Relationship Map Exhibition 20th May

We have a new date for our Relationship Map exhibition in the Rickett Quadrangle at Middlesex University, Hendon. We will now be opening it at Noon on Friday 20th May 2016. More details to follow.

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Relationship Map - Mental Health Awareness Week 16-22 May 2016

Relationship Maps – where do you stop on your journey?

Organised by CollectConnect artists' group, hosted by Middlesex University, as part of Mental Health Awareness Week.

Relationship Maps is an artwork which charts how different people make connections and relationships between fundamental concepts - like Mum/Dad, Me/You and Heart/Mind. It is inspired by the map and tube lines of the London Underground.

On Friday 20th May 2016 we will be exhibiting our final Relationship Map in the Rickett Quadrangle at Middlesex University (in Hendon). We are also publishing an A3 version of the map.

And we need you to complete our Relationship Map.

We have eleven “lines” in our relationship map, each starting and finishing with people, places or things that you might have a relationship with:

Mum to Dad	Start to Finish
Cradle to Grave	Love to Loss
Home to Away	Me to You
Cat to Dog	Faith to Doubt
Dover to Calais	Heart to Mind
Tears to Laughter

There are three blank “stops” for each line. We want you to fill in the blank stops for as many lines as you want, which best sum up how you connect the concepts. Write a title or name (no longer than 4 words) that describes each stop on your journey. For example: what does it feel like to be in the middle between Cradle and Grave, or closer to Cradle, or closer to Grave. You could write something like: Cradle – Carved Heart Rocks – Man Called Horse Junction – Quite Quiet – Grave.

To enter:

1. The deadline for entries is April 30th 2016.
2. Send us the names of your stops in one sentence like this:Cradle – Carved Heart Rocks – Man Called Horse Junction – Quite Quiet – Grave
3. Please include your name and location, so we can include your name in the overall list of artists on each copy of the map. (You won't be able to identify individual authors of each stop though.)
4. Send entries to Alban Low at collectconnect4@gmail.com or tweet them to @collectconnect4. Middlesex University students can also send entries on a postcard to Kevin Acott, Director of Programmes and Senior Lecturer (Mental Health) or email him at K.Acott@mdx.ac.uk

Further contacts: Mental Health Awareness Week is organised by the Mental Health Foundation (www.mentalhealth.org.uk). Relationship Maps is organised by artists group CollectConnect (www.collectconnect.blogspot.com). The map will be published by Sampson Low Ltd (www.sampsonlow.com)

 

Submissions closed Art of Caring 2016

Thank you to everyone who entered the Art of Caring this year. We've has a fantastic response full of talented artwork and generosity of spirit. More details will be appearing here in the next few days but I'm happy to announce we have 184 artists exhibiting 329 artworks and poems with us this year.

Praying with Mrs. Cooper
by The Rev. Robin Pfaff

This year's crop include 3 artworks from The Rev. Robin Pfaff, he told us about his motivation to get involved, "As a hospital chaplain I often meet people at a time of intense change, but these encounters usually show me something of the indomitable human spirit. Healthcare professionals, however, who are regularly exposed to highly traumatic situations need to find their own way of coping and build up a resilience that is both sturdy as well as tender. Talking about what we do and see can be extremely difficult, as we all have a tendency to avoid emotional pain."

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The Empowering Melanie Ezra



Art of Caring 2016 - Melanie Ezra

The first entries have started to arrive at the Art Of Caring this year. We would like to shine our modest spotlight on some of the artists who dedicate their time to art and make our exhibitions such a success.

Melanie Ezra (left) and Rose Davies (right)

We've exhibited the work of Melanie Ezra since our magnet Rarities exhibition along the Hastings and St Leonards' seafront in 2011. She is not only a regular contributor but also supports a network of international artists who use her as a conduit to the UK art scene. Ezra continues to be the poster girl for the Swansea art world, her photography based work is often spliced and cut using her trusty scalpel but inside you can still find the beauty of the Gower Peninsula. Last year she published a map, Swansea: On the Map: An Artist's Walk with Rose Davies that continues to this day to be a bestseller for publishers Sampson Low Ltd.

Unfortunately last year Melanie Ezra wasn't able to submit her work to the Art Of Caring so we are very pleased to welcome her into the fold in 2016. Ezra's Art of Caring artworks are based on photographs taken during her mindful photography workshops. The workshops explore self-improvement and empowerment through the use of the camera. They are often delivered through community organisations to aid people who have suffered life-changing events. She works with blind charities, drugs agencies, and other community and hospital based groups. Ezra's participants have shown great resilience in overcoming their problems and her workshops often inspire them to learn other new skills and tackle other obstacles in their lives from a new position of strength.

From left to right: Céline Pellerin,

Esperanza Tielbaard, Melanie Ezra in Manhattan, 2014

 (Photograph: Esperanza Tielbaard)

I and others from CollectConnect have written before about Melanie Ezra and her personal resilience in the Art world. No distance is too great to traverse so that she can meet and help fellow artists, or share her artwork with the public. It has been truly inspiring to watch her work spread throughout he world and feel the glow from her growing reputation.

