“We’re so proud to see how our Coventry Local Artists Development Fund has sparked such a breadth of creativity from writers, artists and creatives in the city. New work is key to keeping a place vibrant, energised and healthy and we’re grateful to the donor for making this possible. We can’t wait to see how some of these initial research ideas and processes develop further for the artists.
In total there were 26 artists supported including three organisations within the process of it happening such as Mothers Who Make Coventry and Pixeltrix. PLUS four children – ace!” – Julia Negus
Find out below about just a couple of the ways the fund was used as well as our previous post here by Paul T.
Denise Startin on visiting two sites of interest to her artistic research:
“My work primarily utilises found objects and images but over time this has changed from a direct engagement with the image to a direct engagement with the site instead, a kind of tourism in reverse where the souvenir precedes the trip. I find myself kind of haunted by objects that come into my possession since they are usually connected to a person and the bursary enabled me to visit two sites of interest, The Druid’s Writing Desk and the Emily Bronte Museum in Yorkshire enabling me to develop more experience of being on site and obtain images and research for possible future work.”
https://denisestartin.co.uk
Instagram: @startind02
You can visit Denise’s upcoming solo show: Hints for British Tourists at City Arcadia in July. The Private View is Thursday 7th July 6.30-8.30pm and the exhibition runs until Sat 16th July. Open 11-4pm (except Sundays). Hints for British Tourists is the re-staging and fictional expansion of a found pamphlet containing instructions for travel.
Secondly we hear from Mothers Who Make Coventry Hub who used the fund for a group visit to Compton Verney in May:
“On 7th May 2022 a group of eight mothers and four children from Coventry’s Mothers Who Make Hub visited Compton Verney with the generous support of Theatre Absolute to cover entry costs to the grounds and gallery. It was a lovely sunny day and first of all we visited the newly installed work ‘The Village’ in the Old Town Meadow (first picture), a large-scale interactive sculpture by Morag Myerscough. We were particularly excited to visit as Hub member Polly Merredew collaborated in its creation.
We were also able to put funds towards paying artist and archivist Tarla Patel to give us a tour of her father’s exhibition in the main gallery ‘Through the Lens of Masterji’. This gave us a wonderful insight into her family’s life settling in Coventry and running a popular photographic studio on Stoney Stanton Road, first opening in 1969. It was inspiring to hear how Masterji’s wife, Tarla’s mother Ramaben Patel was also instrumental to the business both creatively and managerially.
One of our group commented of the trip: “It was a lovely day, thank you for making it possible. I also found the portraits very moving and a slice of my Indian history in this country. I loved the way that Masterji was brought into the exhibition in the last room – we were so lucky to be guided by his daughter – what a special privilege.”
Thank you so much to Theatre Absolute for supporting so many of us to join in with this special experience and to find out more about how a family run artistic enterprise became embedded within the Coventry community. ” – Adele Mary Reed, hub facilitator.
