Weekender 06

The EGREMONT 06 Folk Art Weekender was a new kind of local event, combining a ‘folk art’ fair or exhibition in Egremont’s Market Hall with a webcast discussion which focused on the approach that Grizedale Arts has brought to the context of Egremont’s art strategy.

A unique webcast discussion between artists Jeremy Deller and Alan Kane with writers Will Bradley and Claire Bishop, was hosted on Friday June 16th by Grizedale Arts and Cumbria Institute of the Arts.

Rather than using the traditional format of the art conference, this event took place behind closed doors inside Egremont Market Hall, with the aim of producing a more conversational and fluid discussion. However, to reach a wider audience, the discussion was webcast by Cumbria Institute of the Arts, producing - in effect - Egremont’s own strand of arts broadcasting.

The discussion focused on Grizedale Arts’ public art strategy for Egremont which, as this event shows, seeks to produce product to go out, rather than importing creativity in.

Egremont, in the West of Cumbria, is the main service town for the Sellafield Nuclear Power Plant and over the years it has been bypassed by mainstream cultural development. Consequently, it has developed its own unique culture, which is personified in the annual Crab Fair which has existed since the 13th century. Grizedale Arts’ strategy is to develop and enrich the town’s culture as part of a regeneration initiative, without resorting to the standard import of artworks and international brand culture - preserving what is unique and building new, indigenous creative output upon it.

The prestigious panel reflected upon new ways of making art, artists’ work outside traditional gallery situations, and working with people and communities who lie outside the traditional centres of the international art world.

The webcast is archived online - please view using the links at the top of the page.

THE FOLK ART FAIR

Our local exhibitors on display on Saturday 16th were:

David Platt - Bonsai trees & pottery
Morag Nisbet - Rag rugs
Mark Andrews - Pen & ink drawings
Wulf Warren - Drawings
Gareth Harrison - Photographs & drawings

Each exhibitor made a personal display of their work on specially-designed modular display boards made by local company Ponsonby Joiners and which we have donated to the Market Hall for re-use by the community.
Throughout the day, Morag Nisbet entertained onlookers with her live rag-rug making, whilst Wulf Warrren’s children provided a live drawing exhibition. Local ladies provided delicious refreshments and members of the Miner’s Lamp Theatre company dropped by to preview their ‘Tis MacBeth Marra!” production. Many local people stopped by to look at the show, and we hope to run a second ‘Weekender’ next year....