Grants & Funding News

Contemporary visual art fans will be heading for the coast this summer as  international artists Tracey Emin and Antony Gormley display their work in Margate and Bexhill.

Contemporary visual art fans will be heading for the coast this summer as international artists Tracey Emin and Antony Gormley display their work in Margate and Bexhill.

In Margate, Emin's latest work was commissioned by Arts Council England regularly funded organisation, Turner Contemporary, with support from Thanet District Council.

The piece, a bright pink neon sign emblazoned with the words I Never Stopped Loving You, hangs above the entrance to Droit House on Stone Pier. Hundreds turned up on 30 April to see it unveiled.

Emin is most famous for her works My Bed and Everyone I Have Ever Slept With 1963 -1995, and was nominated for the Turner Prize in 1999.

The artist has dubbed this latest neon piece a love letter to Margate, her former childhood home, which has suffered decades of decay but is now the focus of urban regeneration.

Emin says: 'This neon is for everyone who knows that Margate is a truly beautiful place. It's a shame that the Golden Mile has lost its lighted crowning glory. Margate needs neon to bring it back to its former self.'

Victoria Pomery, Director of Turner Contemporary, says of the commission:  'We were delighted when Tracey Emin agreed to work with us on a new commission for the façade of Droit House.

'It has taken a long time to realise the neon work but it looks fantastic and it projects a truly beautiful sentiment that can be shared by everyone. I am sure that it will soon become an iconic part of the Margate seafront, enjoyed by local residents as well as crowds of summer visitors.

'For Turner Contemporary the unveiling of I Never Stopped Loving You also marked the start of a countdown to the opening of our new gallery next year, and we are all very excited that Tracey has agreed to work with us on an exhibition in autumn 2011.'

Meanwhile in Bexhill, Antony Gormley's life-sized iron body casts installation, Critical Mass, is currently on display on the roof of the De La Warr Pavilion until August 2010. This is the first time the entire 60-piece collection has been exhibited in the UK since 2001.

Gormley says the Modernist building and its seaside landscape are the perfect complement to his 1995 work.

He says: 'It is great to have a chance to test this piece of sculpture against the clarity of Mendelsohn and Chemayeff's English masterpiece. I am excited to see these dark forms in the elements against the sea and in direct light. It will be like a sky burial. How these masses act in space is very important. The challenge is to make the distance intimate, internal.'

For further information visit www.turnercontemporary.org and www.dlwp.com

Three south east Deaf and disabled artists have been awarded £55,000 to take their work into the public realm.

Three south east Deaf and disabled artists have been awarded £55,000 to take their work into the public realm.

Sarah Scott, Lorna Giezot, and Zoe Partington-Sollinger were chosen for the Go Public art commissions by two Arts Council England regularly funded organisations, arts agencies Dada-South and Artpoint.  

Go Public, launched in 2009, is a two-year initiative that aims to raise the profile of the unique and inspiring contribution Deaf and disabled artists make to contemporary society.

The initiative is part of Accentuate, a transformational programme of 15 projects that seeks to change perceptions and offer a wide range of opportunities across the south east to showcase the talents of disabled people.

Accentuate is funded by Legacy Trust UK, SEEDA and regional cultural agencies, including Arts Council England.

All of the chosen artists will exhibit their commissions across the south east, ahead of the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games.

The winning commissions include plans for a project that creatively documents the impact of yoga on disabled participants; a scientifically mapped and transmitted journey through urban space; and a tactile glowing resin door sculpture.

The commissions present an opportunity for artists to showcase their work in new and innovative ways, sometimes for the first time.

For multimedia visual artist and designer Lorna Giezot, Go Public will support her to create her first large-scale public work.

Lorna says her resin doorway represents the unknown, but also the possible: 'The ability to look through the sculpture to see what is on the other side breaks down that fear of the unknown associated with many metaphors, including disability and disabled people.'

Conceptual artist Zoe Partington-Sollinger, also an Arts Council England West Midlands Regional Council member, hopes that her Go Public project will influence urban planners to consider the needs of Deaf and disabled people.

Zoe said: 'My idea puts Deaf and disabled people at the centre of the creative process, and by capturing scientific data, informs that process in a useful and groundbreaking way.'

