www.chapelartsstudios.co.uk

What a great night. Is this really work? The opening was at Weyhill studios, and what a place. Once was a time when it was a sheep stables. Now, the little sheep lounges and boudoirs have been converted into a few dozen arts and craft studios. With a café. And a shop. It’s a great set up. Never heard of it before coming here. Is this the same for all over UK? Are there towns scattered around the country that possess this level of facilities and outlets, but remain off the map of public awareness?

Either way, I had the rare opportunity to wax nerdily about Palaeolithic cultures and the daring exploits of the Leakey family in Olduvai gorge. Museum directors are easy to like!

Best get on with the presentation for tonights Café Culture. Met some more artists last night who will be coming along, so it’s looking like we’re going to have an audience.

Builders in, builders out. Still the ventilation hums above the threshold. Time is running out for the Grand Opening now, and we really need to get the work signed off and the studio to be studio-fied. As it is, I’ve got some tenacious and diligent people on my side that just won’t take “It’ll do” for an answer. I like it when that happens.

Tonight I’m off to attend an opening of some local artists, and am looking forward to meeting more of my new community. Maybe even have a glass of wine, who knows?

Then it’s nose back to the grind stone as I prepare my presentation for tomorrows Café Culture event, where I’m one of the two speakers. This is my first spotlight occasion in the new role, and I hope to give a good account of myself. There’s a lot of extra observations starting to filter their way into my understanding of this role. One of them being a sense of responsibility towards the Andover community. It’s caught me by surprise, really. I mean there I was thinking that I’d just be the Responsible Artist, wheeled out to make Art and Perform to high standards, fulfilling requirements in the role. I guess what I mean, in other words, is that I expected to find a fairly objective approach in my work. But here I am, having been welcomed with open arms, thrust right into the core of a creative and bustling community, and I’m feeling a sense of responsibility towards the town. “Oh, I hope I don’t let them down” “Oh, will this be what they need?”, “Must try harder, must try harder!”

Reading back over this blurt, it feels like I’m not expressing myself very well. That maybe I wasn’t prepared to commit in some mor engaged way with the project. That’s clearly not the case, as evidenced by my move to Andover to make the whole thing work to its best.

Not sure what to make to make of this, or even what I’m trying to say. Maybe it’s just that I’m enjoying myself an ways that I wasn’t expecting, and that’s bringing about a new set of attachments to my life in Andover.

Whatever it is, it’s a good thing, and it’s spurring me on more each day. Just got to get the ventilation fixed so I can stop being Office Boy, and start being Artist Man!

Saturday morning, and I’m all geared up to go to work, but can’t yet as I need the builders to finish off the ventilation sysytem properly. Legal requirements and all that.

For now, I’m limited to re-arranging bits of furniture, unpacking equipment, and writing the odd email.

Good job I’ve got plenty of emails to write…

Hurry up builders!

Night time in the cemetery certainly has it’s thumps and bumps. Sitting in the Chapel late into the evening had me lit up like a beacon for all manner of passers by. The stained glass windows are illuminated and attract window banging hoodies like moths to a bulb. I’m no shrinking violet when it comes to night time and dark streets. I’ve had my fair share of squeezes and scrapes over the years (though few will ever compare with the attempted cliff-top robbery in Jaipur a few years ago!). The point being I don’t tend to rattle easily.

But last night I was. Still haven’t worked out why exactly. Maybe it was no more than being isolated and with out recourse to instant assistance: since I got my leg chopped off, I ain’t so good at running away these days!

There was something distinctly John Carpenter-ish and siege-like about the faceless hoodies staring through the windows at me, and banging. And banging. And banging. And banging.

The external lighting isn’t what it should be yet (all the more reason for this new bid to be accepted), and having to step out into pitch-black surrounds, where I can’t even see the path in front of me was a bit worrying . Like a brave boy, I just stayed indoors for another 10 minutes or so until it all blew over.

My nice Development Officer has already stepped-up, and passed the incident onto the Police. For that I’m very grateful, as I’m now under extra night-time patrol, with my own armed rapid-response team. Well, I’ve at least got a phone number to call.

Fingers crossed, I won’t be needing it…

Great day yesterday. Got the email saying Jon Adams and myself have been successful in getting through to the final interview stage for our proposed collaboration at the Walsall Gallery. Then spent a day at the Toynbee centre in London at a conference on Diversifying Outdoor Arts. Plenty of food for thought there.

Outdoor arts is a relatively new field for me, as my work tends to lend itself to the great indoors. In the past I’ve been rather protective of my dust based installations: indoors is more controllable. Stepping outside into the realm of public and environmental is potentially a significant change in direction for my work and methods of working. Not least because my work will be destroyed, and my control of it will be compromised. But this foolish notion of control is what I have been trying to eradicate for sometime now, anyway, and the whole point of the dust is its extreme ephemerality.

So, on the face of it, Outside is looking like a pretty good option if I want to push these ideas a bit further. The proposed collaboration at Walsall with Jon is likely to be in this vein. We’re both keen to be in a fluid position in terms of our response to the projects aims. This will hopefully end up with us making some fairly intuitive decisions, and relinquishing a significant proportion of this control beastie to the public. I love the sense of uncertainty in situations like that. When you have no real idea of what to expect, the level of excitement and reward are all the greater.