Blogs

“In 2012, I found a piece of material in a rock pool that changed my life. Mistaking this moving piece of cloth for seaweed, started the recovery of synthetic clothing from around the coastline of Britain for the next ten years”. 

Two hundred and two ‘specimens’ of clothing and garments recovered from one hundred and twenty-one beaches mimic different species of marine algae, with the intention to raise awareness about the over consumption of synthetic plastic clothing also referred to as ‘fast fashion’, which is currently having the greatest impact on global climate change. 

After seeing an original copy of the book, ‘Photographs of British Algae, Volume 1’, by Anna Atkins, at The Royal Society in London, Barker was captivated by its detail and significance, for the way it changed how we looked at science in 1800’s, but more importantly for the possibility to re-create similar work that could engage how we look at science in connection with a present-day critical issue.

In this new presentation titled ‘Cyanotype Imperfections’, instead of the Atkins ‘Cyanotype Impressions’, the book includes 202 cyanotype images and 8 cyanotype text pages using original 1800’s J Whatman paper that Atkins used from the original Turkey Mill in Kent. 

The project was first published in The Guardian on 16 March, Atkins' birthday. See: https://twitter.com/plasticpieces/status/1768926794114089403

PHOTOGRAPHS OF BRITISH ALGAE CYANOTYPE IMPERFECTIONS
A - B (Atkins - Barker) 1843 – 2023. 
See: https://www.atkins-barker.com/

UPDATED see: https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2024/mar/19/mandy-barker-ocean-waste-cyanotypes-anna-atkins and https://twitter.com/plasticpieces/status/1771099288782651535

Mid-century comics on both sides of the Atlantic portrayed children as camera users through product advertisements, photography competitions, and—especially—fictional depictions of heroic child photographers. In the illustrated hands of comic characters like “Kid Click” and “Snapshot Susie,” cameras could figure as tools for conquest (paralleling weaponry and surveillance devices) or operate as metaphorical moral compasses for personal development, decency, and altruism. In this lecture, Annebella Pollen explores how these comic adventures, particularly when triangulated with the camera promotions and children’s photographs on parallel pages, offer a productive space for understanding children’s media production and the mediation of their world.

From Kid Click to Snapshot Susie
Annebella Pollen
20 March 2024, at 1800 (EST)
Neew York, Bard Graduate Center
https://www.bgc.bard.edu/events/1489/20-mar-2024-from-kid

Photography permeates every aspect of contemporary life, serving as a tool for visual communication, personal expression, artistic creation, documentation, social engagement, and civic action. In the twenty-first century, the traditional distinctions between high and low art, as well as between art and applied practices, and among different lens-based media have become blurred over time, rendering previous museum taxonomies obsolete and posing practical challenges for professionals.

This inaugural agenda-setting workshop seeks to foster dialogue among international scholars, curators, artists, photographers, museum professionals, and archivists regarding various definitions and understandings of "photography" and its cultural significance within and beyond museum settings. Featuring presentations by invited speakers, a roundtable discussion, and breakout sessions, the workshop aims to explore diverse institutional perspectives, policies, practices, and challenges related to the collection, exhibition, and interpretation of photographic images. Insights and feedback collected from participants will shape the framework and topics of subsequent workshops.

Workshop 1:  Museum Dialogues: Definitions and problems

Confirmed Speakers include:

Prof. Anna Fox, Photographer and Director of Fast Forward: Women in Photography, UK
Dr. Iro Katsaridou, Director of MOMus –Thessaloniki Museum of Photography, Greece;

Dr. Katrina Sluis, Associate Professor and Head of Photography and Media Arts, Australia National University, and artist;

Liz Wewiora, Founder of Socially Engaged Photography Network (SEPN) and Head of Social Practice at Open Eye Gallery, UK and artist. 

Budi N.D. Dharmawan, Independent Photographer and Writer, Indonesia.

Museum Dialogues is a project co-ordinated by the Northern Centre of Photography at University of Sunderland, UK, with key partners MOMus – Thessaloniki Museum of Photography, Greece and MuFoCo – Museo di Fotografia Contemporanea in Cinisello Balsamo, Italy. Museum Dialogues is supported by the Arts and Humanities Research Council, Research Networking scheme.

This 12-month research network aspires to transcend the disciplinary boundaries of art history, visual culture, photography, new media, museum and curating studies and bridge theory and practice. It seeks to unite scholars, archivists, curators, museum workers, and artists from across the globe with a view to developing a comprehensive understanding and exchange of innovative solutions, inquiries, and practical challenges relating to the exhibition, collection and interpretation of photography.