If you would like to submit your artwork to the Art Of Caring this year then visit the Submit page of this website.

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Art of Caring Submissions Open 2016

Now more than ever we have to celebrate and support the nurses and carers who make such a difference to our lives. Please join the Art of Caring exhibition this year by submitting your artwork on the theme of Caring or Care. It is Free to enter and very straight forward to get involved. Just send up to 3 jpeg images in an A6 size to collectconnect4@gmail.com



Rumen Deshev at the
Art of Caring 2015

You'll receive a confirmation email within 7 days with your catalogue/exhibition numbers. Before the exhibition we will print 2 postcards of each of your artworks. One copy will be sent to you and the other will be exhibited in the Upper Circle Gallery, The Rose Theatre, Kingston-upon-Thames, UK from the 12th to 24th May 2016.

2015 presentation

Like last year we'll be opening the exhibition with a private view on International Nurses Day, Thursday 12th May 2016. So please put it in your diary and come along.
If you would like to see some of last year's submissions and exhibition then have a look in this album of photos - 2015 Art of Caring Images.

This year we've been asked to exhibit a selection of the work at the Arts Project exhibition space in St Pancras Hospital from July - October 2016.
For the full details about how to submit your work visit our SUBMIT page.
Deadline for submissions is Thursday 31st March 2016.
(We may close early if all 250 exhibition spaces are filled)

Alban Low, Bryan Benge, Dean Reddick and Stuart Simler

Bill Mudge wins Wandle Photo Awards

Bill Mudge - Feeding the Birds (detail)

Last night Bill Mudge won first prize in the Wandle Valley Photographic Competition 2015. The awards ceremony was conducted at Bedzed, the UK's first and largest zero energy housing development and hosted by Sue Morgan, CEO of Wandle Valley Regional Park Trust.

Dan Mitchell from Cubiquity and Bill Mudge

The competition received over 200 entries and Bill not only secured top spot with his photo Misty Mitcham Morning but also a winning entry in the Wandle Folk Category for Feeding the Birds.

The photos originated from an exhibition and map project that Bill undertook for CollectConnnect earlier this year. He mapped a beautiful walk along the River Wandle's green corridor in South London. Along its route he teases us with his photos, making the map itself a thing of beauty and fascination. Learn more about Bill Mudge's Wandling here.

Congratulations to Bill from us all at CollectConnect.

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Noise_Dolls Zine 006 - open call out.

Noise_Dolls Zine 006 [NDZINE:006] open call out.

 

Noise Dolls is a printed art zine, featuring a variety of contents from emerging and established artists.

  

Noise dolls are looking for content for its Autumn/Winter Zine. 

 

So if you’re a, photographer, fine artist, poet, graphic artist, creative writer or just a funky and quirky maker and shaker then get in touch!

  

Our content broaches a variety of mediums, and the best thing is the zine is completely free to submit to. So there's no reason not to ping us an email and if we like your work we’ll run with it!

 

We also offer advertising space for a crazy small fee. So if you’re also interested in advertising anything from, shops, events/happenings, workshops, exhibitions or gigs etc then get in touch.  

 

This issues theme is "Light and Shade", interpretations on or around this theme are welcome. 

 

We are looking for a cover artwork for this issue. The selected artist will receive a modest commission fee. 

 

So please get in touch with your submission and a small artist statement about the work. Please upload your images in a Jpeg format. 

 

To purchase a copy of our latest issue for only £2.00 visit the link below. 

noisedollsmixtapes.bandcamp.com/merch/noise-dolls-zine-004-ndzine-004 

Get noisy about us, and spread the word. 

Follow us on Facebook 

facebook.com/noisedolls

 

We're dying to know what you think about our work so please get in contact with any suggestions or comments.

 

We'd also love to hear from you if you're interested in getting involved with the Zine - write an article, design the cover etc.

 

Get in touch at noisedolls@hotmail.co.uk

Deadline early January 2016 but may close earlier due to demand

 

 

 

 

Seventeen Mundane Moments in Tate Modern - Peter S Smith

Peter S Smith

 

There are often stories in the newspapers about cleaners at major art galleries throwing away priceless modern art because they not whether it is rubbish or priceless rubbish. I like the current art trends that give me a better grip of reality, once upon a time I dreamed of dripping fantasy worlds but now I want the taste of steel and to hear the reverberations of urban sounds in my art. Many of these artworks can be easily mistaken for everyday objects and of course our newspapers love nothing better than to ridicule this supposedly lazy approach to creativity.

Mundane Moment 11

Part of the enjoyment of art is the detective work that's needed, finding out about the artist, their context historically. Inevitably you start to look at the world around you in a different light, even finding meaning in objects and moments that you once thought were arid wastelands. Such is the power of Peter S Smith's map "Seventeen Mundane Moments In Tate Modern". It is both a work of art in its own right but also a route to discovery.

