On Thursday 17th September 2020, Brandon Arts Society,Brandon Creative Forum and the MarketPlace team celebrated the 40th Anniversary of Brandon Arts Society with a virtual exhibition preview.
As part of our Creative Conversations in Isolation programme, we commissioned Lee to make a 3D virtual gallery for the exhibition. Using Mozilla Hubs Spoke, digital artist, Lee Mason curated the Art Society’s art work to create a wonderful exhibition experience, complete with wine, nibbles and Brandon’s infamous bunny. There’s also a beautiful roof-top garden, celebrating Brandon in Bloom.
Like many artists, Jenna Bristow and Steve Hubbard immediately responded to the Lockdown situation by taking photographs and examining the changes taking place around them and in their community.
Capturing the first few weeks after the government announcement revealed a sense of empty spaces and silence in the usually noisy Market Town of Wisbech.
Over the course of the summer the Jenna and Steve cast their eye over the various elements of the town and explored just how different the landscape of familiar buildings, river and parks became.
As photographers interested in using digital cameras to support people’s welbeing and mental health, they also invited people to contribute three words that summed up their experiences of life during Lockdown and the summer months.
“worried, unsettled and alone; sad, scared and concerned; frightened, anxious and emotional; missing my family; stuck at home; never ending story; shops are empty; depressed and lonely; concerned, apprehensive, anxious; no way out; everyone’s become selfish; no food left in stores; see no ending; cannot motivate myself; on my own; stay at home; can’t sleep; life goes on (for some); television is depressing; life on hold; lost my motivation“
One voicemail message broke the three word rule but Jenna and Steve felt it deserved a place in their collection. Below is the transcript of the voice message left by ‘E’.
The gut wrenching feeling going into Tesco, to buy flour.
Arriving at the aisle, to be faced with empty shelves, but most of all the picture embedded in my brain forever, an old man hunch over shaking his head. I asked if he was alright, he looked deflated, he said, I only wanted one bag of flour for my wife. People weren’t greedy in the war, they shared.
It upset me. I asked to speak to a manager. I asked if they could please put stock away for the elderly, as most are getting none, and there are no restrictions on the amount. They said they couldn’t, in the morning there would be more. I asked if they would put some away for them, no, first come first served. Then I suggested that they only allow the elderly in first, as they won’t be greedy, again this was refused giving an excuse. I was talking about elderly being 70 onwards. I am 57. Our elderly went through a lot and should be treated better. A lot of human kindness went out the window.
The thing with toilet paper. When asking Lidl, I was advised there were men buying the pallet loads as soon as they were on the shop floor. I asked why they are allowing it. They couldn’t stop them. Then came rationing, bit late but welcome by all. One flaw, you could shop, get two of everything etc. Pay, load your car up. Come right back in, do it all over again, go to a differnet till, this happened over an over. A cashier explanined how it was in Tesco.
Just have to shake your head at people who caused more suffering to those who didn’t need it. No wonder our elderly were left with nothing.
‘E’ author
We are proud to add this collection to our Creative Conversations in Isolation programme and we have produced a book which is being distributed to local community centres, museums and libraries.
The Walk n Craft group, define themselves as “a group of local women coming together for walking, crafting and a bit of banter over lunch”! Based in Mildenhall, Suffolk, they were used to meeting regularly, however following lockdown, the group were no longer able to meet in person. Holly and Mel from Art At Work got in touch with the idea to set up meetings with the Walk n Craft group online, and create arts activities to do together. This would keep the group connected and also benefit the group in terms of health and well-being during a difficult period of isolation.
The creative activities included drawing variations of a shoe, continuous line drawing and drawing without looking at the object. They documented their meetings and creations on their Instagram account and they still meet regularly on Zoom.
The Walk n Craft group also took part in our #LetsTakeAWalk project with artist, Genevieve Rudd.
Take a closer look at the Flickr gallery of art work created by the group.
In a time of people feeling disconnected, Leanne, Matt and Louise wanted to connect people through their passion for music. They offered free online workshops for an evening to talk about live music, concerts, celebrations and the communities we build around our favourite music venues.
Through writing and music-making exercises, the groups shared memories about the ways music has been an integral part of their lives, inspiring them to become musicians or being a part of their everyday experiences.
A a result of the sessions, Leanne and Matt wanted to create a collaborative audio piece that would encapsulate those memories, sounds, words and phrases shared throughout the workshops. Leanne, a poet, wrote a participatory poem and Matt, a musician, created a musical soundscape.
You can listen to the finished audio piece or read Leanne’s poem below.
The conversation continues on the More Than Music Facebook public group. Please feel free to join – we’d love to hear your stories and musical memories.
Leanne was interviewed on BBC Radio Suffolk with presenter Jon Wright. Hear them chat about the More Than Music workshops and Leanne and Matt’s collaborative piece here.
Back when the chemist sold records, we knew music was the best medicine. The natural remedy of melodies played on record players and tape decks. Bedrooms and basements bristling with beats that felt like balm for messy teenage lives, the storm before the calm.
