The end of one era

Happy New Year to all our jelly friends.

2010 is the start of a new decade and also will see a different year for jelly. We will no longer have a town centre home from 1 March and sadly that means that some of the services we provide will no longer be available until we find a new home.

We will still be working to develop the organisation, work with other Reading art groups and individuals and deliver town centre exhibitions and events. We want to thank you for your support over the past 16 years and look forward to it continuing. Watch this space for details of what we are up to – we have a lot planned.

In the meantime, below is a letter sent to the lead arts officers and councilors at the beginning of December 09, asking what was their vision for the future of Reading, please feel free to leave a comment here if you have anything you would like to add. There have been no responses to this email yet.

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Dear All

This is an end-of-year email to update you on where things currently stand regarding the re-homing Jelly and Open for Art.

Re-homing Jelly

Unfortunately, despite all our considerable efforts, as a result of the enforced departure from the space we have been utilising at The Old Town Hall there is no home for Jelly to go to, nor the other organisations that currently work with Jelly in the space – the Voice Studio, hang-on, arjeea21 and The Outcasts. This means that Jelly will no longer be able to offer the current busy and diverse programme of activities in one town centre location, including popular workshops for children and adults and support to up-and-coming young artists.

Since we were given the news in August that we would have to leave, I have been continually looking for a place to re-house Jelly, the work we do and the other organisations we work with. We have a creative community who all value the space and can grow and deliver from it.

The biggest problem we face is finding appropriate space that is affordable, combined with the uncertainty of funding which means that it is difficult for us to be able to plan for the future and work out exactly what programme we can deliver.

The value of what Jelly delivers is undoubtedly more than any oversimplified perception as solely a provider of art workshops. Rather, we have received recognition nationally and internationally, with our heart and soul still embedded in Reading. Jelly is also:

• helping other organisations grow

• running networks (both in the real world and online)

• creating and developing a community through its extensive mailing list of artists and delivering artists’ training

• working with TVU and the University of Reading

• developing new initiatives across the town.

Jelly is passionate about the Arts. We believe that a town with the status and confidence of Reading must have, and actively support, a creative community as part of its soul. However the future for Jelly without a central hub is destabalising, and the outlook for us alongside other vulnerable arts organisations in this town is bleak.

This does not bode well for arts and culture in a town like ours. We are staring in the face a future with no artists’ studios, when the Barracks eventually go, with the loss of the Jelly space no central focus, and no affordable space for artists/groups to emerge and meet. In spite of this feeling of uncertainty, should we just stop now?

Open for Art

In the face of this Jelly has been working on. We have recently collaborated with Reading UK CIC to create Open for Art. You may have already have heard about this via the e-news and hang-on mailing, but as a reminder:

Open for Art is a partnership project between jelly and Reading UK CIC, utilising Reading’s empty shop windows with art from Reading based artists. This follows a successful pilot project in June 2009 creating pop-up galleries in Reading. Working with the landlords and agents of Reading we will be using temporary spaces, creating a visual profile for the arts and showing Reading’s individuality as a town

• There are three more units in the pipeline

• The front window of Friars Walk will be housing final-year student work from the University of Reading Fine Art department

• Higgs Printers shop (as was) on Station Hill will house a piece by a current Open Hand Open Space Studio Member

• Suntan Clinic (as was) on Butter Market will hopefully have work in from January 2010 by artists from Reading Guild of Artists to coincide with their exhibition at the Museum.

• I have also been talking to Sony about showing the films commissioned by the Reading Experimental Film Festival on a loop, they are saying maybe after Christmas.

We have been getting a great response from people and below is a taster of the email feedback I have had received recently.

My question for you all is what is the future for the arts in Reading? And who will provide active support? We need to open up the debate about how arts organisations can emerge and thrive, and how the council and others can support them to enable them to develop and help build Reading’s reputation as a cultural, creative, artistic place.

I sincerely hope that we can begin the new year with renewed vigour, and find ways to work together to make this happen.

. . . . . . . . .

Please feel free to leave your viewpoint in the comments below

snow update, Monday 11 January 2010

This morning there will be no toddler classes because of the snow – we are sure you will be mush safer and happier in your own homes then trying to get to town.

