Blogs
Through these blogs we are trying to make the organization and our way of working more accessible.
Please contribute ideas, information and criticism.
Monday 7 May '12
(from Grizedale Arts Blog)
Talk by Dr. Derek Lynch
Transforming Agriculture: Growing better communities
Monday 28th May 6pm
Coniston Institute
Dr. Derek Lynch is an expert in organic agriculture and professor at Dalhousie University in Canada. He is in Consiton to give a talk on his research into organic and sustainable agricultural systems from around the world. This talk is free and not to be missed so please come along! Refreshments will be served.
Dr. Derek Lynch is Canada Research Chair in Organic Agriculture at Dalhousie University in Halifax, Canada. His teaching and research interests include organic and sustainable agricultural systems, environmental/ecological impact of farming system, and soil quality and fertility management.
Monday 7 May '12
(from Grizedale Arts Blog)
Michael Marriott Talk
Coniston cricket pavilion
One of the most beautiful recreation grounds
A talk and workshop with renowned Interior Designer Michael Marriott, as part of the development of the Coniston cricket pavilion and grounds.
Friday 25th May
6 - 9pm
The event is free and a buffet dinner is included. All are welcome.
This is the second event in a series of talks focusing on contemporary, sustainable building and design for a community build project.
Saturday 21 April '12
(from Grizedale Arts Blog)
Holidaying at Home
Holidaying at home is the new going away so here's a link to our neighbour and friend John Atkinson's holiday blog. His 2 week annual leave from his National Trust job is spent lambing on his farm.
Tuesday 10 April '12
(from Grizedale Arts Blog)
A village self-build
Dominic Stevens at Coniston Institute. Photo by Hydar Dewachi
We have now had a couple of meetings with the local cricket, tennis and bowling clubs with a plan to work with them to re-develop their buildings (in particular the cricket pavilion). Set in one of the most stunning views in Coniston at the base of a mountain, the opportunity to create a contemporary build (or series of buildings) couldn't be missed. As a community project, this will involve quite a lengthy process of discussions, talks and workshops to re-think the whole area and how it might be possible to generate income streams from these new buildings. The first talk we organised was with Irish architect Dominic Stevens. With his sensitivity to the landscape and to environmental issues, use of local materials and labour and to being cost efficient, his talk went down very well. We then had a discussion about the needs of Coniston, the community and the three clubs and decided that what we don't need is another pub (there are 6 already in the village) but what would be beneficial was if the pavilion could double as accommodation during the winter, generating income for the clubs. There was a bit of opposition to this, mainly from fear that a precedent would be set which would allow the site to become a housing estate in the future, but generally everyone was all for a multi-use contemporary build.
Friday 10 February '12
(from Grizedale Arts Blog)
The Spiral of Success
Currently enjoying the light airport novel by Maxine Berg: The Machinery Question and the Making of Political Economy 1815 - 1848. It includes this marvellous illustration by Burnett from 1826 to be hung in every Mechanics Institute in the land. It shows the King in the middle and spirals out through fifteen layers of revolution with the paupers in the workhouse at its tail: "the best informed and the most industrious will always, in their exertion to get forward, thrust out the more ignorant in the rear". Like an aspirational colon. Should be made into an app for for Art Facts. Nominations please for who's in the middle and who's left in a blue pastic doggy bag in a roadside hedge.
2 Comments
Really nice illustration. Simple yet very meaningful. I'd love to have a copy of that novel.
That reminds me of the old Fischer Fine Art constellation with the artist in the middle,dealers and critics in close orbit and the rest of us further out in space. So on a more molecular Brian Cox level, if Lawson Park is an orange, and I am a grape, where does that leave me in South Lakeland?
Friday 10 February '12
(from Grizedale Arts Blog)
Der Uberkunstfarmfactory
Art factories in the snow
The print studio is the hangar on the left and the tower was used to imprison peasant farmers who didn't pay enough tax.