Workshop 1 (online): Problems and Definitions - REGISTRATION NOW OPEN HERE

Friday 22 March 2024, 9:30 - 16:00 GMT

Workshop 2 (online): Building Photography Collections for the Future 

Friday 24 May 2024, 9:30 - 16:00 BST 

Workshop 3 (online): Rethinking Programming: Interpretation and Experience, Inclusion and Equity

Friday 12 July 2024, 9:30 - 16.00 BST

Three-day hybrid international conference: Re-evaluating the Past, Capturing the Present, Anticipating the Future 

Friday 22, Saturday 23, Sunday 24 November 2024 (Sunderland and Online).CALL FOR PAPERS HERE

The call for a £500 stpiend to support research in to the Bill Douglas Centre for Cinema History collections closes at 12 noon on 18 March.  

The Bill Douglas Cinema Museum at the University Exeter, UK, is both a public museum and a rich research resource for scholars of moving image history. The museum is named after the renowned filmmaker Bill Douglas and was founded on the extraordinary collection of material he put together with his friend Peter Jewell. In the twenty-five years since its opening, the museum has received donations from many sources and now has around 90,000 artefacts on the long history of the moving image from the seventeenth century to the present day. 

Thanks to the support of the Bill Douglas and Peter Jewell Fund we are again able to offer a small number of stipends for 2024 for scholars, researchers, and practitioners to enable research using the collections at The Bill Douglas Cinema Museum. We are inviting applications for two categories of award: 

UK stipends - available to academics, postgraduate students and other researchers based in the UK, and are worth up to £500 each. 

International Stipends – available to scholars and other researchers from outside the UK and are worth up to £1500 each.

The monies are to be used for travel and accommodation costs incurred while visiting the Museum to undertake significant research that will be enhanced by access to its collections. Proposed research should contribute to publications or other demonstrable outcomes, such as films or artworks. Successful applicants will be required to write a blog post for the museum’s website about their research following their visit.   You will find details of previous years’ stipends and the blogs that stipend holders contributed at http://www.bdcmuseum.org.uk/research/research-at-the-bill-douglas-cinema-museum/stipends-at-the-bill-douglas-cinema-museum/  The monies should be spent by the end of December 2024.

Read more: https://www.bdcmuseum.org.uk/news/new-call-for-stipends-to-visit-the-museum-in-2024/

Hi all, Anyone interested in these two journals, they were amongst a job lot, I was having a sort out today, I can post in the UK.

Tony

BPH has only just spotted this...Are you an experienced Senior Curator and a specialist in photography? Do you have experience of mounting exhibitions, conducting original research, and publishing on the history of photography? Are you actively engaged in widening access to photography and making it more inclusive? Then we want to hear from you. 

This position is an ideal opportunity for an established Senior Curator to be part of our enthusiastic and dedicated team within Collection & Research. You’ll work across all four of our amazing Galleries based in the heart of Edinburgh. 

In this role you will be researching, managing, and helping to use and share our exciting and extensive photography collection and related archives for our audiences. You’ll also represent the organisation at conferences / seminars. You’ll be responsible for our world-class collection of 55,000+ photographs and its growth in areas that fulfil our commitment to Equality, Diversity, and Inclusion.  

You’re likely to have a wide network of contacts as well as experience in competing and securing funding through philanthropy and public grant-giving bodies. You must also have exhibition and publication experience with excellent communication skills. 

Senior Curator (Photography)
National Galleries of Scotland
Information: https://ngs.ciphr-irecruit.com/Applicants/vacancy/230/Senior-Curator-Photography
Closing date for applications is 12 noon on Wednesday, 13 March 2024

FORMAT photography festival in Derby has a number of talks and activities around the exhibitions. On 16 March Peter Jordan-Turner is talking about the carte-de-visite. 

The Cartes de Visite craze in the second half of the nineteenth century was recognised, even at the time, as a social phenomenon.  

Join Peter Jordan-Turner as he reveals how problematic early photographic technologies were swept aside by a method of production and usage that welcomed all but the very poorest into the studios that sprang up in every town and city in Britain. Cooks and countesses, railway porters and aldermen could all see themselves as never before, almost instantly, and their likenesses were shared with their social circle, or sent to family and sweethearts to cement relationships in an age that saw greater mobility around the country and the Empire. This new sharing of photographic portraits established a habit that has grown stronger as each new technology placed photography closer to the people who ultimately use it, and is the true ancestor of Instagram and every other photo sharing platform.’ 

