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By Denise on October 4, 2011
Last Thursday evening saw the official opening of Oxheys Mill Studios – with nearly one hundred people attending. It was a great night and we are so pleased to now, finally, be able to say we are ‘open’. We were lucky to have a hot and balmy evening so the gazebo was out and the loading bay doors open which gave it a bit more of a sense of occasion. Preston FM came to interview us again, as did the Lancashire Evening Post.
Building owner and Deputy Mayor Albert Richardson was there and seemed delighted with the way we have transformed his old factory mill “I never dreamt it would ever look like this” he said excitedly. Other visitors included Professor Lubaina Himid and other artists and lecturers from UCLAN such as Charles Quick and Gordon Fletcher, as well as some students, people from The Continental, Prescap, the Two Hats, They Eat Culture, members of ArtLab, TUCAN, Lancashire Artists Network, friends and family of the resident artists and of course, many other visitors who just came along to have a look around the exhibition.
The exhibition itself is a group show, featuring work from all of the resident artists at Oxheys Mill Studios – Joe Kennedy, Denise Swanson, Evelyn Rose, Lisa Gorton and Simon Plum, along with a few invited artists who had submitted work into the previous Open exhibition and whose work we all admired. These included Joseph Travis with his beautiful pottery, Lynda Drummond with her lovely glass jewellery and Fiona Rainford with her delightful textiles.
The exhibition is on until 28th October – viewing 11-4pm Tues, Wed, Fri & Sat and between 11-2.30 and 6-8pm on Thursdays.
Posted in At t'mill, Events, News | Tagged exhibition, opening
By Denise on September 21, 2011
Another new artist joined our studios this week, printmaker and painter Julie Saul who lives near Preston and is a past member of ArtLab and student at UCLAN. Julie is moving in to the last remaining space on the first floor, joining Lisa, Evelyn and Simon. It is getting quite busy upstairs now with all the studios filled and once everyone has finished moving in and settled down, it will be a really vibrant space. We are all getting excited about how things have taken off and are looking forward to our official opening soon when we will have a chance to exhibit work from all of the resident artists in a show together. It should be a good event – we hope to see you there.
Posted in At t'mill, News | Tagged art, progress, studios
By Lisa on September 20, 2011
Join us on the 29th September 6-8pm for the Preview of our next exhibition and our official opening. The next exhibition is a chance to see a selection of work from current studio holders and a few invited artists’ work. The exhibition will run from 30.09.11 – 28.10.11 and is currently open between 11am-4pm Tues, Wed, Fri, Sat and between 11am-2.30pm and 6-8pm on Thursdays
Exhibiting Artists:
Lisa Gorton
Denise Swanson
Joe Kennedy
Evelyn Rose
Simon Plum
Julie Saul
Fiona Rainford
Lynda Drummond
Joseph Travis
Posted in At t'mill, Events, News | Tagged opening
By Denise on September 8, 2011
Our Open Exhibition has been extended by two weeks so will now close on 22nd September instead of the 9th, so if you haven’t had a chance to see it yet, you now have more time to do so. The exhibition is currently open to visitors on Wednesdays and Fridays 11-4
We heard that a number of people had not found out about us previously and not had a chance to see the exhibition, so we have extended the dates to allow more time. This also give our newest artists more time to settle in to their studios before our next exhibition which will be featuring resident artists’ work. That exhibition will open on 29th September and the Private View will also act as our ‘official opening’ so do come along then and tell your friends.
Posted in At t'mill, Events, News | Tagged exhibition
By Denise on August 25, 2011
We are thrilled to welcome two new artists to Oxheys Mill Studios – Preston-based artists Evelyn Rose and Simon Plum each came to submit work for the open exhibition, were intrigued by what we were doing and fell in love with the space. It did not take long before first Evelyn and then Simon asked to come and have a look around.
Evelyn said “it was love at first sight” when she first came to Oxheys – in fact she stayed all afternoon and helped with the hand-ins she was so taken with it. She came back again to help the following day, bringing all sorts of items for us. It was a similar story with Simon, who came back later on the hand-in day with some lamps for us and then again with another artist who wanted to submit work. Evelyn also provided her gazebo for the Open Exhibition Preview evening and various other items to brighten the place up a bit.
First to come back and have a look around, Evelyn immediately ‘bagged’ a space on the first floor consisting of a small enclosed room and open area near the top of the conveyor and opposite Lisa’s studio, as she felt this would provide an ideal space in which to work and for quiet study. Simon then chose another first floor space, alongside Lisa, which he also plans to keep as an open studio to maximise the space and light. There is just one space left upstairs now and quite a few artists have shown interest in it.
Both Evelyn and Simon have now met our landlord and have started moving in and creating their respective studios. Last we saw Evelyn, she was elbow deep in polyfilla and white paint getting her space ready.
The dynamic has already changed and whilst there is still much work to do, with five pairs of hands instead of three, it will no doubt become easier and less time consuming. We have only really scratched the surface of this project but watch this space.