This week travels bring me to a wintery (-12C) Breugelish Hildersheim in the middle of Germany to meet up Charles Esche and his team from the Van Abbe Museum and Prof. Thomas Lange of the University to discuss 1848, the usage of art, agriculture, the Zombie of modernism, cluelessness and edutainment (that word has, worryingly no spell check alert), among other things we are plotting to crowbar into an exhibition to change the world, or at least change how we see it .
The art school here is like the Mercedes version of Lawson Park’s Vauxhall Chevette. The arts school is built around a gargantuan 13th century mega farm-cum-fortress, surrounded by the most fertile soil in Germany. It’s very notable as you travel through this country by train that, in contrast to the UK, this is a land dedicated to productivity. Trackside in England reveals and a parade of retail hanger parks, malls, industrial wastelands, leisurelands and factories converted to go-kart tracks; a country given over to consumption. In Germany everyone seems to be at work, factory chimneys have smoke coming from them, the countryside is heavily farmed, not set aside and an engineering aesthetic pervades all, even at the Choco Leibniz factory.
Back at the art school we go to the student cafeteria which serves homemade café und kuchen. In fact it trumps pretty much any restaurant the Lake District has to offer and I gaze down at my 90 degree slice of subsidised patisserie and remember less fondly the Ginsters and scalding milky tea of the Goldsmiths’ refectory. But this is interrupted by a request from an art history student who is doing her thesis, startlingly, on Grizedale Arts and has heard that I am in town. “Are you sure?” I say. Apparently this website is read avidly in Europe, so we’d better get our act together. This is subsequently confirmed by Grizedale alumni and current Hildersheim artist professor Antje Schiffers who complains that we need to maintain the joke count on the site. Although, she says, we might be doing that but just not in a way she finds funny.
1 Comment
it's a new kind of humour, you might find it a little uncomfortable at first. But hang on isn't Antje's favorite joke 'your wife is very energetic' surely she can find humour in anything
Tuesday 24 January '12
(from Grizedale Arts Blog)
From 1 to 9
Our lonely pig Octavia has found herself suddenly kicked out of her palatial home and grounds, and into a smaller field with makeshift arc, to make way for a herd of 8 new pigs. They're a very rowdy bunch and full of lice and worms (and God knows what else) and are very malnourished. The renegade 8 were found abandoned in a nearby car park last week by our neighbour farmer John,but with no ear tags, it was impossible to trace where they came from. John had no room on his farm so we decided to home them. Judging by the state of them (I've never seen protruding spines, ribs and hip bones on pigs) I guess whoever had them didn't know what was involved in keeping them or just didn't care. I think they are actually mico-pigs. Not the cute ones everyone imagines mico-pigs to be, but the things they grow into. They are smaller than most pigs but still above knee high and pretty ugly! They are 'micro-pigs' because they breed runts with runts, ie. the unhealthiest in the litter of any breed. You can see in these ones bits of Tamworth, Saddleback and maybe a bit of Berkshire or Large Black. It could be that someone stole a couple, thinking they could breed them and make a ton of money. A rare breed pig like our British Lop, bought as a weaner, costs about £60. Mico-pigs cost about £600! However, unless you have registered the pigs and have them ear tagged, you can't sell them on or take them to slaughter. You can't even legally move them without the right paper work. The animal welfare people at DEFRA have let us register these pigs with our own herd mark so we can legally move them and take them to slaughter when the time comes (if I can get them healthy enough).
In the mean time, the BBC are coming up to Lawson Park with their cameras, so who knows, maybe someone watching will identify the rogue owner!
Monday 23 January '12
(from Grizedale Arts Blog)
Field of Dreams
Wolmsley Cricket Pavilion - for real
A recent dinner in Norwich with my favourite nature guru Richard Mabey brought to my attention a utopian cricket ground that could influence our own endeavours to revision the home of cricket in our local village of Coniston: Sir Paul Getty's 'cottage ornee' cricket pavilion set in the heart of the woods of the Chilterns (that's the bit soon to be changed by high-speed rail).