Mundane Moment 5

Here is a map that allows you to look at the world that surrounds some of the most iconic artworks in the world. Don't think about the Tate Modern as a landmark, think of it more as a dirty mark on the table cloth of London. Its blemished surface reveals as much about us as individuals as it does about the way art has evolved in the past 50 years.

Mundane Moment 3

Earlier this year we held an exhibition of artists' maps at the Sunbury Embroidery Gallery in the beautiful setting of the Sunbury Walled Garden. Ten artists created maps which could be walked throughout Great Britain. Some were factual, others conceptual but most of all they gave us a new perspective to the world outside if we chose to follow the artist's instructions.

 All of the maps are published by Sampson Low Ltd and can be bought for as little as £2. One of the criteria for the commissioned maps was that they should be affordable to all. The artists were asked to consider 3 criteria; their map should be set in the real world, somewhere in the UK; that it should include a route which could be walked and the walking of the map shouldn't cost more than £10 (train fares, entrance to museums, lunch).

Mundane Moment 2

My pledge to the artists for giving us such a wonderful array of creative cartography was that I would walk all their maps in the months to come. Here is my route through Peter S Smith's map "Seventeen Mundane Moments In Tate Modern". It covers the stairwell that runs down from the 6th Floor until it's final destination in the famous Turbine Hall. Along the way you've got to keep your eyes peeled, find these little mundane treasures and make up your own stories about them.

Mundane moment 8

As I walked through Peter S Smith mundane world we poked fun at the art world and revelled in its power too. As we found each mundane moment we couldn't help but look like a couple of idiots as other people walked past but there were more than a few art lovers who eavesdropped on our conversations, hoping to snaffle an invaluable titbit of artistic insight.

Mundane Moment 14

I hope you enjoy walking Peter S Smith's map as much as I did, it reflects a very British wit in its attention to the oblique and darkly humorous. What I enjoyed doing most of all was creating imaginary artists who made these undiscovered works, their titles and hidden meanings. The hole of Mundane Moment number 14 was a favourite, a solitary bright socket looking out at you, like a camouflaged Moby Dick in the handrail of the Tate Modern.

BUY Seventeen Mundane Moments In Tate Modern for £2

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Art Language Location - Contemporary Cambridge

It's that time of year again where Cambridge is turned into a cryptic crossword of criss-crossing Art across the city centre. Art Language Location is a festival we really believe in at CollectConnect, where the Art populates public places and inquisitive creative bloodhounds are rewarded with thought provoking urban vignettes. It is the brainchild of artist Robert Good who we have had the pleasure of featuring on Freedbook, Fab Fridge 2014 and most recently the excellent 'On The Map' exhibition.

Now in its fourth year, Art Language Location (ALL) , 2015 is proud to welcome work by nearly 70 of the brightest emerging and established artists from across the UK and beyond who use text in their work. ALL is a contemporary visual and performance arts event taking place over two and a half weeks in October 2015 in Cambridge, featuring prestigious, innovative and experimental contemporary art. Join us at Anglia Ruskin University campus and around Cambridge in October for this year’s festival, which is bringing exciting new work to Cambridge.

Each artist  has found an appropriate venue for their work: the resulting intervention creates a conversation between artist, artwork and location. This extended exhibition aims to show a series of visually exciting and unexpected encounters in which our everyday interactions with text can be explored and challenged.

Highlights include Supertext, an exhibition of Art and Text around the campus at Anglia Ruskin University (ARU). With over 20 works to find, you are invited to track down adorable shaggy dogs (and stories) by Tom Hackett, a multilingual Winnie-the-Pooh (plus aprons) by Laima Vanaga and an argument between Daniel Djamo and his mother.

And we'd love to see you at ShowTime! on October 17th, also at ARU, for a full day of participation and performance. Take part in an interactive audio drawing by 2015 Jerwood Prize Winner Alison Carlier, listen to a new choral work by Ian Wolter and have your nails done as never before. Sample local street food by Food Park, and round off the day with live music and bar.

With a programme of supporting events and artworks around town, encounter art on your daily travels as our ALL artists uncover more unusual locations across Cambridge. This year, find stone carving in a burial ground and social commentary at a bus stop as well as a new dictionary at the Central Library and dazzling drawing at the Sedgwick Museum. Don't miss hand-stitched financial reports by Rhiannon Williams at the Alison Richard Building and venture further afield to see a video projection by Sally Stenton

There is a Launch Party on 15 October at The Junction, Cambridge, which will be opened by Molly Jackson of the South Bank.

ALL is going from strength to strength, building a reputation for Cambridge  as a place to visit for contemporary art - ALL2015 is the fourth annual event, which began with Text&Context in October 2012. We want to bring new and experimental art to Cambridge and contribute to what is becoming a growing and exciting contemporary arts scene. Join us in October and see for yourself. See you there! Check out our website www.artlanguagelocation.org for full details.