Posted in At t'mill, News | Tagged artists, progress, studios
By Denise on August 15, 2011
The Preview evening for our first Open Exhibition was simply amazing – a stream of visitors throughout the evening, including some well known artists, made it a bigger success than we had dared hope for. Without exception we received some very positive feedback – everyone said what a brilliant space it was and how great it looked . All of the artists seems pleased with how their work was being shown and the efforts of all our hard work seemed to have clearly paid off.
Everyone seemed relaxed and just enjoyed themselves and the company of everyone else present. We opened the loading bay doors to provide easy access and erected a gazebo outside to provide some shelter from the rain. We broke with tradition and served non-alcoholic drinks which seemed to go down well as most people had to drive. Although the event was on from 6-8pm we still had people sitting and chatting until nearly 9 oclock, so we must have done something right.
We had artists talking about ideas for future projects in the space, others asking about residency opportunities and an independent curator asking about future exhibition opportunities. We were also asked about facilities for workshops, meetings and all kinds of events – rest assured, there will be some exciting times ahead at Oxheys Mill Studios! If you are not already on the mailing list, now is a great time to join and keep informed of everything going on.
We were so busy all evening at the Preview we barely got time to take any photographs but here are a few :
Posted in At t'mill, News | Tagged artists, exhibition, gallery |
By Denise on August 15, 2011
Our Open Day was a huge success – we had a steady stream of visitors throughout the day from 11am onwards, all keen to have a look around. Some were clearly keen to look at potential studio spaces whilst others were just having a look to see what we’ve been up to and some just curious to know what it was all about but without exception, we received some very positive response and everyone wished us luck on our venture.
We also met some interesting artists and enjoyed chatting with them. The recurring topic of conversation was that it was about time there was something like this in Preston – we were all thrilled by these comments as that is exactly what we have been trying to achieve. Oxheys Mill Studios is not just about an empty building with some space for artists to build studios – it is about growing a small community where everyone can enjoy art, from the artists making it to people coming in and viewing it.
The main purpose of the Open Day was of course to try and attract more artists to join us and we are delighted to say that it achieved exactly that. We had some serious interest from several artists, all of varying disciplines and two have decided to join us. Evelyn Rose and Simon Plum, both from Preston, have signed up – Evelyn is in the process of moving in right now and Simon joins us from 1st September. We will update the site with their profiles and links to their websites shortly but want to say a hug welcome to Oxheys Mill Studios to both Evelyn and Simon.
Posted in At t'mill, News | Tagged artists, studios
By Denise on August 8, 2011
The Open exhibition is now installed and we have to say, it looks fabulous! We have filled our project space and it has completely transformed from an empty, although somewhat cleaner, old mill into a vibrant art space and has truly become the ‘urban intervention’ we envisaged. We will post some images after the preview evening on Thursday 11th August.
The exhibition will run until 9th September and we are currently opening Wednesdays and Fridays 11am-4pm. We hope to extend that once more artists become involved.
Open Day
The Open Day will run from 11am-6pm the same day, this Thursday 11th August for those interested in having a look around the building or who are considering applying for a studio space. We can answer any questions and show you the studios already set up by resident artists and will have some application forms ready. We have already had some interest so if you are thinking about it, come along and take a look.
Posted in At t'mill, Events, News | Tagged exhibition, gallery
By Denise on August 8, 2011
We would like to thank every artist who submitted work to our very first Open exhibition at Oxheys Mill Studios, for their support. The quality of work was amazing and we were thrilled with the number of submissions received, which exceeded our expectations. It was great to be able to open our doors, albeit briefly, to receive the work and we thoroughly enjoyed meeting and talking with all the artists. The feedback received was really encouraging and we have had some real interest shown.
We spent another enjoyable day last week reviewing all of the work that came in and planning the installation, then spent the whole of Saturday actually installing it. We were joined by local artist Evelyn Rose who after creating her own installation in response to the project space environment, stayed and spent the rest of the day with us helping with making brews and providing another set of eyes to help ensure things were hung straight.
Artist Evelyn Rose working on her installation
We had a wonderful time deciding where and how to show all of the work and really enjoyed getting it all displayed – we certainly got to know the space intimately and it was thanks to our fettler, Carl who also joined us, that we were able to reach places that even Heineken would have had trouble with.
Is this the best exhibition in the world? Well, we have a real treat in store for those who come to the preview on Thursday 11th August.
We hope to see you there!
Posted in At t'mill, Events, News | Tagged exhibition, gallery
By Denise on August 1, 2011
It seems that the original leaflet sent out by email showed hand-in times as 11am-6pm instead of 4pm. Although we were still around finishing off odd jobs until nearly 5.30 on both days, if anyone arrived after that and found the shutters down we do apologise – to make up for it, we’ve added another opportunity to hand-in this Wednesday 3rd August from 11am-4pm.
Posted in At t'mill, News | Tagged exhibition
