Venture Arts 3rd Year at Lymm Art in the Garden Festival

Meet our New Arts Worker: Laura Nathan

Issue 3

July 2009

Issue 2

Ve n tu r e A r ts

Venture Arts was delighted to be invited to play a part in Lymms’ ‘Art in the Garden’ festival once again. This is our third appearance at the festival. Our contribution this time, took the form of a tin man, tin monkeys and pin hole photographs on tin, all to celebrate their 10th anniversary.

Laura Nathan obtained an MA in 2007 from Manchester Metro-

politan University in Art as Environment, having graduated in Em-

broidery. Laura is well travelled and has conducted workshops in

Manchester and Beverly Ma. USA. Laura has a great enthusiasm

and energy and we look forward to seeing her talents here at Ven-

ture Arts over the next months and years.

Global Exchange Stu-dents on

Placement

Riaz from Pakistan and Nathalie from Milton

Keynes have spent the last eight weeks on

placement with Venture Arts from Global

Exchange. Riaz and Nathalie have spent time

working with our students in the comfort-

able environment of the arts studio but soon

will be proceeding to Kenya where they will

spend two months volunteering for various

community projects. We could say they

have had good preparation here in Manches-

ter for the Kenyan climate; it is currently

5˚warmer here than Nairobi. We wish them

well in all their projects in Kenya and thank

them for their volunteer work with us.

website: www.venturearts.org

Issue 3

43 Old Birley Street,

Hulme,

Manchester M15 5RF

Phone: 0161 232 1223

E-mail:

info@venturearts.org

Mary Ann Gribben with Riaz

Barry Regan with Nathalie

43 Old Birley Street,

Hulme,

Manchester M15 5RF

Issue 3

Venture Arts ‘Arts and Crafts Project’ at Oakwood High School, Salford.

About Venture Arts

Venture Arts has continued working with Arts About Manchester’s ‘Open City’ programme. Their aim is to increase access to arts activities for those who most need it in the Manchester area. On the 28th May we were taken to see the ballet at the Opera House. This wonderfully moving pro-duction was ‘Romeo and Juliet’ by the English National Ballet. All in attendance really enjoyed the treat and it was the first time that any one had ever been to the ballet. Christine Blackburn said “It was just so beautiful”. Thank you to Nicky and Paula at ‘Open City’, it was a great day!

Venture Arts goes to the Ballet

Venture Arts is a specialist in the provision of arts and crafts workshops for people with learning disabilities. Our mission is to provide a high quality arts experience in a friendly stimulating and inclusive environment, focusing on bringing out the best in every individual, nurturing talent and enhancing overall wellbeing and quality of life. The Team Amanda Sutton, Manager, John Adshead, Development Manager, Stephen Greenwood, Finance

Officer, and our Creative Arts Workers; Katherine Long, Kate Freeborough, Alena Asenbryl, and

Martin Livesey James Pollitt. and Laura Nathan

Katherine Long with

Judith Todd as support

has been running a

very exciting 10 week

outreach project in

Salford with 8 students

making art to sell.

Debbie and David,

pictured opposite, are

having a good time

here making their own

hand–made felt flow-

ers and decorative

panels.

“Two households, both alike in dignity”

Debbie and David rolling their felt to make their 3D felt pieces

Venture Arts always seeks new members. If you support the work that we do and would like an invite to the AGM and regular newsletters, special invites to private views of exhibitions and feel that you would like to play a part in the organisation, please get in touch. For further information or for an application form please either ring 0161 232 1223 or download a form from our website

Would you like to become a

member?

Phone: 0161 232 1223

E-mail:

info@venturearts.org

website: www.venturearts.org

Tin Monkeys form a Band

Hulme Sweet Hulme with Lynn Setterington Japan Centre Student on

Placement

‘The Tin Monkeys’ sound like a rock and

roll band and now, it seems they are!

They are now all swinging from the trees

at Lymm Festival playing guitars, saxo-

phone, violin, trumpet, double bass and

drum. They are the creations of students

in James Pollitt’s class. They have, it

seems, created quite a bit of interest. On

the festival website we found an admiring

visitor to the festival who has been en-

quiring into the creators of this tin combo.

An offer was made to buy one of the

monkeys but was turned down as the

band didn’t want to split up! Artists in-

volved in creating this great work in-

clude:- Andrew McCurry, Cindy Buxton,

Matthew Bell, Tommy Johnson, Lesley

Thomson, Barry Jordan and Susan Toye.

This project is based in Hulme, Manchester, around the site of the new university campus. Set up by Lynn Setter-

ington from Manchester Metropolitan University, it is an exploration of the area; past, present and future.

Stitched and drawn maps of the area, new and old are key ingredients, together with other places/countries once

called home. ‘The threshold’ and what this means for different cultures is another related theme, which involves

making and documenting features such as doormats, graffiti and house numbers and names. Lynn has worked with

local community groups in this innovative project.

