Latest news with #communityart
The Guardian
4 days ago
- General
- The Guardian
‘People weep in its presence': how the UK Aids Memorial Quilt became one of our great works of art
A young man is standing face to the wall. He is sobbing, being consoled by friends. An older gay couple walk slowly, hands gripped together, supporting each other. Groups of young queer friends are arm-in-arm, united in grief. In front of them is the UK Aids Memorial Quilt, its panels sewn with images and messages: 'Malcolm', reads one, 'I wish that I had known you longer.' Another panel is dedicated to 'those rejected, denied, alone'. Another reads simply, 'Dear Scott, I miss you so much!' Over the past few days, more than people have visited Tate Modern's Turbine Hall to see the quilt. Many of those visitors have wept openly in its presence, spending hours in the space. The atmosphere has been hushed, reverential. Some said on social media later that it was the best thing they'd ever seen at the Tate. The response suggests it is one of the most significant pieces of British art made in the past 40 years. And yet it is not like other artworks. It has countless makers, many unknown, many of whom will never have made or will make art again. It is unfinished, still being made. This art has no discernible monetary value, nor does it seek one: its purpose is much more transcendent. Until this display, the work had never been shown in its entirety in an art institution. It makes us question our understanding of what gets to be considered art. And yet, its future is unclear. The UK Aids Memorial Quilt is part of the world's largest community art project. It was founded by American human rights activist Cleve Jones in 1985, in grief and rage at the lives being lost to Aids. It is made up of commemorative panels that measure 6ft by 3ft, the size of an average grave plot. This is intentional: at the time, many of those dying of Aids-related causes were denied a proper funeral, either because families had refused to acknowledge them, or funeral homes would not take in their bodies. Thequilt, known in the US as the Names Project, quickly grew. In the late 80s, Scottish activist Alastair Hume visited the US, saw the quilt and met Jones. On his return home to Edinburgh, he opened the UK chapter of the project. Panels were made by friends, partners, family members or colleagues of those who had died of Aids-related illness. They were even sometimes started by the person being commemorated, as a therapeutic act of making in their final days. When finished, the panels were sent to Edinburgh, with documentation about the person commemorated. In those days, homophobia was entrenched, meaning the person was often only identified by a first name. Indeed, many panels are dedicated to those whose names could not be said. The panels were then sewn into blocks measuring 12ft by 12ft, with no hierarchy about the placing of panels. Those of recognisable names, such as Freddie Mercury or Bruce Chatwin, are placed among those who never sought fame. The majority of panels commemorate gay men, but the quilt represents all who died from Aids-related causes, such as those who became infected with HIV through intravenous drug use, and those infected by contaminated blood, including children. Each panel is unique, some expertly crafted, others by those who had never worked with textiles before. Some panels are plaintive, raw in grief; others are soft and love-filled; some are defiant. There are panels that remember a loved one's humour and sensibility, others that show the anger at their death, as well as anger at governmental and societal failure to respond to the pandemic. One panel was made, and then covered with a white sheet, with a note declaring 'the Parents do not want this panel shown anywhere. The Stigma still exists – Until this changes this panel will remain covered.' The majority of the panels were made before 1996, when new treatments made it possible to live a full life with an HIV infection. But the Aids crisis continues, with around 40 million living with HIV worldwide. Many millions are now newly imperilled due to President Trump's cuts to USAID, threatening access to HIV treatments and services. Trump has also jeopardised future treatment breakthroughs by cutting funding to HIV vaccine research programmes at Duke University and the Scripps Research Institute. Globally, HIV stigma is still rife. The quilt galvanises as a call to action in the fight against HIV/Aids. When the Turbine Hall display opened on Thursday, Jones told the crowd that the quilt is 'not just a memorial, but a weapon'. This five-day display came about after I, on behalf of the UK Aids Memorial Quilt Partnership, emailed the director of Tate, Maria Balshaw. Across the duration of the display it was extraordinary to watch the coming together of people, communities and generations. Those who lived through the 1980s and 90s could