At this time (8.30am), the time that the Town Hall shuts today has not been confirmed, we update this page as soon as we kow for those of you wanting to attend the after school club today.

**** update Monday 11 January 2010 12.53pm****

The Town Hall is shutting today at 4pm so there will be no after school club today, apologies and we look forward too seeing you next week.

Thank you all for your patience, enjoy the snow : )

snow, snow, snow

Dear jelly friends,

Because of the snow, there is no jellybean this Saturday 9 January as the Town Hall is shutting at 3pm. Hope you enjoy the snow, be safe and make creative things.

We will update this page with information on Monday workshops by Sunday 3pm.

Open for Art

On Friday the first venue for Open for Art was installed – you can find more info on each project and each individual artist right here.

Installation created quite a stir as people were wondering what was happening at 173 Friar Street with an exhibition curated by Caversham artist, Bithja Moor entitled Peepshow, I think they may have thought it was something else….

Peep shows, also known as peep box or raree show (“rarity show”) trace back to ancient times and are known in various cultures. A peep show could be a wooden box with a hole or several holes, containing a set of pictures. The boxes were often decorated inside to resemble theatrical scenes.

In this installation all the family can peep through little spy holes and discover thought-provoking insights and secret worlds created by arjeea21, a group of artists based in Reading.

Three more venues will be installed in the next few weeks and we will be updating information on the website to let you know where to find the pieces.

Open for Art is a partnership project between jelly and Reading UK CIC, utilising Reading’s empty shop windows with art from Reading based artists. This follows a successful pilot project in June 2009 creating pop-up galleries in Reading. Working with the landlords and agents of Reading we will be using temporary spaces, creating a visual profile for the arts and showing Reading’s individuality as a town. For further information on other Open for Art spaces please visit www.jelly.org.uk

This project is being supported by Cream Design, Fryer Holt, Brook Henderson, Hicks Baker and Sackville Developments (Reading) Ltd and a thank you to Ksenija Krotin, Kira Moffat and Bithja Moor for the use of the photos.

afternoon tea with the knitters

We had a fantastic weekend with the knitters at the afternoon tea party. Ysolda was launching her new book and the outcasts were the hostesses. Skeinqueen and the talented Emma Bradbury were showing their wares too. There are more photos here courtesy of Ysolda and even more here courtesy of alabamawhirly

We loved having the outcasts round and all their guests including Ysolda and Sarah, they are very talented.

Emma Bradbury is a dark horse, we have just found out she was runner up in a Crown competition for stencil design (design below).

Book Launch at jelly

And if that isn’t enough knitting there are two places left on the Thursday night knit class.

Reading Experimental Film Festival and art workshops

REFF

Firstly, it’s that time of year when everyone is looking for the workshop information which is right here, we’ve even gone so far as to update the Christmas info . In between, you will still be able to come and join in a the term time programme of after school clubs, toddler workshops, jelly bean, family workshops, the voice studio, evening classes.

You can also find us in North Reading at the Emmer Green Youth and Community Centre, Grove Road from 1-2.30pm Tuesday 27th October in a family workshop making Autumn themed mobiles. It’s a drop in session and is a subsidised workshop costing £1 per family, maybe we will see you there.

We still are looking for a new home to move to, there are some potentials on the horizon and we hope that by March 2010 when we have to leave our present location, we will have found somewhere more secure to live.

This is indeed a challenging time for many artists locally with lack of studio space and visible platforms to promote their work, however we are working on a programme of temporary exhibitions in partnership with Reading UK CIC.

The good news? – this weekend welcomes the return of the Reading Experimental Film Festival, celebrating it’s 2nd birthday by a three day festival of film. The programme includes:
Friday 23rd 7.30pm: Ex Reading boy turned international experimental film maker MATT HULSE talking through a selection of his shorts, before showing his debut feature film ‘Follow the Master’. Also an installation piece by great local artist JON LOCKHART and music to film by THE FORM GROUP performing to Wim Wenders ‘Alice in the Cities’

Saturday 24th 7.30pm: A programme of short films from some of the most influential figures in experimental film, including John Smith, Tina Keane and Peter Gidal. Followed by a 90 minute live performance from GUY SHERWIN and LYN LOO including the seminal piece MAN WITH MIRROR

