matt chesney: backlit's experience winning the connect! competition
TRANSCRIPT
Backlit: A brief history Connect!: Mat Collishaw 2013 Gillian Wearing 2015
Backlit is a two storey independent art gallery located in the heart of Nottingham, UK. It provides affordable studio spaces for contemporary artists; supporting early career graduates, emerging artists and international touring practitioners.Backlit provides a dynamic public programme of national and international artists including original artist commissions, workshops, screenings and live debates. It has a strong working relationship with regional and national organisations and universities. It is committed to supporting community engaged projects and provides unique critical sessions for artists working in the city.
Connect 2013
• Mat Collishaw
• We were selected to compete in the 2013 competition to bring Mat Collishaw back to his home town of Nottingham and reconnect with local artists.
• We put together an award winning social media campaign with local PR company Cartwright Communications called BringBackMat!
Bring Back Mat Campaign The tag #bringbackmat, fun ‘Mat facts’ and links to the online voting site were used to draw attention to the campaign online. Online regional ‘influencers’ such as journalists, local artists, and educational and cultural organisations were also identified and approached to support the campaign. The Gallery was featured in local, national and international press including Nottingham Evening Post, AN and Vogue Ukraine!
• Backlit was awarded significant Arts Council funding in 2013 not long after the Connect win.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V6U96u9FSkc
The House of the Flying Wheel,
2014
The Exhibition
Yinka Shonibare MBE
Julian Wild
Mark Davey
Darren Banks
Virtual Reality Experience
Digital Archive
morleythreads.com
Connect 2013
• Gillian Wearing
• We were selected to compete in the 2015 competition to host a ‘personal karaoke’ event.
• We put together another successful and interactive social media campaign for “spoken selfies” that would use contemporary culture to reference Gillian’s work.
Signs that say what you want them to say and not Signs that say what someone else wants you to say, 1992-93
Vote for Gillian
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y2BjyIABKnA
Dancing in Broadmarsh
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vn7pKa2T0A4
• We won the vote by 50% by drip feeding information and encouraging local students and cultural organisations in the Nottingham to back us!
• The Personal Karaoke event was later developed with Gillian Wearing into the ‘Shy Convention’.
• Gillian Wearing and Backlit hosted an afternoon of creative sessions exploring confidence, writing, music and language. The Shy Convention involved a small group of participants who attended two sessions; one in creative writing with local collective Mouthy Poets and the other with life coach, Isabel Mortimer. The objective was to prepare a personal piece of writing to perform later that evening to a live audience as part of the ‘personal karaoke’ experience.
Gillian says…
• ‘I hope it will bring a lot of like-minded people together in celebration of a trait that many people have, including myself. Let this be a celebration as well as an opportunity to find techniques that can help boost confidence.’
Featured in National press!
In 2016
• Following on form this we are looking into an interesting legacy to the project and how we can capture the event.
• We have a received Arts Council funding following the Connect! and Museums at Night 2015.