mourn loved ones who had died, as well as process their often-repressed grief. At the time, even though friend after friend was dying, society at large expected them to carry on as normal. For younger people, the emotional power of the quilt gave them a visceral insight into the trauma experienced by an older generation. All could reflect on the continuing legacy of these underacknowledged deaths, and the absence in our cultural and social lives of all that these people could have done. Twenty-five years after Tate Modern first opened, it remains one of the most iconic spaces for art in the world. Before we installed the quilt , it was seen more as a grassroots protest project. But laid out on the Turbine Hall floor, in three long columns, the it revealed itself to also be a piece of art. The implications for this are seismic. It is rare to experience art with multiple meanings that are deep and complex yet clear. There is no side to the quilt, no irony or knowingness to its essence. This is unusual in a British contemporary art landscape still dominated by the effect of the YBAs, a group of mostly straight artists who came to prominence in 1988, seven years after the first reported Aids deaths. I believe the ensuing dominance of the YBAs came about, in part, because of the cultural vacuum caused by Aids deaths. Bluster and cynicism won out over emotion and sincerity. The quilt shows us what else art can do, other than be a career-building tool for profit. It has a purpose. It is also genuinely, harrowingly beautiful. Art can be both these things: purposeful and impactful. It can be made by those who have no interest in becoming part of the art industry – and still be of international importance. My position is not anti-art. My husband is an artist, my parents were artists, I was a judge for the Turner prize in 2019. I believe in art as a life's vocation, and that artists should be able to earn a livable wage from their work. Yet recent reports suggest that artists earnings are more unstable than ever. The current art industry infrastructure does not work for the majority of artists, only for a few star names and the high-powered galleries which represent them. If we acknowledge that the UK Aids Memorial Quilt is one of the most significant works of British art of the past 40 years, the dialogue immediately changes. It asks us to reconsider the value system placed on contemporary art, where a work's market price is what defines its worth. If we can break free from this obsession with art's monetary value, we can perhaps move to a more enlightened, more nourishing, more compassionate relationship with art and art-making. Pressingly, we must now ensure the future of this art. The quilt is currently in the loving care of a partnership of volunteers from six HIV charities. For nearly two decades it had been in storage, before the Quilt Partnership formed in 2014 to become its custodians. They currently have no funds to carry out vital conservation work. It has no suitable long-term home. I believe the quilt should be seen as the next Prospect Cottage. Just like the successful 2020 campaign to save Derek Jarman's home in Dungeness, we must now fundraise to preserve this vital part of our social and cultural history. It is not about the quilt entering a permanent collection like that of Tate or V&A, since it needs unique ongoing care. The quilt requires its own bespoke permanent home, where it can be properly stored, conserved and made available for research. We must act now to save this artwork as a weapon in the fight against Aids. The quilt still grows. On Thursday, a new panel was symbolically added to the Turbine Hall display, to represent the many new panels that are being made. Panels that have been created by those who, for decades, have been too grief-stricken to face the task. Others are by young people, who want to commemorate a relative who died before they were born. Hopefully soon, the quilt will be on display again, both in London and around the country. Now, more than ever, we cannot forget its vital lessons. To support the future preservation of the UK Aids Memorial Quilt, please visit
RNZ News
6 days ago
- Entertainment
- RNZ News
Regional Wrap goes to ?p?tiki
A gateway to Tairawhiti East Cape from the north is the town of Opotiki in the Bay of Plenty. As a creative hub local organisation Opotiki Arts has a new leash of life with this year 95 members in their ranks, and since 1977 they've owned their own premises, a historic 1898 hall. Our guest on Regional Wrap this week, and a spokesperson for Opotiki Arts is something of a local cultural legend. Dorothy-Anne Wilson or Dot, as she's known to many, was a founding member of the Opotiki Community Arts Council back in the day. In 2017 she was awarded a Queen Service Medal for her contribution to art and community. The former manager of Opotiki Museum she joins us from the coast on Culture 101.