Peter Jordan-Turner is an Associate Lecturer at the University of Derby and the University of Gloucestershire, and is a Trustee for the W.W.Winter Heritage Trust. 

He is also pursuing a doctorate in the history of nineteenth century commercial photography, titled Reconnecting with a Historic Photographic Archive: The case of W.W.Winter (Derby) as a model for public and academic access to a significant archive of commercial photography, and is author of ‘From Darkroom into light: Photographic archives and community cohesion’ to be presented at the 5th CAA Conference in Greece in April 2024. 

Cartes de Visite: The Original Social Media
Peter Jordan-Turner
16 March 2024 at 1100
QUAD, Derby
Free, or suggested donation of £3
See: https://www.derbyquad.co.uk/events/cartesdevisite/

Meet John Herschel,  much less famous today than either his father or his aunt yet in his day he represented the very definition of what a scientist should be.  In 1824, as the BRLSI began, he too was just starting out. On the 8 June, there will be a Conference dedicated to every aspect of the life & work of this great man, but for today let’s just get to know him. What did he do? Why should we care about him? What were his politics? What was his family life like? Come along on 3rd March and find out.

This introduction to John Herschel will prepare us for the all-day conference on Saturday 8th June 2024,

Emily Winterburn is one of the authors for the forthcoming Cambridge Companion to John Herschel. She is also the author of a biography of John’s aunt, Caroline Herschel (The Quiet Revolution of Caroline Herschel, 2017) and completed her PhD on the Herschel family in 2011. She is the former curator of astronomy at the Royal Observatory in Greenwich. Today she is a teacher and writer living in Leeds. She is also honorary vice president of the Society for the History of Astronomy.

Introduction to John Herschel
Emily Winterburn
organised by the Herschel Society, Bath
Hybrid, 3 April 2024 at 1930
Details here: http://herschelsociety.org.uk/2024/03/07/wednesday-3rd-april-2024-introduction-to-john-herschel/

Rare early photographs of Chinese women from the Loewentheil Photography of China Collection will be exhibited for the first time in New York as part of Asia Week New York.  Dragon Women: Early Chinese Photography curated by Stacey Lambrow runs from March 14th – May 15. Admission is free.

Dragon Women: Early Chinese Photography celebrates the Year of the Dragon and the representation of women in the earliest photography of China. This is the first exhibition devoted to the depiction of Chinese women in early photography. The 50 photographs include the first photographic portraits of Chinese women, most made in the 1860s and 1870s. Many have never before been shown. The exhibition examines women’s place in society in the late Qing dynasty and their depiction in historical photography of China. It also presents work by the few known early female photographers of China.

Highlights include a rare photograph by the first known Chinese female photographer, Mae Linda Talbot, and works by Hedda Morrison, Isabella Bird, and Eva Sandberg Xiao. Masterworks abound including photographs by Chinese and international artists such as Sze Yuen Ming Studio, Pun Lun Studio, A Chan Studio, Lai Fong, John Thomson, and Thomas Child. The exhibition showcases the diversity of Chinese women and their experiences during the final decades of imperial China.

The dragon is an integral part of Chinese culture. The origin of dragons in Chinese mythology extends back to the earliest recorded dynasties, where male and female dragons were revered as powerful and benevolent creatures created by the gods to govern the world. Unlike the evil, fire-breathing European dragon, the Chinese dragon is an auspicious and multifaceted figure. It is both powerful and benevolent, fierce and elegant. The dragon also symbolizes imperial power.

This exhibition held in the Year of the Dragon reclaims the feminine power of the dragon and honors all Chinese women. It includes iconic photographs of Empress Dowager Cixi (1835-1908) by her Court photographer Yu Xunling (c.1880-1943). Cixi, one of the most powerful women in Chinese history, was referred to as “Dragon Lady.” Some caricatured her as a uniquely sinister, manipulative, and cold-blooded ruler. However, scholars agree that the Empress’s contribution to empowering and advancing opportunities for women is an important part of her legacy, thereby revising this one-dimensional view.

The early photographic portraits of women in Dragon Women challenge the negative and shallow stereotype of the “dragon lady.” The term remains a pervasive stereotype, often used against women who are unapologetically driven or have agency and power. It is particularly pernicious as a Western stereotype of East Asian women.

