ARTS AND CULTURE
ARTHOUSE JERSEY: Keeping the Island’s creative fires burning...
ArtHouse Jersey, much like every single organisation on our fair Isle, was thrown by the approach of lockdown. Beyond ‘what does this mean for the way we work?’ and ‘how can we still deliver the aspects of our programme that demand a physical presence?’, most importantly we wondered ‘how can we support artists across the island right now to inspire and encourage the community to harness creativity while we all come to terms with this behemoth shift in our lives?’ We quickly set to work launching the islandwide 19 Day Drawing Challenge, working alongside local illustrator Will Bertram. The idea was to present a theme each day from the 1st of April for 19 days with the hope that artists and novices alike would roll up their sleeves and step away from their screens for an amount of time a day to calm the mind and create something fun. The associated hashtag #IsolationCreationJersey was used to share over 1,500 original pieces of local artwork and some of the best of those are currently on display in our digital gallery at arthousejersey.je. We then swiftly launched our new digital platform ArtHouse Jersey Presents, a fresh digital space for emerging and established artists to exhibit, promote and share their work. It was designed to showcase a mix of specially commissioned pieces of digital content along with work created and submitted online. Since its inception in early April, we have now published and promoted
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coming up to one hundred pieces of original, locally connected content. And the demand from both artists and viewers shows no signs of slowing down. Once we moved beyond those strict days of enforced isolation we began exploring high quality broadcast live streaming. Working with external producers JP Le Blond and Paul Bisson we delivered our inaugural live stream with local band Hot Juice from Chambers last month. The sound, look and feel of the stream was incredible, so we are excitedly planning more music streams for late summer / early autumn. Watch this space! As far as getting out into the community goes we launched Skipton Forget Me Knots back in July, a large scale art project designed as a direct response to the pandemic. We are bringing specially facilitated workshops to thousands of children in schools and community groups right across the island. The children make paper forget-me-not flowers in the workshops while taking time to talk about and process their emotional journey through COVID19 so far. These thousands of flowers will go toward creating a breathtaking installation which will be on display at a centralised location in St. Helier in November. Finally, for the first time since March, we were able to safely invite Jersey’s public to our HQ at the Greve de Lecq Barracks in July as we launched ArtHouse Jersey Pop-Up, a brand new series of pop-up
exhibitions at our studio space there. Just another way we can help keep artists connected to those who may enjoy their work! As well as supporting artists with our Meet The Producers (a scheme that offers advice and guidance) and Seed Funding (an opportunity for artists to apply for funds towards their work or development), we continue to adapt and tweak our programme to meet the newly found needs of society today. Currently, we’re working on two potential large scale projects that, should the wind be blowing in our favour, will be enjoyed by Jersey’s public before the year is out. But we always have our eye well into the future at ArtHouse Jersey and ideas for 2022’s programme are already coming together thick and fast. Hopefully, a pandemic-less year of Art for us all… Find all ArtHouse Jersey details over at www.arthousejersey.je For more details on all the above and regular updates be sure to follow ArtHouse Jersey’s social media channels.