CBC
10-06-2025
- Entertainment
- CBC
Every year, folks travel from far and wide watch this giant pencil get sharpened
John Higgins likes to think of the six-metre-tall pencil on his front lawn as a piece of pop art. "When you think of pop art, you think Andy Warhol or Claes Odenberg. I mean, these are these iconic artists. They take a simple object in bold shape and colours, and it's fascinating how humans relate to it, " he told As It Happens guest host Stephanie Skenderis. "That's exactly what this is." Once a year, the massive piece of pop art becomes an interactive community art installation. Hundreds — or sometimes even thousands — of people make their way to Higgins' house in Minneapolis to watch the giant pencil get sharpened with a giant pencil sharpener. "It's fun. It's joyful. There's no agenda. It's not a commercial event. There's not a ticket or anything," Higgins said. "But through word of mouth, I think, people come and they really have fun." The giant pencil was once a giant tree Saturday marked the fourth annual pencil sharpening event. But the sculpture's origins date back to 2017, when a sudden and powerful windstorm hit the city and ripped Higgins's beloved oak tree from his front lawn. The tree, he says, was about 180 years old. "It was very very hard to see that happen," he said. "Very sad, I'll say." He remembers the oak's severed trunk amid the storm's debris in the aftermath. "It looked very, you know, almost sinister — just marred wood at the top and looked, kind of, at night time, like a broken skeleton." So he and his wife, Amy Higgins, decided to turn it into art. They enlisted wood sculptor Curtis Ingvoldstad to transform it into a replica of a classic Trusty brand No. 2 pencil. "Why a pencil? Everybody uses a pencil," Amy said. "Everybody knows a pencil. You see it in school, you see it in people's work, or drawings, everything. So, it's just so accessible to everybody, I think, and can easily mean something, and everyone can make what they want of it." As soon as they conceived of the pencil, Higgins says they came up with the idea of sharpening it. So Ingvoldstead also crafted a to-scale pencil sharpener for the task. "It's about four feet large [and] weighs a hundred pounds," Higgins said. "We hoist that up, and turn it around a few times and the pencil gets sharpened." 'Life is too short' to miss the sharpening The first year they did this, Higgins said, a few hundred people showed up, mostly from the neighbourhood and surrounding area. But over the years, he says, it's grown through word of mouth and social media. Last year, he says about 1,000 people attended. This year, he estimates the crowd was in the multiple thousands, with people coming from out of state, and even other countries. Some people dressed as pencils or erasers. Two Swiss alphorn players provided part of the entertainment. The hosts commemorated a Minneapolis icon, the late music superstar Prince, by handing out purple pencils on what would have been his 67th birthday. Rachel Hyman said she flew from Chicago on Friday for the event, which a friend told her about. "Some man is sharpening a pencil on his lawn and this is what happens?" Hyman said Saturday while dressed in a pencil costume. "Yeah, I'm gonna be part of it. How can you not? Life is too short." A ritual sacrifice You may be wondering why a giant sculpture of a pencil would even need sharpening. Higgins says the tip, while not made of lead of granite, gets worn down by the weather throughout the year. But, mostly, he says, it's for the symbolism. "This is a community pencil. With the sharpening, there's a chance for, you know, renewal, a new beginning, a promise for writing another note," he said. "People love that message." With each sharpening, the pencil gets shorter and they lose a part of the artwork. Ingvoldstad, the sculptor, says that's the whole point. "Like any ritual, you've got to sacrifice something," Ingvoldstad said. "So we're sacrificing part of the monumentality of the pencil, so that we can give that to the audience that comes, and say, 'This is our offering to you, and in goodwill to all the things that you've done this year.'" So how many years until it's nothing but a little stub with a bright pink eraser? And what happens then? "We don't have answers to that, and we're fine with that," Higgins said. "But for today, for this moment, we're going to take what we have and make the most of it."
