St George’s Arts is an artist led organisation based at a redundant church in Esher, Surrey, a Tudor building which provides an inspiring setting for arts events. It hosts an annual Artist / Maker residency and is developing a programme of exhibitions and visual arts events to complement its existing music programme.
Nail-biting final arrangements with our artist in residence for the 2010 residency at St George’s are taking place and we hope to soon be able to announce who will be with us this year. Meanwhile some thoughts and images from last year when we played host to Louise Nason who was our resident artist for 2009.
We have very much enjoyed working with Louise and seeing her project grow. She has made some wonderful work, inspired lots of local people to join in and will be sorely missed both as a brilliant addition to St George’s and as a friend. Her family and friends have been frequent and very active visitors too and we hope she and they will keep in touch.
Good memories from the year include:
The complicated process of building the loom, shown speeded up as an unexpectedly slap-stick film loop.
Learning a little about the time consuming and methodical steps to thread the loom and work out the weave. I could understand why Louise said that the maths was what made her enjoy weaving at first.
Seeing a very determined 4 year-old mastering twill weaving with Louise’s teaching. Also hearing from so many other people how much they had enjoyed working with her.
The magical atmosphere at the private view in January as so many people made their way through the snow to see her and her exhibition.
Thanks Louise, we hope everything goes well with your future projects.
Jane Ponsford
Louise Nason artist in resident 2009.
This shall be my last post for my residency. My time at St Georges is now over. I have moved out of the studio and brought my loom home. The loom is in construction. Although it has only been a couple of weeks since my exhibition finish it seems a long time ago and I feel in a bit of a daze. I think the answer is to try and get back into the swing of creativity quickly.
My time at St Georges was wonderful. It came at a point in my career where I needed to broaden my skills and freshen my ideas. The skills I have learnt from teaching and running workshops have been invaluable.
St Georges and my experiences will defiently stay with me for a long time. I hope that I can still keep some kind of connection to the church and the people I have met along the way.
I would like to thank all of who attended workshops and took part in the community weave it made a huge difference to the project. I would also like to thank the St Georges Art coordinator and friends.
Final word. Look out for a new blog in artist talking which I will publish in my own name Louise Nason.
The St George’s Arts 2010 Residency has attracted some really exciting proposals and we are now contacting our shortlisted artists to arrange interviews.
Some of the post over the application period was held up because of the snow so if you have applied and are yet to receive an emailed acknowledgment please contact us on: [email protected]
There was a brilliant turn-out to the private view of Fabricate. Loads of people made their way through the snow to Louise’s exhibition opening and joined us for mulled drinks. (In fact so many came along that we had to send someone out for more supplies!) There was a really magical atmosphere with pools of light illuminating Louise’s work and catching on the carved stone and reflecting on the candelabras in the old building. Everyone seemed to be in a good mood too, possibly that was something to do with walking through the snow in the dark and then coming in to a welcoming and warm building. We will do more of an update in the next few days with some images but for now I just want to thank everyone for coming along. For anyone who missed the PV but intended to come along, the exhibition is on until 30 January and Louise is there for much of the time as she is using the last few weeks to work on another piece on her loom at St George’s.
SNOW UPDATE:
We will be here with warm drinks (and the odd glass of wine) on Thursday 7 January at St George’s for Louise’s Private View of FABRICATE, to welcome any and all who manage to get here.
You are invited to the Private View of:
FABRICATE, a woven response to place
on: Thursday 7 January 2010 6.30 – 8.30
Louise Nason will be showing work from her 8 – month residency at St George’s Arts
in an exhibition showcasing her site specific textiles pieces made in response to
the church building and its architecture.
Meet the artist: Saturday 9 January
Exhibition continues until 30 January
Opening times:
Monday, Wednesday, Saturday 10 – 4 pm
Tuesday, Thursday, Friday 10 – 1 pm
Closed Sunday
St George’s Arts, Esher Park Avenue, Esher, Surrey KT10 9RQ
Project Blog: http://stgeorgesarts.wordpress.com/
Email: [email protected]
St George’s Arts,
Visual Arts Organiser: Jane Ponsford 01372 467720
Louise Nason: 07775 646 892