Back when we held songs in our palms, we played each cassette until the tape snapped, mapped our lives through CDs we made ourselves, filled shelves with every emotion we couldn’t quite express. The immeasurable endlessness of being alive, expressed in four: four time.
We read lyrics like incantations – confirmation that we were never quite alone – and we sung every word as if it was our own. Our best-kept secret bands we shared sparingly, These earthquake lunchbreak mixtape heartbreaks reviving us, repairing me. The words were spells we cast to guide ourselves through, leading you to me, and me back to you.
And when our local venues sold good times, we spent Fridays living a better life. Pressed between bodies, surrounded by noise our joy magnified by this moment in time. Sweet sweat and spilt beer, whiskey and lime and the sense of being sonorous: this new paradigm. The smoke in our hair, and the bass in our bones; feeling like we’ve made it, like we’ve finally come home.
There’s more this than music, more than instruments and noise: it’s empathy and mystery, it’s freedom and it’s choice. It’s magic and it’s medicine, it’s acceptance and escape, Integrity and anarchy, on record and on tape. Community through unity, when we play and when we sing, There’s more to this than music: and the music’s everything.
Covid19 restrictions meant the March Can’t Sing Choir weren’t able to meet and sing together. Sally Rose, singer and music leader wanted to find ways of overcoming social isolation so the group could sing together again.
Following National Guidelines and with limited group numbers, Sally and the choir committee set up the Trinity Church Memorial Rose Garden for a socially distanced sing-along and choir rehearsal.
The positive effects of singing on mental health is a major focus for the choir and it was obvious that the singers were thrilled to be seeing each other and singing once again.
The group are still in touch with one another and Sally discovered that small groups of 6 were actually a very positive way of singing together in a different way.
As part of Creative Conversations in Isolation programme, artist Michelle Brace proposed that she wanted to to explore the use of spoken word and aural stories during the Lockdown period. We were drawn to the simplicity of the idea.
Members of our Creative Collective (a group of people who inspire events to happen in their towns) chose an object they felt represented them. Their objects are the ones below, taking pride of place on our Mantelpiece.
Click on an object sound file below to hear their stories…
As part of our Creative Conversations in Isolation commissions programme, photographer Regina Ray, was commissioned to make portraits of key workers in Newmarket, during the period of lockdown.
Regina is a medical photographer at Addenbrooke’s Hospital and working during the Pandemic, she was inspired to ask the question:
‘If this was a chapter in your life, what would the bold print be?’
‘The WHY is obvious – because we love stories. We love to tell them and we love to hear them. We are fascinated by other people’s life stories and these stories help us define ourselves. But moreover, in times as unusual as these, when no one has prior experience, the sum of collective experiences will contribute to knowledge wealth and potentially makes us much more adaptive and prepared in the future. Storytelling is a way of collective learning and my aim is by telling individual stories to contribute to the collective survival knowledge base.’ Regina Ray.
As part of our Creative Conversations in Isolation commissions programme, we commissioned artist Kaitlin Ferguson to make a series of ‘make along’ videos showing simple creative ideas to try at home, all inspired by the unique landscape and environment of the Fenland region.
We were delighted to support the first “Celebrate the Fens” Day on 20th June 2020, which was hosted by @FascinatingFens by sharing the first video.
If you live in or near the Fens, take a walk, follow Kaitlin’s suggestions and when you’ve got something to share post it online with the hashtag #ArtAndTheFens. We’ll be hosting pictures and artworks in the growing Fascinating Fens online gallery.
If you don’t live in or near the Fens, then explore the landscape near you, take a walk, look out your window or find some lovely landscape pictures online and ‘make along’ with Kaitlin.
During lockdown in May, we worked with artist, Marian Savill to make four short ‘make along’ online workshops to help you create your own Art Journal with materials you have around the house. As Marian says, ‘ANYONE can do it!’
Marian had been running Art Journaling workshops with the Meet Up Mondays group at The Barleycorn Cafe in Mildenhall. This video series offered an online alternative when the workshops were stopped due to Covid-19.
The workshops were posted in a Facebook event here, and on the Barleycorn Facebook page every Monday at 10am. Afterwards participants were encouraged to invite friends and share photos of their creations via social media, tagging the Barleycorn Cafe, Mildenhall and MarketPlace.
Make your own Art Journal along with Marian, watch the Introduction to get started.
Marian’s Introduction to Art Journaling
Monday 27th April
Marian introduces the artform she ‘loves loves loves’ to share with everyone, Art Journaling.
Marian presents the first of her Art Journal creative workshops – explaining how to get started with the making of a journal from a surprising variety of papers, envelopes, magazines and much more.
Marian presents her second workshop in her mission to get everyone art journaling! This week we take a look at backgrounds and how we can use different mediums to create colour and texture.
For her fourth and final workshop in her Art Journaling series, Marian talks about FRIPPERIES – decorating, embellishing and bringing your pages to life with artistic flair and little tricks that will make your journal a unique reflection of your thoughts.