We won't quite have Getty's budget but we may well have his gumption.
Monday 23 January '12
(from Grizedale Arts Blog)
Coniston plus Tate
Last week we hosted the directors of the Plus Tate group - a network of the UK’s 18 most dynamic art organisations that includes Tate, the Hepworth Wakefield, Turner Contemporary, Ikon Gallery Birmingham, Whitworth Art Gallery, Baltic and Grizedale Arts itself.
The annual seminar organised by Tate was hosted by Grizedale Arts throughout Coniston using the Coniston Institute, St Andrews Church, Brantwood, the Waterhead Hotel, Coniston launch and our headquarters at Lawson Park farm.
On the Wednesday evening the main hall of the Coniston Institute provided the backdrop for a grand dinner of 34 people comprising the directors of the Plus Tate group and the local “villager elders” who have been consistently volunteering over the last year towards the restoration of the historic Institute.
The dispersed nature of the seminar, was used to demonstrate the concept of the Village as Institution using what might be termed the Civic Framework, people and all, as the site for the conference. This is turn works to build a collective, social resource rather than a simple venue hire or site visit – using the village like one might use a work of art.
Throughout the three days the delegates ate menus that were made entirely from local produce and artists projects including local venison, Lawson Park pork, St James’ and Ruskin Blue cheese, wild grouse, Kathrin Bohm’s sauerkraut and Lawson Park grown vegetables and so on. Particularly popular were the dessert contributions of trifle, chocolate cake and lemon meringue pie created especially for the Tate by the village.
11 Comments
Is this a good use of public money?
John, that's an excellent question but best asked about the work of our bankers.
There is no wealth but life, John, remember?
I would say it's a very good use of public money. Directing money that would usually be spent on large corporate conference venues into local businesses, hotels, producers and at the same time demonstrating that rural communities under threat can have a viable economic future by maximising the use of the their resources and offering an experience that no one else can provide. Equally, in the other direction, each of the 18 institutions was enthused by the civic focus of Grizedale Arts and the strength of a programme designed around socio-economic development, rather than making art about art. If the world of bends more in this direction I'd say it's a bargain.
Not sure that those listed are "the UK's most dynamic art organisations...". It's a strange brew up of the good, the bad and the not so pretty. All are rubber stamped by ACE, so in a sense they are never going to be that radical....they're not allowed to be.
None of the people I know who live over Grizedale way no what the heck goes on there, how to get there, or what mysterious pleasures they undertake.
Very secretive, controlling foodies and the best arts organisation by far in Cumbria (is that feint praise? Hope not, but probably is) :)
Grizedale Arts are doing real life work in working with the strengths of the community and bringing it to life. The artists who have worked with the communities bring a new perspective and vigour to Lakeland life. Practical works are ensuring our future.
Well Kurt, I suppose it depends on who you know over Grizedale way. In the same way I know lots of people in London, Birmingham, Manchester etc who don't know what the heck is going on at their respective art organisations either and regard them accordingly as 'secretive' and mysterious, but that's a consumer choice. And hey when you were alive Kurt, know one knew you round Grizedale way either and most still don't. Such is art.
hi, i run a small arts gallery in Burslem, Stoke on Trent and have used Grizedale as an inspiration to create a sculpture trail. we too, want to include local businesses and produce, so was very interested to read about the village as institution. it seems that half of our city has been demolished.It's the artists that are motivated enough to pull us out from under the rubble and have the ability to signpost visitors to the remaining quality businesses
Consumer choice, not a great analogy to apply to art, but hey, it's the age we live in.
Problem with consumer choice is that choice is limited by knowledge of what's on offer. It's all in the communication, and who controls the flow. One can only take in what is given out....
Wish I wasn't so darn dead then I'd show you all a thing or two.
By the way, Dick, which Pearly Gate did you enter through?
