St Helens Cultural Awards

Proud winner of the St Helens Creative Arts Award (Professional Practice) is Claire Weetman, in recognition of her work locally and regionally in the past year, including exhibitions at home and abroad and commissions for clients including Liverpool Biennial. Claire received her award on a glittering evening at St Helens town hall from BAFTA winning screenwriter Danny Brocklehurst and performer Stephanie Davis from BBC's Over the Rainbow.

Commiserations go to fellow short-listed nominees Stephen Ball, whose upcoming Soapbox event in St Helens looks to be an exciting addition to his work with Don't Think Twice collective, and Tony Garner whose evocative industrial landscapes have won him awards at the annual St Helens Open art competition.

The complete list of award winners is as follows;

St Helens Creative Arts Award (Professional Practice)
Claire Weetman - Artist

St Helens Voluntary Arts Sector Award (Group/Organisation)
Dual Diagnosis - Drama Group

St Helens Voluntary Arts Sector Award (Individual)
Enid Pennington - Drama Practitioner

St Helens Arts Development Award
MASH Gallery - For the creation of new art space

St Helens Heritage Award
St Helens Townships Family History Society - For their work in local history

St Helens Sporting Volunteer Award
John Fairhurst - Junior Football

St Helens Sports Coach of the Year Award
Peter Blood - Judo

St Helens Sporting Hero Award
Harold Swift MBE - Rugby League

St Helens Sports Club of the Year Award
Seneley and Garswood Juniors Football Club

St Helens Cultural Event Award
UC Crew for 'International Break-Dancing competition the Northern Hordes'

St Helens Special Award for Services to Culture
Roy Jones - Sport

Posthumous Award
Peter Jackson

Light Bite Report

Light Bite took place on the lamp posts of Nottingham last Friday. Here's some images of the event and an article featured in the Independent.

Sticking power: The art of the fridge magnet

By Charlotte Cripps

Friday, 25 February 2011

Fridge magnets of Red Sea fish or miniature whitewashed Greek villas are handy purchases when getting rid of foreign currency at airports. But fridge magnet art has never truly been recognised beyond the kitchen – until now.

The Brighton Open hopes to be "the biggest and most high profile" outdoor magnet show ever undertaken in the UK. Event organiser Alban Low will be sticking about 500 magnetic images by over 200 artists along Brighton's seafront as part of the Fringe Festival in May.

Members of the public can view the magnets stuck on bollards and railings near the pier, and even take one home for free.

"The fridge magnet is a vehicle for people to get their artwork seen," says Low. "And because of the low cost of actually producing it, ordinary people can start collecting art. Everyone's got a fridge. It goes right into the heart of people's homes. In this age of austerity, with hardly any public funding, it works because we rely purely on sponsorship."

Low's 'fridge magnet movement' started last year. By allowing the general public to submit up to two images to his exhibition website, he turns them into fridge magnets (5cm x 7cm) for free and exhibits them directly on the streets. The artist also receives a thank you magnet of their own work.

Low's first outdoor exhibition, in June 2010, saw magnet art mounted directly on the streets of Bath, as part of the Fringe Arts Bath Festival. The following month he put more magnets in Manchester's Arndale Centre, where shoppers picked them up. Then, last week, Low exhibited 250 magnets on the lampposts of Nottingham, as part of the Light Night festival.

"A lot of these artists have never had a chance to show their work in public before," says Low. "Artwork on a lamp post jumps out at you because it's so unexpected."

Images include erotic art, nature photographs and still lifes of grapes. Low's own series of magnets, entitled One-Sided Conversations, are titbits of information overheard on public transport, which he has turned into cartoons. "Councils think I'm flyposting or doing graffiti," he says, "but this is a great way to give people a voice without defacing anything."

The Brighton Open is at the entrance of Brighton Pier from 7-8 May. Deadline for entries is 1 April

openfridge@googlemail.com

Light Bite - this Friday 18 Feb 2011

lightbite.blogspot.com

Come and find our magnetic masterpieces on the city centre streets of Nottingham as part of this years Light Night Festival. We're exhibiting 250 miniature artworks on lamp posts this February 18th, 2011 from 6pm onwards. Find them, pick them up and take them home. Discover Nottingham's finest talent and artists from around the world. Collect their work for FREE and start a gallery on your fridge. Find Claire's work Static:Moving on a lampost near you.

Threshold Festival - 11-13 February 2011

Contemporary Urban Centre, 41 – 51 Greenland Street, Liverpool.

11-13 February 2011

thresholdfestival.co.uk

Spontaneous, innovative and independent, for three days in February Threshold will transform Liverpool's CUC into a hive of arty, musical goodies; bands, dancers, exhibitions, flashmobs, photography, galleries and games, by a feast of performers and artists who're the best of the North West. Watch, listen - learn. Get involved. Step over the Threshold...

Claire is presenting drawings from her series 'Passing, Watching, Waiting, Following, alongside two works from her time on the Urban Interventions residency in Linz 2010. You can find Claire's works on the 5th floor between the cinema and Mezzanine bar.

State of Perception - METAL Liverpool 4 - 26 Feb 2011

www.metalculture.com

www.alongtheline.net

The exhibition is an experiment in artist’s exchange. The conceptual starting point for these collaborations is Edge Hill station itself, the World’s oldest passenger railway station and the home of Metal Liverpool. ‘State of Perception’ will detail upon the emotional resonance of journeys taken from the space - the potential romance, secrecy, joy or inspiration of travel.

During State of Perception, Claire is asking rail travellers to collaborate with her, documenting their journey from Edge Hill Station using the record function in their mobile phones. Combining audio, soundwaves and mapping, Claire will create an online artwork that traces daily journeys - see www.alongtheline.net for more information on how to take part.

Along the line - exhibited cards inviting the public to participate.
Commercial and handmade print onto card

Chatham Road (Eventually Everyone had moved) now showing at METAL
Hand drawn animation, 3:46

Along the Line - public display of invitation cards on trains and in railway stations

The Private View saw performances by musicians Greedy Jesus and Dogstar Rose and poets Jason Richardson & Garry Kelly Hartley

Contributing artists are: Charles Andersen (UK), Sarah Coventry (USA), Claudia Czimek (Austria), Lee Kendall (UK), Tifany Kendall (Canada), Jacqueline F Kerr (UK), Jet Pascua (Norway), Sue Meyerhoff Sharples (UK), Emma Sumner (UK), Wendy Williams (UK) and Claire Weetman (UK).