Sunday 25th 6.00pm: A screening of the submissions for REFF, as well as four films made by artists who received bursaries from REFF and the WORLD PREMIERE of a commissioned piece made by one of the rising stars of the experimental film world, MARK AERIAL WALLER, who’s film ‘Karpouziaaa’ was filmed in Reading using non actors from Reading! The evening will be topped off by THE PAWN BROKER playing live to part of Tarkovsky’s ‘Solaris’

The festival takes place at The Rising Sun Arts Centre, Silver Street, Reading. Tickets are only £6.00 per day (or £15.00 for a 3 day ticket) and you can turn up for tickets.

Let Me Ease Your Day

The summer has gone by (well, we think it has but the sky is still blue outside this window) and we have finished our Summer Holiday programme and are now in to our term time activities. Those activities are not the only things that happen around here, the jelly is also host to other groups and activities led by professional artists and makers including The Voice Studio, arjeea21, hang-on artists and the outcasts. With the outcasts, we spent last weekend in London in the Knit Lounge at IKnit London (you may notice the knitting evening class here and the childrens class here too).

We’re still trying to find new homes, a gallery space and a more secure home for us – jelly has been around for 16 years now and was created during a period of economic uncertainty so we are more than equipped to survive and thrive now. So there are no quiet days here at all, between talking to people about potential homes, running classes, working with other artists and arts organisations, promoting the creativity in town and this Sunday you can join us in a project that is on tour from Belfast and then moves on to L.A and Chicago – yes all those places in one sentence.

Let Me Ease Your Day, Belfast

The wonderful fibre activist Rockpool Candy appears in the most unusual places, creating pop-up installations and interventions in venues as diverse as swish galleries and very public streets. Her brand of activism leads her to arm-crochet giant bacteria, weave on neolithic looms in orchards and sculpt textile coral reefs.

Let Me Ease Your Day, Belfast

With her new fibre movement, Let Me Ease Your Day, she’s encouraging people to reconnect with the textiles in their lives and then gift them on to strangers in random acts of kindness in these cash-strapped times.
On Sunday, she will be working alongside the jelly to take over Market Place, Reading from 11am-3pm and will be welcoming the public to create beanie hats and cushions to then gift them on. Come along and join us, you’ll recognise us sitting on the deckchairs, enjoying meeting new friends and creating a different feeling in town for the day.

See you Sunday

Let Me Ease Your Day, Belfast

The Summer is here and it’s raining…

We had so much sunshine lately when we have been working in schools and today as nearly all the schools in the area have finally broken up it has been raining almost all day.

We are getting ready for the Summer Workshop Programme and also starting to slowly put things in our online shop, just in case you can’t make it to see us.

Rosie Flo's Holiday

You can view more of the Rosie Flo’s and Johnny Joe’s books here.

Johnny Joe's Time Travel

They are drawing books with a difference, all you need to do is add the heads, arms and legs!

Rosie Flo's example page

It’s slow work, updating the little shop as we are working with independent designers and makers and taking our time to make sure we find the most lovely things.

soapylove soapsicles

Like these delicious soapsicles…mmmmmm

psst, sorry you can’t actually eat them…

Noah’s Ark

The summer term is our busiest term of working outside on great projects. We have been spending the last 3 weeks working with one school on a large scale arts project involving all of the curriculum and resulting in a performance – you can read more about the project from one of the jelly team here

Noah's Ark

Noah's Ark 2

The pictures don’t even begin to convey the scale but the whole school took part, 19 sculptures created and the end finale was a dramatic performance of sound, acting and spoken word with a sculpture trail (permanent) thrown in.

This coming week is a bit of a wind down week for us, the term time activities end this week and the the week beginning 27 July all the holiday programme starts so next week we are working with a few individual clients and shifting our heads into summer workshop programme node.

Sarah, one of our team is leaving in the Autumn to continue studying in London and we will miss her (but secretly we hope she will eventaully return!)

Make sure you all have a good summer, if you’re stuck for things to do, you can always join us in jelly or we will soon be stocking online the wonderful Rosie Flo drawing books.