Junction Arts – Our festival season is beginning…

 

Our Place

Website & Broadcast Launch – We’re Counting down! After months of planning and working creatively across the East Midlands with our partners and artists, Junction Arts are so excited to share the Our Place project website with you: https://junctionarts.org/our-place-/  

The new work created through each of the 7 creative residencies has been brought together into a feature length film by Director Chris Bevan, co-curated by Junction Arts and our partners and artists to showcase a diversity of artforms, cultures and communities that make up our diverse East Midlands. Our Place brings together the hills of the High Peak to the streets of inner-city Leicester, where Ukrainian dance from Derby will share the stage with embellished aprons made in rural Lincolnshire.

Watch this space for our celebratory web broadcast which will launch on the website at 6:30pm on the 9th September 2021: https://junctionarts.org/our-place-broadcast/

The project has seen over 50 participants working with 27 artists throughout the summer in a series of diverse residencies involving textiles, VR, filmmaking, dance, spoken word, creative writing and music video production.

Our Place is only made possible thanks to public funding from the National Lottery through Arts Council England.

 

Junction Arts Our Place Residency

That’s a wrap!

In August, Directors Chris Yarnell and Chris Bevan had 6 hours to film participants from Derbyshire LGBT+ (SWAG Productions) and capture a sequence of rebellious yet poignant spoken word excerpts, poems and dialogue written during the workshop process. The short film shows SWAG Productions hacking into a tourism video of Chesterfield, reclaiming their place in the broadcast and what it means to be young, LGBT and growing up in the town, specifically within the safe walls of Derbyshire LGBT+ premises.

We learnt the tricks of the trade when filming in residential locations by foiling the windows to create a black room to allow for film projections and atmospheric performances to camera. When the group weren’t performing or delivering voice overs, we were setting the room next door ready for filming slow-motion chaos with confetti cannons, blow up light sabres and bubbles; representing the colourful spirit of the group. We can’t wait to share with audiences what the group have created in just 7 weeks, as we’ve shared interests, frustrations, laughter and stories.

 

This Girl Codes

In July we held our first ‘Curiosity Academy’ at Hardwick Hall for participants to delve deeper into the history on site and explore steganography – the practice of concealing messages. Over three days we welcomed over 40 people to the Academy, from ages 6-83! Participants said “The history is really playful, relevant and inspiring. The same code can be translated so many ways. The behind the scenes tour and insider information has made us want to plan another visit.”

As part of the Curiosity Academy we took a group of participants to The Framework Knitters Museum in Ruddington. Here we saw the only knitting frames in the world that are still worked! We knitted code into a sock and even saw a piece of the Mars Rover parachute that had been to NASA. We held an open day at West Studios for participants to come and see our artists Cora Glasser and Annie French at work on the collaborative art-piece. Lots of interesting conversations were had and participants were able to give their input towards the collaborative piece.

You can read more about what we got up to here.

We were also on Bolsover TV talking about This Girl Codes and the Curiosity Academy which you can watch here.

 

Creswell Gets Creative

August was a busy month for the Creswell Gets Creative group, returning to a much- loved artform and tackling a new one. First, we welcomed back artist Diane Daley who runs China Petals, to deliver another mosaic workshop, this time making decorative wall plaques. Participants further honed their mosaic skills and created some really beautiful pieces.

The second workshop, on the 20th August pushed everyone out of their comfort zone with a crash course in basket weaving. Our tutor was Maggie Cooper, a talented basket maker from Castle Donnington. Maggie helped the group make a basket from scratch in just a day, using traditional methods and materials, quite a feat! We hope you’ll agree that the effort was worth it.

 

Tapton Lock Festival

Not long now before our annual Tapton Lock Festival, the free family event held along the banks of the Chesterfield Canal. We’ve put together a jam-packed programme for you and are thrilled to announce the following performances:

On Saturday 11th September visitors can take part in arts, crafts and circus skills workshops and meet our very own festival bubbleologist. You can scale new heights on the climbing wall, try canoeing or take a leisurely boat ride. We’re also very excited to bring a brand new commission to the Festival, an exhilarating fusion performance of Bhangra and Ukrainian music and dance entitled Derby: Our City of Making, courtesy of the Our Place project and Surtal Arts. The performers will also be delivering a workshop to have a go yourself! A gentler encounter will be brought to visitors by some amazing story tellers from Adverse Camber to spark the imagination and take you new worlds.

The arts & crafts workshops, climbing wall, canoeing and boat rides will be with us on Sunday too but we also have something different. For the first time there will be a film tent, to watch some of our newly commissioned short films and the Bee Cart will be arriving, with Bee Guides Bombus and Borage exploring all things Bees. We’ll have puppet shows and story walks along the canal and last but definitely not least we'll be joined by award winning poet Kaozara Okikiola Oyalowo who will recite some of her poetry including the festival commission Tapton Ducks.

The festival is open from 11.00am – 4.00pm both days and everyone is welcome (including dogs!), we look forward to seeing you.

 

Hasland and Grassmoor Workshops

We delivered two paper craft workshops for Hasland and Grassmoor Big Local’s Summer of Fun. Lots of young people had a go at making beautiful paper flowers with our staff. If you would like a creative workshop at your event, get in touch!


Clay Cross Public art and community engagement

The two display banners showcasing this project and the ambitious Town Deal investment have now moved to Clay Cross library and will be there until 6th September. Details will be released soon about the planned events to showcase the unique and exciting digital projections on the ventilation shaft on Market Street, Clay Cross in late September culminating with a special finale event.
Follow us on social media to find out more in the coming weeks.

 

Dates for the Diary

  • Tapton Lock Festival 2021:

Sat 11 & Sun 12 September 2021, Tapton Lock Visitors Centre, Chesterfield (Free - All welcome)

  • Bolsover Lantern Parade 2021:

Saturday 27th November, Details TBC

 

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