Love arts Festival launches in Leeds

Unfortunately I wasn't quick enough and didn't post this in time for the launch at Opera North's Howard Assembly Room last night. However all is not lost! Running from 27th September until Wednesday 16th November, this brand new, first-year festival sees arts organisations across Leeds, uniting with Leeds Partnerships NHS Foundation Trust and the Art and Mind Network in an exploration of arts, mental health and well-being. With both arts and mental health being such broad and complex areas of study, it will definitely be enlightening to see how they are tackled in relation to each other, with the added diversity of Leeds as the setting.

With the likes of Ruby Wax and Phil Hammond getting involved, I have my fingers crossed publicity isn't a problem. Due to the stigma surrounding mental health problems and unease when it comes to discussing such issues in depth, I feel this collaboration with the rich art and culture that Leeds has to offer, will shed some light and provoke some thought on a subject that needs opening up. Art, in all it's forms , is an expression, a release and this experience is heightened further still, when a form of escape is just what the doctor ordered.

You can find more information and a list of all events taking place here, http://loveartsleeds.co.uk/

Here's to hoping this festival becomes a more permanent fixture in the affluent collection of culture and arts events, the city of Leeds already has to offer.

Congratulations!...Student Volunteer Awards

Congratulations to our MA Art Gallery & Museum Studies student, Elizabeth Stainforth - she has won the prestigious 'Volunteers for Museum Learning Award' for the Yorkshire Region, as part of the Marsh Volunteer Awards 2010, for her outstanding work at the University Stanley & Audrey Burton Art Gallery.....The Awards are run by the British Museum and the Marsh Christian Trust.....WELL DONE Liz!....
See you (and all the other 2010-11 cohort of students) at Graduation in December!

Mark

Doodlers Unite: Big Draw Challenge and Big Draw Day at the Stanley & Audrey Burton Gallery

Doodle now!

Preparing for our month-long sketchbook challenge for the Big Draw campaign, I accidentally came across this TED video about doodling and how it improves comprehension and unlocks creativity. Doodlers unite!




And once you've shed your inhibitions about doodling and become empowered by this short video, you'll be interested to run to our nearest Big Draw station at uni and sketch away. Here are the details:

The Big Draw: Sketchbook Challenge
The Campaign for Drawing has one aim: to get everyone drawing!

Held throughout October, The Big Draw is the Campaign's flagship programme and aims to bring communities together in creative ways. Join the largest drawing festival in the world! The Sketchbook Challenge, this year’s Big Draw activity of the university’s Stanley & Audrey Burton Gallery, has been inspired by the sketchbooks by the artist and art historian Stephen Chaplin (born 1934). To find out more about Chaplin and to see a selection of his fascinating sketchbooks please visit the Brotherton Library foyer from Monday 3rd October – Friday 21st October.

Between 1 and 21 October, ourlovely concertina sketchbooks will appear in various places around the whole university campus so you can sketch in all of them!

You can pick up a map of the locations at the Gallery. Please note that not all areas are open to the public.

Start drawing!
Take a few minutes to look around your surroundings, document the moment through a quick sketch in the sketchbook provided.

Stephen Chaplin often sketched the most mundane objects such as crumpled crisp packets and his mug of tea, often annotating his sketch with a couple of words, date and time, the weather, or his personal impressions, e.g. ‘Tea & ham sandwich in the first floor café – waiting for departure, platform 6, Salisbury’. You might have time to draw what’s going on the next table or out of the window. You could add a date, time, include your name or remain anonymous, annotate your sketch to set the scene for others. Be part of the exhibition.

Fill the sketchbooks with your observations, ideas and doodles, and your art will be displayed in the Brotherton Library Foyer and outside The Stanley & Audrey Burton Gallery, Parkinson Court from Monday 24th October.

Doodle and chill with friends: Big Draw Day in the Gallery
In connection with the month-long drawing campaign, the Gallery will host a drawing and sketching afternoon on Saturday 8 October.

The Gallery will celebrate Big Draw Day by transforming the Gallery space into a cosy place where you can drop in to meet people, doodle and have a chat about art, universe and everything.

There will be beanbags, pencils, sketchbooks, music, and lots of inspiration.

The sketchbooks collected from campus and the Gallery will be exhibited from 24 October 2011.

The Campaign for Drawing will finish when the words 'I can't draw' are dropped from our vocabulary!

Rise Art, the curated art marketplace, recently launched across the UK. The website, which commissions and promotes the work of talented emerging and established artists across the globe, now has thousands of artists portfolios listed across the site, and a growing board of curators who, along with our users help select the artists featured across the site.

The team at Rise Art has announced an open call for submissions. Artists are encouraged to submit their profile and upload works to the site.

Artists and enthusiasts can also take advantage of Rise Art's community tools to connect with one another and promote upcoming events and exhibitions. To get started visit www.riseart.com

Finally, the team is looking for current Leeds students with a keen interest in curatorial and gallery studies to participate in the public discourse on Rise Art and help shortlist artist portfolios across the website for consideration. If you would like to get involved, please email the Rise Art team at info (at) Rise Art (dot) com.

WELCOME to our Undergraduate Students!

The new intake of Leeds University undergraduate students - not just the Art History & Museum Studies students, but students from the art history, cultural studies and fine art programmes as well, all gathered at the Stanley & Audrey Burton Gallery at the University for a soiree this evening. There were speeches and some really nice wine, plus some fab goody bags full of interesting art gallery stuff for everyone (thanks to Layla Bloom at the Stanley & Audrey Burton Gallery).....

BA Students at the Stanley & Audrey Burton Gallery

The students are a great bunch, lively and inquisitive, and seem to be enjoying their first week at university.....teaching starts next week though....but I'm sure they will be conscientious!

Keep up to date with the progress of the Museum Studies students (both BA and MA) on the Blog!

Mark

Museology Seminar Series VIII

                      ‘MUSEOLOGY SEMINAR SERIES’

                                              Series VIII

   Centre for Critical Studies in Museums, Galleries and Heritage

        School of Fine Art, History of Art and Cultural Studies

                                      University of Leeds

                 'Museums are made for discourse':
    A comparative study of the Le Quai Branly  
     and the Cite nationale de L'immigration
                                               
                                                           By Dr Diane Morgan
                                    Lecturer, Cultural Studies
                                         University of Leeds


                                 Monday 14th November 2011
                                            3.00pm-4.00pm
                                     Baines Wing, Room 1.15
                                         University of Leeds

                                                    FREE!
                                           ALL WELCOME

MA Art Gallery & Museum Studies Welcome Drinks Reception

New Postgraduate students reception

The new cohort of MA Museum Studies students arrived at the university today...24 students, from countries as far away as USA, Korea, Taiwan, Canada, Greece...as well as from nearer to home of course, West Yorkshire!

Welcome to you all, we hope you enjoy your year of study!

Mark

Staff and Students at PG Reception

Back after the summer break

Hi All,

well, it seems like ages since the Blog was populated...all been on holiday no doubt!...(I've been away too...Amsterdam...Abbotsford....got lots to post....later)....we've got a new intake of Undergrad and Postgrad students starting this coming week too...lots more voices for the Blog I hope!

I'll post news of the 'Induction Week' activities soon....


Mark

What was there?

Here's an interesting project that extends the Museum of London Street Museum application to map historical photographs through crowd sourcing. I suppose ideally it would balance individual and institutional data, but open source projects can be limited by copyright restrictions and the occasional insular archive. Hopefully it will become a really useful resource.

http://whatwasthere.com/

There's also a free app for iDevices if you're that way inclined:

http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/whatwasthere/id421576457?mt=8&ls=1