'We are delighted that these exceptional artists have been selected,' says Stevie Rice, Director of Dada-South, the development agency for Deaf and disabled artists in the south east.  'I have no doubt that the work will seek to engage and challenge audiences' perceptions and will give a much needed opportunity for disabled and Deaf artists to present their work in the public realm.'

‘Go Public has enabled Artpoint to further understand the needs of disabled artists in the south east,’ says Kevin Wilson, Director of Artpoint, the public art agency for the south east. ‘It continues to be a very rewarding process to support disabled artists in all stages of their development.’

In addition to the three large awards, Greek installation artist Vicky Vergou also won a smaller research and development award.

Applications for the Go Public public art commissions were accepted from emerging and established artists living or working in the south east. Applicants then underwent a rigorous and competitive commissioning process.

Go Public offers further opportunities for disabled and Deaf artists this year including workshops on the development and delivery of public realm initiatives.

For further information about Go Public or Accentuate, see their website http://www.accentuate-se.org/go-public

Artichoke, producer of London’s The Sultan’s Elephant, brings some of the fairytale magic from the French carousel to Milton Keynes’ first international multi-arts festival this July.

Artichoke, an Arts Council England regularly funded organisation, has teamed up with artist and engineer François Delarozière and Sky Arts to present the world’s largest and only square carousel, The Magical Menagerie, for the first time in the UK.

Artichoke, producer of London’s The Sultan’s Elephant, brings some of the fairytale magic from the French carousel to Milton Keynes’ first international multi-arts festival this July.

Artichoke, an Arts Council England regularly funded organisation, has teamed up with artist and engineer François Delarozière and Sky Arts to present the world’s largest and only square carousel, The Magical Menagerie, for the first time in the UK.

Originally commissioned in 2008 by the French newtown of Sénart, The Magical Menagerie - or Le Manège Carré Sénart - has toured through Europe including Spain, Portugal and Belgium, charming visitors with its mechanical herds of strange beasts from exotic fish and brightly coloured insects to oversized buffalos.

IF: Milton Keynes International Festival presents a dynamic programme of theatre, dance, circus, music, visual arts and sound installations from international and UK artists and performers from 16 July to 25 July 2010. 

The festival is produced by music venue The Stables in partnership with Milton Keynes Theatre & Gallery Company, both Arts Council England regularly funded organisations. Arts Council funding of £462,000 supported the early stages of the festival’s development, while an additional award of £100,000 has made the inclusion of The Magical Menagerie in the festival’s programme a possibility. 

Sally Abbott, Arts Council England Regional Director explains the impetus behind the Arts Council’s support: ‘Milton Keynes is one of the UK’s fastest growing cities, offering a fantastic opportunity to place the arts at the heart of its development and create a vibrant arts offer to unite and inspire the burgeoning population.

‘By supporting a strong cultural infrastructure in the city, Arts Council England is in turn supporting the local economy to thrive. The quality and diversity of the IF programme has exceeded all of our expectations and I wholeheartedly congratulate the team. I can’t wait to see the city come alive with people enjoying the arts.’

The Magical Menagerie is Artichoke’s sixth production. However, the London-based creative company is probably best remembered for its production of sculptor Antony Gormley's One & Other for the Fourth Plinth in Trafalgar Square in 2009. An incredible 2400 members of the public had the chance to stand on the plinth. 

Artichoke has worked with François Delarozière twice before. In 2006, Delarozière created a 50 foot mechanical elephant for Artichoke's production of Royal de Luxe’s The Sultan's Elephant. In 2008, he designed the spider in La Princesse in Liverpool.

The Magical Menagerie will be constructed in central Milton Keynes, in the car park of arts venue The Point, outside shopping centre thecentre:mk. The carousel runs from 16 July to 8 August. Sky Arts are offering discounted tickets, two tickets for the price of one, on Sunday 18 July and 1 August as part of their Sky Sunday programme.

IF: Milton Keynes International Festival kicks off with a pyrotechnics spectacular that incorporates music, light, projections and performance, Full Circle, and ends with a family picnic event in Campbell Park, World Picnic, with free entertainment and performances.

Highlights for this year’s festival include InStallation, a Swiss circus performing under the big top; a concert from world acclaimed percussionist Evelyn Glennie played to a prone audience in the City Church; music, comedy and cabaret curated by The Stables in the famous Victorian Spiegeltent; and Asleep at the Wheel, a soundscape art commission built in a disused Sainsburys superstore.

For more information, visit: http://www.ifmiltonkeynes.org