Home Sweet Home exhibition explores the meaning of 'Home'
An artistic collaboration between artists and schoolchildren, inspired by the anniversary of the abolition of slavery, is the subject of a new exhibition at the University of Cumbria. Held in the Alexandra Gallery on the Lancaster Campus from Friday 5 October, ‘Home Sweet Home’ is a collaborative project between artists Paul Taylor and Jan Kelsey with Marion Booth and Gail Baskett and schoolchildren of the West Cumbria Excellence Cluster.
The project is about the idea of home, placed in the wider context of issues of migration, exile and displacement. The theme was explored through several elements, against the background of the 200th anniversary of the Abolition of the British Trade in Enslaved People.
The children were invited to reflect on what home means to them - is it a place, a group of people, a smell, a story, a sound? They were then asked to think about what they would take with them if they had to leave home, just as migrant workers do now and slaves did in the past. Would it be physical objects, or less tangible- a song, a story, a smell, a dance, a memory?
The exhibition will have an interactive element called ‘Haven’ that visitors can contribute to. They can decorate three inch high paper houses with their visions of home and security and adding them to a hand-drawn townscape in the gallery.
Paul Taylor from the University of Cumbria is one of the exhibition organisers. He explains:
“‘Home Sweet Home’ is a genuine collaboration between artists and children, working round the themes of home and journeys. Children aged 5 to 11 years from four primary and infant schools in West Cumbria were encouraged to fill small cardboard suitcases with drawings and models of the things they would take with them if they had to leave, and maps of utopias they would like to travel to and the results are very moving. One particularly pragmatic boy drew his vision of utopia- basically it was his house next to Whitehaven Rugby Club. We were touched that, even though this was utopia, Whitehaven were still being beaten 26 - 19 by Castleford!”
Paul Taylor studied Fine Art at the University of Lancashire from 1979 - 1982 and now lectures at the University of Cumbria. He is a director of West Walls Studio, Carlisle, where both he and Jan Kelsey were founding members in 1993. Under Taylor’s direction West Walls Studio won the prestigious “National Drawing Inspiration Awards” three years running.
Jan Kelsey graduated with a First in Fine Art from Cumbria College of Art in 1994 and an MA in Contemporary Art Practice in 2000, As well as being a founding member of West Walls Studio, she has also contributed to the establishment and management of Shaddon Mill Visual Arts Centre and The Mill Gallery, Carlisle. Jan lectures at the University of Cumbria.
Since 2005 Kelsey and Taylor have worked as joint Lead Creative Practitioners at Petteril Bank Community School in Carlisle for Creative Partnerships, on a national project to integrate creativity into learning.
The project has been funded by Creative Partnerships (an initiative to place creativity in the heart of the curriculum), Cumbria Arts in Education, West Cumbria Excellence Cluster and the University of Cumbria.
‘Home Sweet Home’ is open to all and admission is free. It runs from Friday 5 October until Friday 19 October in the Alexandra Gallery on the Lancaster Campus and is open everyday from 10am until 4.30pm. To find out more, contact Kathy Woods on 01228 400300 or email kathy.woods@cumbria.ac.uk|. or Kate Morgan, Cumbria Arts in Education on 015394 30259 or email info@cumbriaarts.co.uk|