The exhibition portrays and honors women of various ages, classes, and social circumstances.  The diversity of the “dragon women” in the photographs more authentically reflects the power and complexity of the dragon. 

For the majority of women at the end of the Qing dynasty, being photographed was off-limits for social and financial reasons. Qing society perpetuated the conservative ideas of previous dynasties, and the majority of women were isolated in their homes. Some of the women in these images chose to be photographed, while others submitted to the photographer for other reasons. Some of the photographs were made as personal family photographs and others were produced for popular consumption to portray the women as “exotic.” Regardless, the camera immortalized their images and offer us a rare and complicated view into the lives of Chinese women during a period of modernization in China.

Most late Qing dynasty photographs of Chinese women depict unnamed sitters and a great number of the portraits were created by photographers who at this time remain unidentified. As research into the history of photography of China advances, more of the names of the Chinese women appearing in nineteenth-century photographs will be discovered and more of China’s pioneering photographers will be identified. Certainly, more of the early photographers working in China will prove to be women. 

The Loewentheil Photography of China Collection includes the largest selection of nineteenth-century photographs of Chinese women in the world. In photography’s most formative years Chinese women were involved in the art in a myriad of ways. Their presence exerted a profound influence on the development of the art of photography. Women worked alongside men in photography studios, sometimes as the wives and daughters of studio owners, or as printers, finishers, retouchers, colourists, camera operators, or studio managers. In addition, women participated as subjects of early photographs. Early photographs of Chinese women, rank among the greatest nineteenth-century photographs ever made.

Dragon Women: Early Chinese Photography. First Exhibition of the Earliest Photographs of Chinese Women
10 West 18th Street 7th Floor, 14 March – 15 May 2024
Opening Celebration March 15 from 6pm to 9pm, with a Lion Dance with rare Female Dancers at 7:00
 https://loewentheilcollection.com/

 About the Loewentheil Photography of China Collection

The Loewentheil Photography of China Collection, based in New York, is the finest and largest holding of historical photographs of China in private hands. It contains many thousands of photographs spanning the earliest days of paper photography from the 1850s through the 1930s. The majority date to before 1900, including the largest selection of nineteenth-century photographs of Chinese women in the world.

The University of Brighton's Centre for Design History is hosting a double professorial book launch on 17 April at M2. The event will launch Cold War Photographic Diplomacy: The U.S. Information Agency and Africa, by Darren Newbury and Art without Frontiers: The Story of the British Council, Visual Arts and a Changing World, by Annebella Pollen. It will be an opportunity to hear from the authors and celebrate the publication of their books. 

Book launch
Wednesday, 17 April 2024 at 1800-2000
M2 at Grand Parade Building, Brighton
Details here: https://blogs.brighton.ac.uk/centrefordesignhistory/2024/03/01/event-book-launch-with-darren-newbury-and-annebella-pollen-april-17-2024/

PhotoMuse - The Museum of Photography in Kerala, India, is hosting a new exhibition Curated by Dr. Unni Pulikkal S , the Director of PhotoMuse, the exhibition marks a significant milestone in the nation's photographic history. It serves as the inaugural event for the newly constructed permanent museum. Scheduled to commence on March 10th at 1100, the exhibition will be inaugurated by Mr. Murali Cheeroth , a distinguished artist and Chairperson of the Kerala Lalit Kala Academy. The event will also be graced by the presence of Mr. Herbert  Ascherman Jr. , an internationally renowned photographer and photo-historian, who will dedicate the new museum to the people of the country.

Running for the next three months from its opening date, the exhibition will showcase a collection of historical and modern photographic processes. Spanning from the 1850s to the present, it meticulously traces the evolution of photography as a handheld object over two centuries.

PhotoMuse is India's first public museum dedicated to the art, history and science of photography. Through the pursuit of photography and photographic history, PHOTOMUSE documents, interprets and promotes the natural and cultural inheritance of humanity. With photography-based outreach and educational programs, the museum emphasizes education, conservancy and India’s photographic legacy.

See: https://photomuse.in/

Continuing its series of seminar days the Martin Parr Foundation has announced British Photography in the 1990s which will take place on Saturday, 11 May 2024. Speakers include Vinca Petersen, Stephen Gill, Juergen Teller, Joy Gregory and Richard Billingham. This event follows on from previous seminar days exploring photography in the 70s, 80s and Another Country, showcasing an overview of British Documentary Photography since 1945.

