Phoenix a History
12/08/05
Phoenix Art group has been getting together for four years now as a group of artists and creative people. There is a core group who have attended since the begining and others have moved on to other things.
The group have been recognised by Tney to be of great benefit to individuals who need time to be creative and as a starting point for social reintergration.
I have been the co-ordinator for the group for 18 months and this artical is going to show what the group have done and achieved in those months.
The Sounds of Flowers.
This was a two hour workshop going through a few techniques using acrylic. The group were asked to consider the sounds surrounding a flower they were thinking of and to make some marks using those sounds as an influence.
All those that participated had the same instructions but interpreted them in very different ways. This produced a body of work which had a strong thread running through,but which allowed differences to exist. This reminds me of the very idea of a community, where we need an agreed collective code of behaviour and morality, but exist as different individuals within that.
We exhibited the group of paintings at Sams Place on Linthorpe road, to a great reception by the public and we were given an extention by the owner because word of mouth had gathered great interest.
At the end of 2004 the group worked with Jennifer Fionda and Julie Honzik on a writting and graphic novel project, where the group made their own cartoon. This was a really ecclectic publication.
The title of the book is Crimson Blake after the art materials company and its all about environmental issues done in a fairy tale approach.
The work again was really successful and tees valley arts used one members drawing of trees as their Christmas Card.
In January we managed to obtain some funding to pay for projects for the year, so we put a call out for artists and the group members sellected those for interview and successfully chose to work with two artists with a view to using others.
The two main artists were expected to develop a program for six weeks and exhibit the work at the end. but we have done other things as well.
There was a project by Louise Drennan making felt and Batik, with silk painting by Claire Hansford both projects had possitive responses from the group.
It was at this time that we were visiting the Baltic, while I drove the group members selected the artists they wanted to interview. The exhibitions at the Baltic were really good at the time and the group were impressed by the Biscuit Factory.
Phoenix Art Group are working towards being a social enterprise. In April I set up a project that involved business training in a residential setting at Stainsacre in Whitby. We used this space last year for a little break and team building session and we were also booked there in July 2005 which will appear later.
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