It seems your very concerned about local employment and investment and rightly so, these are tough times in Cumbria and elsewhere. Its good to know you are shopping locally, great.
But going for a scone at a local tea shop with some chums from your institutional network along with some token volunteers, and then deeming this a political act is not really very substantial on its own.
I have to say, half the time this blog reads like a good housekeeping magazine.
Lets layout the basics here, how many people do you employ locally...actually? Or do you mainly just engage locals as volunteers?
What percentage of your invited artista are actually locally based? It seems by the look of your website very few. So is that aside from local economic issues for your?
Anyway, I imagine it must have been a very interesting series of meetings. When will you publish the minutes? This would for me be more insightful than what you ate. Or is it more about the representative gesture of using a village as an artwork? If so, Is the sculpture in the eating bit..or the regurgitating?
I also wonder if the hotel workers whose obligation it is to serve you, considered themselves apart of an artwork too.Hmmm..
Doubtful but i am sure they appreciated the money.
I was born and bred around Grizedale and lived there for over 25 years (moved away a couple of years ago, due to lack of jobs and affordable housing) and I too find that Grizedale Arts are mysterious and elitist.
I am interested in what they do and I work in the arts sector myself, but it seems that despite their bold community focused claims, it is still very much a ‘us’ and ‘them’ situation.
Thursday 12 January '12
(from Grizedale Arts Blog)
New Green Woodwork
This project is about bringing coppice workers and contemporary designers together to develop a series of new products for local production and distribution.
The workshop programme offers coppice workers the opportunity to works with contemporary designers to develop affordable and locally produced furniture.
If you are a coppice worker or designer, please get in touch for more information on taking part in the 5 day design workshops. They run from Friday 17th – Tuesday 21st February 2012.
SATURDAY 18th February
Join us for a full day of demonstrations, discussions and a conference on craft, design and the Utility Scheme.
10am – 2.30pm
A morning of demonstrations and talks at Witherslack Studios, led by Charlie Whinney. You will meet the coppice workers and designers working collaboratively on New Green Wood Work designs.
3pm – 7pm
Conference at Blackwell, Arts and Crafts house in Windermere.
With talks from:
Dr Kathy Haslam (Blackwell’s Curator) - The philosophy and politics of the Arts & Crafts Movement and its contemporary relevance.
Ray Leigh (chairman of the Gordon Russell Trust, and former Design Director and Managing Director of Gordon Russell Ltd) – Gordon Russell and the Utility Scheme.
Keynote speech by product designer, Michael Marriott.
Questions and panel led open forum
Saturday 25th – Sunday 26th February
Green Wood Working Weekend - follow up production workshops
10am – 5pm
Weekend workshop in collaboration with Brantwood Estate where we will be making from scratch, items designed in the Witherslack workshops.
For more information of to book a place, please email maria@grizedale.org or call 015394 41050
1 Comment
Please god, not Blackwell! Will someone please plant a bomb under that modern day anachronism?!?
Saturday 17 December '11
(from Grizedale Arts Blog)
'Child's Play'
Ray Davies & Adam Sutherland squabble over the mic
Ray Davies managed to make it to the Coniston Institute for the performance of his 'Child's Play' last night!
Tuesday 13 December '11
(from Grizedale Arts Blog)
Farmer's Market and Art Fair
A great weekend in Coniston Institute highlighting much of the art, craft and local produce from the village and surrounding area. Overall, the weekend made £4,000 and raised over £400 for the Conistion Institute redevelopment fund. The Grizedale Arts handmade ceramic Christmas decorations sold very well this year, though we got a slapped wrist for the hand grenade. Weirdly, no one complained about the Marcus Coates animal turd decorations! The best sellers were the things that looked most homemade and it seemed there was a preference for the handwritten sticker as opposed to the properly printed and designed label. Bringing so much local production together highlighted just how much is missing from the shops in this area. It's crazy to see shops selling honey from China when there is some amazingly tasty honey produced locally which flew off the shelves at the Fair.
