Junk Mail

Is there anything you can do about the junk mail now appearing in the ‘Recent Comments’ section on my Homepage (or should I say dashboard??) for example:

From dark on Summer Wednesday Evenings at Time and Tide # [Pending]
came; buy cheapest etc;
or another:
From century on Samba Magdalena # [Pending]
river; etc;
…..or yet another:
From shoe on Summer Wednesday Evenings at Time and Tide # [Pending]
question; etc;
….. and there’s plenty more where that came from. If this website is to become a useful networking tool as we all hope it will, these timewasters need to be barred from using it

The Strictly Gallery

The Strictly Gallery has opened in 25-26 Victoria Arcade, Great Yarmouth and is looking for new artists to exhibit . 

The gallery has opened with a Round the World exhibition by gallery owners Elizabeth Hearne and Paul Irving along with an exhibition of reproduced pictures titled Legends with canvasses of stars like Elvis Presley and Marilyn Monroe.

The gallery also offers a photographic studio and a canvas printing service.  The photographic studio is for hire for a small fee

Strictly Gallery is open six-days-a-week during the school holidays and is closed on Sundays.

Anyone wishing to get in contact can either call in to the gallery or visit www.thestrictlygallery.com, or email at mailto://info@thestrictlygallery.com.

Exhibition opportunity: Elements

Elements is a significant new open exhibition for the Eastern Region, to be held at The Forum in Norwich for three weeks from Tuesday 26 January 2010.

The Forum Trust are looking for exceptional works of art, completed in the last three years, by artists who particularly engage with habitat, environment and both the natural and man-made world in their creative process. The aim is to curate a compelling and varied selling exhibition at The Forum, the culmination of which will be the juried Bayer Prize.

The theme of the inaugural Elements exhibition is ‘Man and the Environment’. This is a broad and complex relationship which could encompass history, sustainability, culture, nature, rurality, urban life, technology or the growing concerns about the human impact on the environment.

The deadline for submission is 7th December, £5.00 submission fee. For more information and to request submission form, click here.

Mother & Child in Limbo, public art in Great Yarmouth

Mother and Child, carving in York stone, by Bridget Heriz, commissioned for the Cobholm and Lichfield  Resource Centre by the Bridge Trust, 2006, funded by SRB5.  The sculpture has been moved whilst building works are taking place to extend the Resource Centre and I hope this photographic compilation (background from the avenue in the graveyard) does not relate to the fate of the sculpture!

April 2010:  The carving has been relocated in the new foyer of the Cobholm and Lichfield Resource Centre.  It looks fine in its new setting apart from the notices mounted on the wall unnecessarily close the sculpture.

Public Art by Andrew Tanser, Middlegate Garden

Stone Sofa by Andrew Tanser, 2004, photograph by Derek Jackson 2009

This stone carving by Andrew Tanser was commissioned in 2004 as part of the Middlegate Garden project funded by SRB, Integreat and GYBC.  Andrew also designed the massive gates.  Andrew lead workshops with young residents from the surrounding estate, who participated in the project to improve this garden area between the two English Heritage sites on South Quay.  For more information on Andrew’s work click here to view his website.

Coastal Regeneration Competition

The Royal Society of Marine Artists (RSMA) is calling for entries from artists in coastal communities for a new prize to be awarded at its Annual Exhibition at London’s Mall Galleries in October. Sea Pictures Gallery is sponsoring a prize of £500 for paintings and sculptures on the subject of ‘People’s working relationship with the Sea’ to encourage the creation of figurative contemporary coastal art and to support awareness of the importance of the sea to the population of these islands.

Artworks for submission to the exhibition, which need to be accepted by the RSMA to qualify for the prize judging, have to be delivered to the Mall Galleries on the 13th September in person or by special arrangement following the instructions at www.mallgalleries.org.uk.  The correct labels and terms and conditions are to be found at this site.

‘Sea Pictures’ is a specialist marine art gallery that has recently re-established itself at Clare, in East Anglia having operated on the Internet for the last five years. Owners Sarah and Alaric Pugh are members of Sea Vision UK , the legacy organisation from the UK ’s Year of the Sea in 2005, and are keen supporters of the regeneration of Britain ’s coastal communities and our maritime heritage. For more information about the gallery click here.

Photography Competition

The theme of this year’s Great Yarmouth Borough Council photographic competition is “Boats and Buildings”.  There are two categories, one for under 16s and the other for over 16s.  Digital entries, with name and address, telephone number and category of entry, should be sent to boroughnews@great-yarmouth.gov.uk and prints sent to Karla Symonds, Communications Manager, GYBC, Town Hall, Hall Plain, NR30 2QG. 

The deadline is Monday, September 14th, 2009.  All entries will be exhibited at the Town Hall during October.  Note that photographs cannot be returned and should be your own work, and you must have the copyright.  By entering the competition you are giving GYBC the right to use the photographs.

Public Art, Mark Goldsworthy, Lichfield Community Centre

Chalky White, a fisherman counting in the fish with the assistance of his cat, looks out upons the play area at the Lichfield Community Centre, Suffolk Road.   The sculpture by Mark Goldsworthy commemorates 1,000 years of maritime history in Great Yarmouth and is carved from the trunk of an oak tree.   The work was funded by SRB5.

Mark also created the St.George and the Dragon sculpture in St. George’s Park.

Mark attended foundation course at Great Yarmouth College of Art and Design in 1981-82 before going on to Manchester Polytechnic.  For more information, click here to view his website.

Voluntary Arts England

EastCoastNet recommends signing up to receive Voluntary Arts England’s weekly e-newsletter to receive the latest news, including  jobs, funding and events. 

Voluntary Arts England is the national development agency for arts participation, raising awareness of the contribution that the voluntary and amateur arts and crafts make to the well-being of communities, social inclusion, lifelong learning, active citizenship and volunteering. 

For example, there is useful information about Grassroots Grants which has funded thousands of projects, from sports for the disabled to arts for older people, activities for young people, counselling services, employment programmes, food parcel services, music groups and village halls. It is these small, volunteer led groups that make a real difference to the lives of local people, and often a small amount of money can go a long way.

To view the wealth of information available on the website click here.

Art in Empty Spaces

If you are using or thinking of using empty retail spaces to display art or run an art project, you might be interested to know that Arts Council England’s £500,000 initiative to help artists use vacant high street shops is now open for applications.

Artists are able to apply for grants to support artistic activity that will transform empty retail units into creative spaces – anything from an art gallery to recording studios or family arts workshops – which the whole community can enjoy.

The programme, ‘Art in empty spaces’ will run in partnership with the Department for Communities and Local Government’s scheme ‘Looking After Our Town Centres’ which will invest £3 million to reinvigorate ailing town centres during the recession.

More information about the scheme and how to apply can be found at www.artscouncil.org.uk/artinemptyspaces.