Venture Arts’ involvement was to make stitched maps focussing on the ‘Work for Change’ building and the home

of Venture Arts itself. Ten participants worked on the project along with a committed group of helpers over six

sessions. The work has progressed really well and beautiful colourful stitched images have begun to emerge from

initial drawings. Fabric pictures of Hulme have been beautifully created using ribbons, stitch and buttons.

“It has been lovely to be back at Venture Arts and particularly nice to work with some new and old faces. Like-wise to see the continuing support of enthusiastic and hard working young staff team, instilling all those involved with determination and an interest in art along with a variety of opportunities to express and share their ideas.” Lynn Setterington

The participants involved were:- Tommy Walsh, Lorraine Whitehead, Barry Regan, Stephen Kovaks, Heather Nadim, Wayne Tarry, Kathy Wilmot, Clifford Hart, Christine Blackburn, Mary Ann Gribben and Ian Emerson. Well done to all and many thanks to Lynn for this opportunity!!

We are very pleased to be

hosting Shota Kobayashi a

Japanese student from the

Japan Centre based at Man-

chester University, on a 4

week placement. Shota is

studying English Literature in

Japan and is here with us to

improve his language skills.

We all felt that Shota’s English

was great but he is insistent

he wants to improve it. Shota

has said working with Venture

Arts is a very precious experi-

ence and he is having an en-

joyable and very worthwhile

time with us.

Tin Monkey just hanging around at Venture Arts.

Shota working with Darren

Private View Invitation Clifford Hart’s Textile Map of Venture Arts

Manchester Museum of Science and Industry Visit

Manchester City Art Gallery Tours

High Leigh Brownies and Brown Owl Go Mad on Coca Cola

I ssue 2

In the long hot days of summer, opportunities to get out of the stu-

dio are always much appreciated: On the 7th May Venture Arts made

a trip to Manchester Museum of Science and Industry. Our ’Textiles’

class were given a highly informative demonstration on how cotton

and woollen fabric is made from start to finish. The impressive col-

lection of steam trains were quite an attraction too, as were the

interactive activities such as; could you - lift a mini? - solve the

Tower of Hanoi? - compose a symphony? or launch a rocket? This

was all part of ‘Xperiment’ - a fun, interactive gallery where Alena

Ashenbryl, Katherine Long Horace

Lindezey Karen Brown, Lucy Coch-

rane, Robert Dixon, Phil Pemberton,

Barbara Ryder, Lesley Thomson,

Stephen Thomas, Gerald Wright and

Terry Williams were able to explore

the principles of science through

exciting activities.

On the 2nd and 9th June, in preparation for

a future work with the City Art Gallery,

Venture Arts we were very kindly given a

very informative guided tours around Man-

chester's most prestigious Art Gallery. It

was a feast for the eyes, including; Lowry

paintings, the Craft and Design Galleries, the

wonderful Pre Raphaelites and a celebration

of Mancunian art. Terry Williams, as one

would expect, liked the paintings of animals.

A good time was had by all.

High Leigh brownies and Venture Arts worked very hard together to construct this life size tin man for the Lymm Festival. There was going to be a need for an awful lot of tin for this... Where would it come from? High Leigh brownies made a great sacrifice by offering to collect all the tin cans they could get hold of. We used approx 200 coke size tins in fabricating the tin man in total. Well done to all involved!

Art in The Soul Film After much hard work, the time

arrived and the film about Venture

Arts was launched! The premiere

was a low key event but pleasur-

able and especially satisfying for

our film makers Tara, Sophia and

Stan. There are many highlights in

the film including great visuals of

the artwork, the trip to Manches-

ter United, Darren Gallagher

doing his job at the Zion Café

and you wouldn’t want to miss

Horace singing ‘Longshot Kick De

Bucket’! If you would like a copy

of the DVD get in touch.

Tara Schaaffe, Safiya Akau and Stanislaw Stawiarski at

Venture Arts in filmic mode.

Pinhole photos artfully printed onto tin cans produced in Martin Livesey’s class blend into the scenery at Lymm ‘Art

in the Garden’ Festival

Venture Arts

Su Williams - Lymm Festival Organiser and

garden curator pictured on the right with Gary

Scantlebury and the Tin Man

Photos on Tin Exhibited

Artist and Crafts People Calls for Interest

In October, here at Venture Arts, and at the Yard theatre we are hoping to host an arts and crafts day entitled “Hulme is where the Art is”. We hope to bring together local arts and crafts people, to celebrate the cultural richness of our area. If you or any one you know would like to get involved and show your work please get in touch. On show will be a wide range of pottery, prints, jewellery and artwork all produced by our artists. We are very grateful to Alex Harwood and Jenny Cole who are giving us their time for free to organise this event.

Work for Change Building drawn by

Alex Harwood.