Topics: 'Christmas' 'Coniston Institute' 'Marcus Coates'
Wednesday 23 November '11
(from Grizedale Arts Blog)
Wish I could be like David Watt
David Watt who ran one of the few useful shops in the village, just recently passed away. He ran the hardware shop and though he seemed to specialise in dog leads, he always had some magical item that you never knew you needed until you entered his shop. One of the last thing we bought from him was a cable peanut! Everyone seemed to warm to him and even just catching a glimpse of him walking his dog would put you in a nicer mood. He will be greatly missed by the village and by all of us.
Monday 21 November '11
(from Grizedale Arts Blog)
...And there was light.
The Christmas lights are all up an on in Coniston now and look fantastic (if a little creepy!) A surprising number of people came along to the switch on, nearly 200, which was well above my pessimistic guesstimate of 20. Richard Ryan, Manager of the Blackpool Illuminations was due to switch on the lights but as he was stuck in traffic, and with people getting bored of mulled wine very quickly, we had one of our favourite local ladies, Margaret Proctor, switch on the lights for us and pose for press photos. We were handed the job of organising the Christmas Lights from a committee of local women who have done this for 11 years. We have been quite anxious about their response to all the changes we have made but fortunately for us, they are very happy with them! Richard arrived just before everyone disappeared into the pub or to dominos night (one of the biggest club nights in Coniston!) so he was able to give his talk on Christmas Lights and the Blackpool Illuminations. We had bought a couple of lights from him and the big Peace on Earth sign, he told us, was originally made for a Robson Green Christmas pop video!
Saturday 12 November '11
(from Grizedale Arts Blog)
An Update of the Kitchen Update
Seventeen volunteers showed up on Tuesday to get stuck into more revamping of Coniston Institute. The kitchen was the priority. Since the new units were put in a few weeks ago, we hadn't had a chance to add the finishing touches like putting up shelves and deciding which cupboard for cups and which for plates and where we should keep the tea towels. It's all looking great and working so we're looking forward to cooking a big thank you dinner for all the volunteers, committee members and funders.
We also had a massive clear-out of a general hoard found squatting in the basement. The mouse-nibbled shuttlecocks, broken Christmas decorations, rotting curtains and paint brushes gone hard, filled a trailer and three cars.
Then came the rubble.... a wall has come down to make a once overflowing storage room and dark corridor into a beautiful new library.... update to follow.
1 Comment
It's been a great experience, bringing people together with very satisfying results - thanks for all the input and great lunches -'feasts'- from Grizedale Arts.
Friday 11 November '11
(from Grizedale Arts Blog)
"It may be winter outside, but in my heart it's spring"
...As the rain lashes the window on a Friday night, I find myself wondering if Barry White was much of a gardener?
Anyhoo, I'm posting to remind you that the Grizedale garden at Lawson Park opens next year to you - the public - for charidee (the National Garden Scheme, it's prestigious don't you know).
The big cakes and all date is SUNDAY SEPT. 2ND 2012 - save the date now and order your waterproofs.
But you can also contact me if you're in the area another time and if I'm around you'll be most welcome.
Wednesday 9 November '11
(from Grizedale Arts Blog)
Rietdale. Gerrit?
On Monday we took delivery of this fine
Rietdale Chair made by Harvey
Wilkinson, former curator at Blackwell. The chair is a hybrid
of the 1917 Red and Blue Chair by Gerrit Rietveld
and the Eskdale school of woodcarving, produced by itinerant
craftsmen in the valley of Eskdale in the English Lake District
around the same time. The Eskdale woodcarvers were never
recognised as a movement or driving force in arts and crafts , yet
their extraordinary designs in carved oak offer a proto-modernist
version of design evolved in this remote valley, like some lost
evolutionary offshoot.
Harvey has not created this piece as an art joke, but as a genuine
improvement on what he sees as a slightly clunky attempt at a
chair. The frame is built in beech, the arms in oak and the seat
and back in ply. The edition of ball and ring turning to the legs
is conceived to give the whole thing 'lift' in the traditional
manner. Further models with material variations are to be
developed and it is surprisingly comfortable.