CBC
10-06-2025
- Business
- CBC
Local non-profit 'unlocking' empty office space for artists in Waterloo region
A new collaboration that allows local artists to temporarily take over empty buildings in Waterloo region aims to "cut the red tape" normally associated with renting space. ArtsBuild Ontario is the non-profit organization behind the pilot project called Meanwhile Spaces. Alex Glass is the executive director of ArtsBuild, a group dedicated to "building, managing and financing" spaces for artists in the province, according to their website. "We're actually unlocking a physical asset that can actually see the potential for the individual or an artist group in a term that they wouldn't otherwise have access to," said Glass. "So what they can do now is have the space and then they can also have the opportunity to access funds … we want to cut the red tape for them so they can focus on really making their art," she said. Currently, the non-profit provides space to over 30 tenants and 140 short-term renters at 44 Gaukel Street in downtown Kitchener. The new pilot program hosts artists in two spaces — 99 King St. W. in Kitchener and former recreation centre at Wing 404 on Dutton Drive in Waterloo. The King Street space is a collaboration with developers Lowland Properties Group and currently holds five artists at a time. ArtsBuild Ontario has the space for one year and will swap out artists throughout the year, for a duration they call "terms." That means about a dozen artists will be able to use the space over the course of the year.. Jen Prior is one of those artists. She's a visual artist who works mostly with acrylic paints, and it was the collaborative energy of the space on King Street that spurred her to move her easel from her home to the empty top floor of the building. "I think when you're at home all the time and you're trying to work, it's just really difficult to get in that flow state and just kind of feel that light-heartedness that you need to have as an artist," Prior told CBC News. The space is directly above Four All Ice Cream in the heart of downtown Kitchener. It's a partially unfinished room, with particle board floors and large, floor-to-ceiling windows. Each artist works in their own small section of the space. "When you're alone too much, your thoughts ruminate and you're not really feeling connected to the community, and that's what art is all about," Prior said. The program has 71 artists signed up for the program, and 50 more on a wait list. 'It's a beautiful space' The City of Waterloo has partnered with ArtsBuild Ontario to offer up space at the former recreation centre at the Wing 404 location on Dutton Drive in that city. Lakyn Barton is the cultural planning specialist for Waterloo. She says the city is excited to be able to transition the 508 square metre, city-owned location into a new opportunity for the creative sector. "Artists and different organizations being able to workshop together, do rehearsals, performances — it's a beautiful space and we're excited to bring a new life to that building," said Barton. "There's musicians, dance performers, there's visual artists. The Wing 404 is a much bigger space, so it actually has a tiny stage. There's a dance floor. So there's a lot more room to be able to spread out. There's also an outdoor component that can really aid in a lot of different types of work that artists can do," Barton explained.
BBC News
05-06-2025
- Entertainment
- BBC News
New community murals celebrate Goldthorpe's heritage
Two murals have been painted with the help of pupils from a local primary school to celebrate the heritage of a South Yorkshire artworks, in Horse and Groom Square in Goldthorpe, Barnsley, were painted by Craig Evans and Tom Jackson, who are known as STATIC, with the help of the artists created stencil illustrations with children at Highgate Primary Academy, and those were incorporated into the Robin Franklin said: "Everyone who has played their part in shaping and painting the murals, which are colourful, vibrant and joyful, can be rightly proud of a job well done." Franklin said the project, funded by the government's Towns Fund, showed members of the Dearne community could achieve "great things" together."Barnsley really is the place of possibilities," she added. STATIC held an open painting day in April so people could contribute to a piece called The Stories on the side of the library in the square.A spray paint art workshop at Goldthorpe Pentecostal Community Church and a drop-in session at the Snap-Tin Cafe were also held to gather people's Stephens, chair of Goldthorpe Town Board, said: "STATIC have done a great job bringing the fantastic vision for the murals to life with help from everyone who came along to the community painting day."It really adds extra colour and vibrance to Horse and Groom Square at the heart of Goldthorpe."Beam, a cultural organisation which works across the north of England, also contributed to the project which was commissioned by Barnsley Council.A council spokesperson said the pieces were part of a package of major artwork projects under way in the Dearne area, funded by the Goldthorpe Town Deal. Listen to highlights from South Yorkshire on BBC Sounds, catch up with the latest episode of Look North
