intermedia art

New space for Capital City artists

Plans have been announced today to convert St Margaret’s House, a 1970’s block next to Meadowbank Stadium, into badly needed artist’s studios which are set to begin work on 06 April 2008.

“Edinburgh was the philosophical crucible of the Enlightenment and, for one, I’d like to see the return of the city’s reputation as an intellectual melting-pot in the International ideas market. With that in mind, I believe that it is important to have a large collection of creative minds working together in theone site, a creative hub. Art’s Complex is the result of a two year project to bring such a venue to the Capital and to try and
rectify the huge need for artists space.” said Derek Gray, Director of Art’s Complex.

The venture is set to re-dress a severe shortage of affordable studio space in Edinburgh, it will be able to accommodate over 200 artists as well as an 11 000 square feet gallery/exhibition space presenting innovative work from local artist as well as creatives from the arts industry in Scotland.

“The main aim with this initiative is to redress the imbalance between the large number of artists seeking affordable studio space in the city and the severe lack of appropriate space available” said Dale Gibson, Business Director of Art’s Complex.

The deal struck between Caledonian Trust and Art’s Complex aims to do just that and to reach out specifically to the surrounding local community through arts education and participatory projects and more generally to the international arts sector bringing nationally and internationally renowned artists to Edinburgh to enrich the cultural diversity of the city.

Everybody here at Contemporary Art ETC…. would like to wish Art’s Complex all the best and we look forward to working with them at some point in the future.

Ed.

http://www.artscomplex.org/

New: Links to Student Blogs

We are delighted to introduce the latest addition to our links page. Please feel very welcome to have a browse through the blogs of some of our current students where you will come across a diverse and fascinating set of visual interpretations of the world including the following take on the absurdity of celebrity culture by Miki Suzuki:

AV Festival 2008

The 2008 AV festival opened last week with a gala event featuring performances of John Cages’ Variations VII and Yokomono by Staalplaat Soundsystem.

AV Festival is an international festival of electronic arts featuring visual art, music and moving image. A biennial event, the festival takes place in Newcastle, Gateshead, Sunderland and Middlesbrough in the North East of England. It consists of concerts and performances, exhibitions, film screenings, seminars, symposia, workshops and other special events at many venues across the three urban centres of the North East.

AV Festival 08 has the theme of Broadcast and runs from 28 February – 8 March 2008 in venues across the North East.

John Cage: Variations Vii

Staalplaat Soundsystem: Yokomono

LINKS:

http://www.avfestival.co.uk/about

http://www.johncage.info/

http://www.staalplaat.org/site/

Visiting Artist: Jonathan Owen

http://www.doggerfisher.com/artists/artistdetail.php?id=62 http://www.embassygallery.co.uk/www.embassygallery.co.uk/rockridge/jon-owen.jpg Jonathan Owen Talking to HN2 Student in studio

Friday was the second in our current series of artists talks. The students and the team would like to thank Jonathan Owen who gave an informative insight into his practice over the last 10 years.

Originally from Liverpool Jonathan studied Fine Art at Leeds Metropolitan University before moving to Edinburgh where he graduated from Edinburgh College of Art’s Master of Fine Art program.

Economy is very important within his work, reducing his subject and examining essential qualities, which at the same time as focusing his intent expand the possible meaning for the viewer. In recent work Jonathan develops questions around his own pre-occupation of suburbia and notions of class.

Jonathan is currently showing at Doggerfisher, Edinburgh along with Claire Barclay, Sara Barker, Neil Clements, Sally Osborn, Jonathan Owen and Albrecht Schäfer

Exhibition runs until 26th April 2008.

www.doggerfisher.com

Telford students offered 2 Year Degree at Cumbria University

Congratulations to the 8 HN students who attended interviews at Cumbria University and who were all offered direct entry to the 2nd year of the prestigeous Fine Art Degree course. All the students are delighted to be offered the opportunity to complete their degree in just 2 years on a course that is “been recognised as one of the leading courses of its kind nationally since 1997”

This is a real endorsment of both the students and the HND course offered by the Fine Art team at Telford and we are delighted that everybody’s efforts have been recognised.

ED