Past seminars have filled up very quickly so early booking is recommended.

British Photography in the 1990s
Saturday, 11 May 2024, 0930-1730
Bristol: Martin Parr Foundation
£55 / regular
£48 / MPF member
£48 / students
Lunch, teas and coffees included

Full details and bookings: https://www.martinparrfoundation.org/events/british-photography-in-the-1990s/

Image: From Ray's a Laugh © Richard Billingham

In a new blog post Mary Phan, the V&A's second Curatorial Fellow in Photography, supported by the Bern Schwartz Family Foundation, discusses her research on the Nature Conservancy Council (NCC) Collection which is part of the Royal Photographic Society collection, held at the V&A  Museum. The NCC collection consists of nearly 2000 images from the late ninteenth century to the 1960s. It was passed to the RPS after the NCC was dissolved in 1991.

Mary is also curating a display on ‘Ecology and the Photobook’ in the V&A's Photography Centre. Opening in June 2024, the display will feature contemporary photobooks concerning the intersections of art and ecology.

Read the full blog here: https://www.bernschwartz.org/mary-phan

Image: 'Baby Armadillo', RPS Collection, gelatin silver print (V&A Museum)

Looking for stickybacks!  For the past few years, I have been researching stickybacks together (partly with Róman Kiejet). The research has resulted in an exhibition and booklet on stickybacks in the Netherlands. This exhibition was shown last year at the Nederlands Fotomuseum in Rotterdam. 

Now I have conceived the plan to make a European exhibition on stickybacks, which includes all the countries of the time. So I am looking for stickybacks from whole over Europe. I found the "easy-to-find-collectors' through google, but know I am looking for more people who have stickybacks in their collection.

 For people who are not familiar with the term stickybacks;

 'Stickybacks' - also called American Automatic Photo, snelfotografie (Dutch) and Leimrücken (Germany) are small (size passport) photos from roughly the 1910s. Usually they are single portraits, but there are also double-sized photos with multiple people. Stickyback  can be recognizable by the photographed bar with the address and/or name of the photographer above the head of the subjects. And on the bar a number that could be changed.

 If you have stickybacks or want to now more please contact me!

*You can find more about the Dutch stickyback exhibition and book on my website; https://dirkkome.nl/snelfotografie-de-rage-van-1912-tot-1925/

This symposium welcomes researchers, curators and photographers from all geographical areas. Proposals may concern any post-colonial period from the 19th to the 20th century. Abstracts in english or french (approx. 500 words) must be sent by May 31, 2024 at the latest, with a short biography, affiliation information, and a bibliography (for researchers). Authors will receive an answer in June 2024. Travel and accommodation expenses for selected participants will be covered. We welcome proposals addressing one or more of the following topics: 

Histories of Photography from the Struggles for Independence: practices, circulations and aesthetics
Abstract submission by: 31 May 2024
Conference: 28-29 January 2025JAN 28-29, 2025 International Conference
INVISU / INHA, Institut national d’histoire de l’art, Paris
Details: https://invisu.cnrs.fr/seminaires-et-conferences/colloque-histoires-de-photographies/histories-of-photography-from-the-struggles-for-independance/

For centuries, portraiture has played a vital role in shaping the public’s perception of the Royal Family. Over the past 100 years, no artistic medium has had a greater impact on the royal image than photography. Royal Portraits: A Century of Photography will chart the evolution of royal portrait photography from the 1920s to the present day, bringing together more than 150 photographic prints, proofs and documents from the Royal Collection and the Royal Archives. The photographs presented in the exhibition will be vintage prints – the original works produced by the photographer, most of which have never been on public display.

The works on show will demonstrate how the Royal Family has harnessed the power of photography to project both the grandeur and tradition of monarchy, and at times an unprecedented sense of intimacy and relatability. The exhibition will examine the changing status of photography as an art form and consider the cultural, artistic, and technological shifts that influenced the work of the most celebrated royal photographers, from Cecil Beaton and Dorothy Wilding to Annie Leibovitz and Rankin.

Archival documents and unreleased proofs will shed light on the behind-the-scenes process of commissioning, selecting and retouching royal portraits. From photographers’ handwritten annotations to never-before-seen correspondence with members of the Royal Family and their staff, these materials will reveal the stories behind some of the most enduring photographs ever taken of the Royal Family.

