Blank Canvas Community Arts

“Along with the aesthetic appeal of his perfected sketch, Blurr’s personal reminders, perceived as cryptic messages and expressions, only heightened the relevance and impact of his moniker when they were read and interpreted by both workers and admirers of the railroad.”

“Yet it’s these cryptic messages that, through subjective interpretation, give comfort to many of the disenfranchised youth seeking refuge in the secluded comfort of the American railroad, and to other wandering souls that find themselves along the railroad. Blurr might tell you that he’s the one who needs therapy, but for many of his devotees, his art is therapy.”- Darin Rowland- SWINDLE magazine.

“The ever increasing ranks of Trooper characters have been positioned on our streets over the last few years with great visibility, their meaning is ambiguous and raises questions as to who or what they are; are they an invading force, a peace keeping corps or the symbol of something to come which is building under the surface? They observe quietly, but prominently from their stations stuck on lamp posts, pasted or sprayed on city walls.” -GRAPHOTISM

He works with Inhabit and their pop-up, art-based tearooms. He’s a filmmaker, working with people and their everyday experiences, focussing on themes such as love and the meaning of life. He likes his audience to engage, experience and share their lives.

Inhabit is an organisation within Birmingham which has been renting out various shops around the city. They transform the empty spaces into tearooms where they invite the public in to sit, have free tea and cakes. They’re not just a free tearoom, they encourage their visitors to come to a wide variety of free workshops they hold such as photography, crochet, graphic design, illustration etc, they then offer the opportunity of having the communities work to be exhibited in their shop/tea room.

Jon Burgerman was an artist we looked at and referred to quite heavily after our meet and greet with the kids at Hyson Green but also we the research we found out about him after with the work he had done.  At our meet and greet session with the kids, we found he was one of the artists they were really interested in because of his style. We also found out after he had created several murals for his work, two based in the QMC and one at Salford Uni. Even though the work was based with working directly with the community, the pieces are made for the community and also the style that he creates his work was similar to ours.

“Wish Tree” was an example of a piece where the audience was given a set of instructions and they could interpret how they wanted. The instructions were, “Make a wish. Write it down one a piece of paper. Fold it and tie it around a branch of the wish tree. Ask your friend to do the same. Keep wishing.” This was an interesting piece for us because the piece only develops if the audience gets involved but it also makes links with people you don’t necessarily know but you build a community around this tree and the wishes that are made because you aren’t only aware of the wish you make but many others that you can see.

We had our presentation at uni not too long ago, we basically had to fill people in on what it is we do, what we have been doing and what we want to go on to do next. We found out our end of year results a couple of days ago and we recieved one of the highest marks out of all the other teamwork projects in our year. Success! :)

Since then I have arranged to meet the director of the New Art Exchange next Monday to talk with him about what we’ve been up to and see if he’d be interested in joining us or supporting us. So even though, technically, the uni project is finished the community arts is still going strong and we’re even managing to recruit other students from our uni.

Hyson Green Youth Centre- Day 1

Creating the mural for the Hyson Green Youth Centre

“Blank Canvas”, a group of Nottingham Trent Fine Art students, have launched their first event at the Hyson Green Boys Club. The group aims to develop art work with local community groups, in an enjoyable environment. ”Blank Canvas are currently working with the  “Learn 2 Learn” team at the Boys Club  and have  made links with other Hyson Green  groups ,including the Karima Institute and New Art Exchange.

The event started with the delivery of two huge 9ft x 3ft canvases to the club. These will be decorated, using acrylic paint, with designs chosen by the young people themselves, working  with “Blank Canvas” to make a mural which  reflects them and their interests. This will set the stage for future art days in the area, possibly involving joint work with the New Art Exchange

The current Blank Canvas members are:

Natalie Ferguson:

Her practice is mainly presented through performance, video, installation and text but as an artist, she likes to push herself to the limits and break outside the boundaries of being an artist of one thing. She’s really interested in community arts because of the way it allows people to express themselves in way that they haven’t realised they can and can really build bridges and connections with people and their communities. As an artist she feels she can help because she’s attracted to the connections she can develop with people through her passion for art.

Holly O’Meara:

My work has always been about other people and their stories/experiences. I use video, audio, text, photography and print making to illustrate their emotions and stories. I focus on the reoccurring emotions in completely different situations. I’ve always been interested in working with other people, particularly with younger generations. I’ve seen firsthand how giving children something productive with their time, boost their moral and happiness. I want to give people the chance to express themselves through the form of art. Particularly people who may otherwise not have a chance to do so. I want to show them that they can achieve anything they put their mind to.

Nyambo Banda:

An Artist who works using Mixed media; he works this way because he feels that it opens up more possibilities for himself in terms of creativity. He focuses on ways in which to attract an audience’s attention by using humour, disturbing imagery, sounds or even scents. Many of his works tend to involve a great deal of experimentation as he tackles subjects such as race, religion, culture and identity. The motivation behind him wanting to get involved with community projects was because he felt that it was a way of giving back to the community, by raising awareness to the youths and getting them more involved in the world of art. The purpose of his works is for the youths of the community to express themselves freely in an artistic and enjoyable way.

Alex Polkey:

She focuses on is the innocence and complexity of human beings through illustration. She  likes to observe day to day life and her work represents innocence to expresses fragility using media such as pencil, pen and paint. With this she creates very intricate and detailed paintings. “There are too many things happening around the world that everything seems to get confused and scattered., like the changes and problems we face from child to adult”.

Muhammed Whelbourne:

 Muhammad Whelbourne, is an a Artist based in Nottingham England who currently has an interest in themes of conflict, and the effects of extremism and contemporary colonialism in the realm of the personal the filial the social, the cultural and the political. His work attempts to capture and investigate the mechanisms and dynamics of these tensions with specific reference to the Muslim world and its rich history. Using film, the written word and a range of discarded materials, he aims to question senses of, prejudice institutional hubris, abuses of reason, and the intellectual dishonesties of propagandists. His interests in community engagement stems from a sense of the artist’s responsibility to act as a dissenting voice that challenges social injustices.

Alex Cooke:

Is a bmxer who has a deep passion for drawing and painting. His work is largely inspired by graffiti and aspires to be a street artist. His bmxing and personal influences combine together to create his art. Throughout his work he aims to create bigger, more consuming pieces that take over the studio.

After completing the princes trust he wanted to work with children with difficult up bringing. Showing them things I enjoy and ways the can perfect their abilities.