Arts Centre Update

We are pleased to hear that Darlington Arts Centre has been given a temporary reprieve from closure.

Unable to maintain their financial support due to the Government cuts, Darlington Borough Council had proposed the closure of both the local theatre and the arts centre. Now, following discussions with various interested groups, the Council have decided to try to sell off the Civic Theatre as a going concern. They will also be able to provide partial funding of the Arts Centre for another year, allowing other groups the time to properly organize themselves and take over the running of the centre by April 2012.

Last Thursday we attended Darlington For Culture's latest meeting where the new proposals had created a more optimistic mood. The council also propose creating an Arts and Culture vision for the town to give a clear and co-ordinated focus to whatever facilities and services will be provided in the coming years.

All interested parties would be involved in creating the new vision and as the seventy or so people attending the meeting fell into this category, we made a start. Tables, paper and pens were set up for four categories: people/service users, artists/producers, venues and education. We wracked our brains, discussed and debated, and scribbled down ideas about what we would like to see provided over the next ten years or so. After about half an hour, several sheets of A1-sized paper were filled with people's thoughts and comments. We look forward to seeing the summary of these ideas and the ultimate vision that, hopefully, they will influence.

It is not yet clear how the Arts Centre will operate during the transition year and whether there will be any reduction in services provided. From Darlington For Culture's point of view there is still a huge challenge ahead to retain the Arts Centre and the cultural activities that take place there. The group's steering committee will have their work cut out for them over the coming months.

Vicky and Vince,
Love Your Art

Art? Passive?

I was chatting to a friend yesterday about our blog and how interesting it is to be getting more and more involved in art activities. She was only half listening, nodding politely from time to time. When I paused, giving her a chance to make a comment, she said, "That's all very nice but art's a bit passive for me."

Passive! Passive! I couldn't believe my ears!

Perhaps a stroll round a gallery casually looking at the pictures to pass the time of day is passive. But beyond that you will find that art is an exciting, dynamic and sociable activity. Vicky and I can spend whole evenings talking about art in general as well as discussing the concepts and merits of pictures or objects we have bought. It's fascinating to explore what the artist is trying to achieve with their work and what it all means.

And when you start chatting with the artists themselves there is so much to learn about their inspiration and the techniques they use. It's great listening to their stories about life as an artist, the places, people and art they have encountered.

Then, of course, there are the endless exhibitions, galleries, open studios and outdoor sculptures to visit. Sometimes it's difficult to choose what to do with our time, there's just so much going on.

My friend was now listening intently. "It sounds like lots of fun the way you explain it," she said, "but you must be exhausted all the time."

Well, maybe not quite exhausted but we really do enjoy the varied and stimulating world of (not so passive) art.


Vince,
Love Your Art

Food, Glorious Food!

After the indulgences of Christmas and having polished off the last of yummy chocolates, cakes and puddings, we decided we needed to get out for some healthy fresh air. So last Sunday we had a trip to the Bowes Museum in Barnard Castle to see Damien Hirst's current exhibition.

The exhibited works were grouped into four sections: photogravure prints of skulls and butterflies, Spirograph style drawings, spot paintings (multi-coloured circles) and pictures of medicine packaging modified to represent food, rather than tablets, as the contents. It was the latter display that caught our attention the most.

The thirteen prints of food packaged as medicine, collectively known as "The Last Supper", are intended to question the relative importance of drugs and food and whether people in the modern world can survive without both of these. The prints were cleverly presented using drug company packaging with the ingredients changed to items of food and the brands replaced by variations on Hirst's name.

We laughed at the idea of food as medicine: imagine popping a small pink capsule of sausage or having steak and kidney pie fed intravenously! We also wondered about the Science Fiction connection and the rehydrated food used by astronauts on space flights. We decided that we preferred the tastier and healthier option of preparing and eating natural food - the colours, tastes and smells that bring so much pleasure to life.

As we wandered round the other galleries, we were reminded that food has been a popular subject in fine art over the centuries. An oil painting by Henri Fantin-Latour with fruits and flowers looked so tasty we wished we could eat them (the fruits that is, not the flowers). Damien Hirst has brought this tradition of food in art into the 21st Century with familiar commercial packaging and a pop art style to give us plenty of food for thought (sorry!).

By now we were getting hungry and headed downstairs to the cafe. We were relieved to find that there were no fish and chip pills or dumpling suppositories on the menu and enjoyed a nice cup of Yorkshire Tea instead.

The "Damien Hirst: Print Maker" exhibition runs until 27th February 2011. More details are on the Bowes Museum web site.

Vicky and Vince,
Love Your Art

New Year Resolutions 2011

Happy New Year! Hopefully you've all recovered from the fun and festivities. Now it's time to get serious and make those New Year's resolutions that you've been putting off. We'll help to get you started with our list.

Enjoy a wider variety of art. We've barely started to explore many types of art: textiles, glass, photography, jewellery and many other genres. We'll open our minds to all aspects of art.

Meet and talk with more artists. Looking at art is great but when we get the chance to chat with the artists about their work, it opens up a whole new world. Everyone we've met so far has been fascinating to listen to and we've enjoyed discussing a huge range of art related topics.

Buy better art. Some of our earlier purchases were not quite the best choice. Now we have more experience, we can buy better works to replace them, improving the quality of our collection and making a more attractive visual display.

Launch our web site. We've been planning a web site to support the blog for some time and have been busy developing the idea recently. A little more work should see the site ready for launch in early 2011. Watch this space.

Despite many New Year's resolutions about diet and fitness being abandoned after a couple of days, we're confident that our art resolutions will be achieved - some day.


Vicky And Vince,
Love Your Art.