A £40,000 award from Arts Council England is enabling the volunteer-run Macclesfield Barnaby Festival to commission a series of site-specific artworks in the Cheshire town’s centre.
Spread over two years, the Grants for the arts award will for the first time see major commissioned work from visual artists at the festival, which was founded in 2009. This year will feature work by Rachel Goodyear, Liz West, Brass Art, and Macclesfield-based Hilary Jack; in 2014, proposed artists include Owl Project, ceramicist Tom Barnett and sculptor Laura Ellen Bacon.
Anna Riordan, Barnaby Visual Arts Director, said: “This award represents a significant development for Macclesfield Barnaby Festival in terms of impact, ambition and public engagement.
“It will enable us to secure more nationally-recognised artists and to form partnerships with other commissioning bodies for 2014. By engaging with the community, building partnerships and drawing on a regional audience we hope it will contribute to a cultural renaissance in Macclesfield.”
Taking place in Macclesfield from 21-23 June 2013, for this year’s festival Hilary Jack will create an installation from silk thread salvaged from the recently closed Spurcroft Mill in Macclesfield. Liz West will use single-coloured objects to create her largest site-specific installation to date, covering the floor space of an empty shop unit.
Brass Art will show The Messengers No 2, three large inflatable heads inspired by classical images of Hypnos, the god of sleep, and created using biomedical facial scans of the three artists. One of the heads was commissioned for the 2012 Tatton Park Biennial.
Rachel Goodyear will show a collection of drawings and a film, Woodman 2011, originally made for her solo show at Yorkshire Sculpture Park.