Friday 14 October '11
(from Grizedale Arts Blog)
Feeding Of The 180 Or So
Some of the donations for the Coniston Harvest Festival
Linda, Joan and Margaret preparing food
Kathrin Bohm making sauerkraut at Wysing
We celebrated Harvest Festival twice this year. The first was in collaboration with St. Andrew's church in Coniston where we received huge donations of locally grown produce. About ten or twelve volunteers came throughout the day to help with the preparation and cooking of a celebration dinner and ready meals. Thirty people came to the dinner and we made more than 120 packaged meals which were delivered to some of the elderly residents in the village. The second Harvest Festival was at Wysing Arts the following week. Wysing's base is a converted farm in Cambridgeshire and although the land is used for sculpture now and not food production, they still have some very productive fruit trees. However, we decided not to do an entirely fruit-based dinner and so managed to get a few things grown locally (onions and cabbage) before hitting the supermarket (where there was an excellent deal on squid). The Harvest Festival at Wysing consisted of a day of talks and films followed by a supper for the artists, staff, volunteers and visitors. The talks were mainly food related, including Erik Sjodin's research into the fast growing Azolla pond plant as a nutritious food source and Will Clifford's talk on the Miracle Tree (Moringa Oleifera) and it's nutritional and medical properties. Kathrin Bohm presented a project in Berlin with myvillages.org about approaches to sustainable food production and also made us a huge batch of sauerkraut (which we had to take back to Lawson Park and is still fermenting in buckets in the cold store).
Monday 26 September '11
(from Grizedale Arts Blog)
Goodbye English Rose
Work begins dismantling the old kitchen
Lifting the lino reveals very nice floorboards
The English Rose kitchen awaits collection
For the past year the volunteer group (The Boon Day Group as we have been named) has worked hard to get Coniston Institute back into shape. Having raised more than £10,000 (with grants from Coniston 14 and the Rawdon Smith Trust), work began today stripping out the old kitchen. It was a vintage English Rose kitchen but fits of territorial behaviour resulted in padlocks being bolted to the fronts of many of the lovely aluminium cupboards, not realising that they were a British design classic! The company that made them, Constant Speed Airscrews originally made nose cones for Spitfires and parts for Lancaster bombers throughout WW2, but after the war, being left with a large workforce and a stockpile of aircraft grade aluminium, the company went on to design the English Rose Kitchen. This was quite possibly the first ‘modular’ kitchen range in Europe. We did managed to sell the units on ebay but only for about 5% of what a reconditioned one would cost. Never mind!
Topics: 'Coniston Institute' 'English Rose'
Monday 19 September '11
(from Grizedale Arts Blog)
Greasy Pole Champion Reclaims Title
L-R: Josh Moorfoot, Adam Kane, Sarah Lehn
Josh Moorfoot on his first attempt
Kane on his descent to victory
2009 Greasy Pole Champion Adam Kane reclaimed his title this weekend at the 2011 Crab Fair and Sports, Egremont. In torrential conditions the Pole proved nigh on impossible, but with perseverance the competitors gradually dried the pole as they gained height with each effort. An engrossing three way dual ensued between the pack leaders Lehn and Moorfoot, with Master Kane ultimately claiming the shortest ribbon and his prize of £5.00 cash and a leg of lamb sponsored by Wilsons Butchers of Egremont. That's Wilsons Butchers of Egremont.
The organisers would like assert that Adam Kane is no relation to Alan Kane (nor Jeremy Deller) the artists responsible for bringing the Greasy Pole back into operation as a seminal public sculpture of the Discursive Age and dangerous sporting apparatus.
Greasy Pole Results:
1st Prize: Adam Kane
2nd Prize: Sarah Lehn
3rd Prize: Josh Moorfoot
A Hudson GA Sports Correspondent
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