The exhibition will open with the 1920s and 30s, the golden age of the society photographer. Post-war prosperity and technological advances led to a boom in photographic studios, and members of the British and European Royal Families were among the ‘Bright Young Things’ eager to be captured on camera. Many of the new studios were operated by women, and female photographers such as Dorothy Wilding and Madame Yevonde were among those experimenting with a bolder, more modern aesthetic.

In the mid-20th century, no royal photographer had a greater impact on shaping the monarchy’s public image than Cecil Beaton. The exhibition will present some of Beaton’s most memorable photographs, taken over six decades. These include Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother’s famed 1939 shoot in the Buckingham Palace Gardens, dressed in her ‘White Wardrobe’ by Norman Hartnell, and Beaton’s original Coronation portraits of Queen Elizabeth II – arguably the most prestigious photography commission of the century. 

Close relationships between royal sitters and photographers will unfold throughout the exhibition, seen most clearly through the lens of Lord Snowdon (born Antony Armstrong-Jones). One of the most sought-after photographers of the 1950s, Snowdon’s unpretentious style soon attracted the attention of the Royal Family, and he became a member of the family himself when he married Princess Margaret in 1960. His remarkably intimate portraits of the Princess, taken both before and during their marriage, hint at the depths of trust and collaboration between them.

The exhibition’s final room will explore the innovations in digital and colour photography that revolutionised the medium between the 1980s and the 2020s. During this period, photography came to be recognised as an art form in its own right, and the perception of the role of the photographer shifted from image-making craftsperson to celebrated artist. From Andy Warhol’s diamond-dust-sprinkled screenprint of Queen Elizabeth II to famed photographs by Rankin, David Bailey, Nick Knight, Annie Leibovitz and more, the bold and colourful works in this room will demonstrate the extraordinary variety, power and at times playfulness of royal portrait photography over the past four decades.

Alessandro Nasini, curator of Royal Portraits: A Century of Photography, said: ‘This is the first exhibition from the Royal Collection entirely dedicated to modern portrait photography, an artistic medium that has helped to shape how the world views the British monarchy. We are excited for visitors to discover the beauty and materiality of these original prints, many on display for the first time, and we hope they will also enjoy a behind-the-scenes glimpse into the creative process behind some of these iconic royal images.’

Royal Portraits: A Century of Photography
17 May – 6 October 2024
The King’s Gallery, Buckingham Palace, London
See: https://www.rct.uk/whatson/event/1118538/Royal-Portraits:-A-Century-of-Photography

 Images: (top): Cecil Beaton, Princess Elizabeth, 1942. (lower): Antony Armstrong-Jones, 1st Earl of Snowdon, Proof with handwritten instructions, 1958. Photograph: Antony Armstrong-Jones

Periodically something appears at auction which deserves a wider audience. Coming up in a Bonhams European Decor and Design auction in the United States is a stunning Carlo Ponti Megalethoscope with original bill of sales from 1876. It is estimated at US$8000-12,000.  Details are below:

floral carved viewer with ebonized trim, lg. 35; set on a marble top rectangular table cabinet with carved panel doors and sides and set on carved and turned legs, with carved labels "Ponti Venezia", "Megaletoscopio" and "Privilegiato", ht. 30 1/2, d. 25, lg. 39 1/2 in.; with photographic prints.

 

Provenance:

A memorial service and get together to celebrate and remember the life and man, that was Brian Griffin is being held on 6 March in London. Firstly, is a service at 3pm at Holy Trinity Church, 3 Bryan Road, London SE16, then a social event at the Ship and Whale, 2 Gulliver Street, London, SE16. Details on the poster right (click to enlarge). As space may be limited can those who wish to go please contact info@ravichandarana.com

Newcastle's Side Gallery which closed last year after losing its Arts Council England NPO status (see here) is seeking the views of supporters and the public as it looks to the future. In an email from Laura Laffler, Director at Amber Film & Photographty Collective she said:

Thanks to your support, we can continue to digitise our archive, take part in exhibitions nationwide and support the next generation of North East documentary artists. We will find out about several major funding opportunities in the next few weeks, and you’ll be the first to receive an update.  But right now, more than anything, we need your feedback. Galleries should exist for everyone, and we believe the best way to relaunch our space is with community and collaboration at its core. Our next steps are to take survey responses and turn them into an in-person event where, together, we can co-create the next chapter of the Side Gallery.

To share your views click here