Museum. The artist will need to design, plan and deliver the programme making contacts with the community with support from museum and arts service staff. We would like the work to have a print or surface/pattern design element to it to compliment the collection and the work of Timorous Beasties. The workshops can have an element of outreach sessions, but will mainly be delivered in the museum. Communication of these workshops to the wider community will be an important element and the artist will be key in making these decisions.

 

Project Structure:

The workshops will take place in the month leading up to and during the exhibition, dates have yet to be confirmed but they will around April to May 2011.

10 half day sessions will take place through arrangement between the artist and the museum staff in this time. These will be a combination of drop in workshops and prearranged group workshops. This will also include one evening session to coincide with the Museums at Night scheme. Some sessions maybe held outside of the museum.

Included in the budget is provision for two half day planning sessions to be carried out before the programme starts

Budget:

The budget for the project is £1,500 to include all planning, deliver, materials and travel.

10 half day workshops x £100  = £1000

2 planning session x £100 = £200

Materials = £300

How to apply:

To apply, please send us:

1. An outline of how you would approach this project. This should include:

• How you would approach working with the community and voluntary groups
• Ideas that you might base workshops on
• Skills that caught be taught through the workshops

2. Examples of previous work/projects that you have undertaken with images (maximum 3)

3. A full CV

4. A letter of application stating what interests you about this project.

Please send application, or for more information, by email to Laura Rodgers, Creativity Works Arts Engagement Officer, laura.rodgers@blackburn.gov.uk

Closing date: Thursday 3^rd March