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We've only got one month of availability left for 2018! Once again, we've been lucky enough to have a huge amount of interest shown in exhibiting with us next year and our exhibition calendar is now all but full. It's looking likely that we'll be taking a short break in January to sort out some changes that are taking place here on Lucius Street, but after that we'll be looking to kick off the our exhibition calendar in February. This is also the last month we have left available! We've broadened the options for exhibitions next year and our calendar already has a great mix of open, solo and group shows being brought to us by a huge number of talented local artists. February will be no exception and we're happy to welcome proposals for any exhibition type to start the year. Whatever it might be, we'll be counting on you to help us begin 2018 with something special as we all make the final push out of Winter and into Spring! You'll be our opening act for our new calendar as we welcome audiences back into the gallery for the first time after Christmas, making this a great opportunity for a group of artists to join us in the space. If you're interested in submitting a proposal for an open, or booking the space for a group or solo show, please get in touch to snap up our final availability. We're look forward to welcoming you to the 2018 team! Check out the calls page for full details of this opportunity! #opportunity #Artists #ArtsampCulture #2018 #exhibiting

We're writing our January Culture Update and we need your help! This year, we've been writing a monthly culture update for Beach Hut Magazine, a local publication distributed in several editions across areas of Torbay. We're pleased to say these pocket sized updates have been well received and so we'll be continuing with them in 2018 and we need your help with our January instalment! So, if you're hosting or know of any great events going on in January which we should definitely feature, get in touch. There are just two rules for events we feature. Firstly, this is strictly a Torbay Culture Update so all events must be happening in one of the three towns, Torquay, Paignton or Brixham. Secondly, the event must be taking place in January (obviously)! And that's the lot. We'd love to hear from you if you've got an event, gig, exhibition, workshop, play, open studio, dance class, lecture, course or whatever else it might be that you think deserves some promotion. We've got to get our article written pretty soon, so any events need to be with us by December 10th for inclusion. Make sure to include all the relevant details including contact information and preferably a website link that we can let people have to find the event! #opportunity #Artists #BeachHutMagazine #ArtsampCulture #CultureUpdate

We’ve been loving everything that’s going on at Torre Abbey recently. The team over there have been doing some really wonderful work this year and we’ve been taking full advantage of our annual passes – which every local resident should have by the way(!) – so the Abbey’s begun to feel like a bit of a second home. We had a lovely weekend in April for Grinagog (which is back next year!) then shortly after visited for Thread a stunning exhibition from the Quilters’ Guild. The Agatha Christie Festival toured through which we enjoyed exploring and was promptly followed by Face2Face bringing award winning contemporary art to the Bay from the Arts Council Collection. And most recently we went along and caught the Devon Birds exhibition with spectacular wildlife photography on offer, and got stuck in with a print making workshop in the Learning Lab with Squircle Arts. However, our final visit of the year was for Winter Fest, a wintry weekend craft fair which took place across the whole ground floor of the Abbey and welcomed creatives from across Torbay. This is a great new event to the museum that we hope will become a staple of their calendar and we were pleased to have a stall here representing some of our 3D artists. Alongside us were some friendly faces; Gail Tresize (ceramic artist) and Janet Ventre (mosaic artist) from Cockington Craft Studios had both brought along some lovely pieces, and Purple Valley were also in attendance. Fellow Exhibitors in the Gathering Space The weekend absolutely flew by in a blur of Christmas tunes, arty folk and stollen cake! It was exceptionally well attended, particularly considering it was the first year of the event, and we sent some visitors home with local Christmas gifts. The offer of half-price entry to the Abbey was certainly an added bonus and a great chance to see the schools’ artwork exhibition for Remembrance 2017. Overall, another great addition to what has already been a fantastic year at Torre Abbey. We’re excited to see what’s on in 2018! #2017 #2018 #TorreAbbey #ArtsampCulture #Artizan #Christmas2017

Scrolling through upcoming Facebook events I spy a printmaking workshop running at Torre Abbey. Printmaking is something I did fleetingly at school and have often wanted to return to, especially since working at Artizan Gallery and seeing some incredible examples of linocuts, etchings and lithographs come through their exhibitions (see Arthur Homeshaw for some amazing examples). I load the event and at just £6 I can hardly resist. Click, the boyfriend and I are booked (we’ll tell him later)! The workshop is linked loosely to an exhibition that was at the Abbey; Devon Birds, a photographic show from the Devon Birds Society, is an exhibition of photography from the group which dates back to 1928 when it was known as the Devon Birdwatching & Preservation Society. This in itself is worth focusing on for a second. The exhibition has now sadly passed but, displayed in one of the Abbey’s main galleries, it showcased a collection of incredible wildlife photography captured by the society, depicting some of the common – and less common – avian sites found in Devon’s skies. Some of the images really were spectacular, the exhibition successfully giving a sense of the huge diversity of winged friends we have in the county. The society is well worth checking out too; they do some incredible conservation work, annually collating around 60,000 bird records, and there are some great incentives to membership. You can also view some of the images which were on display in the exhibition in their online gallery. Now, back to the workshop! We were met by a friendly face, Kate Richards, who we first met earlier this year at the gallery. Herself and the team from the newly established Squircle Arts CIC were running the event, one of many that they’re currently hosting at Torre Abbey. We were based in the Learning Lab, a group of about 12 with all the bits we needed laid out and ready to go. Ink trays, rollers, mark making tools and, to start with, a tester piece of lino. Kate took us through the basic steps, explaining how the sections we took away would impact the final print and how the different types of cutting tools would give different effects. A brief safety note to always cut away from ourselves – something boyfriend promptly ignored resulting in a nicked thump – and off we went! It was the perfect amount of tuition; enough to get us going in the knowledge we could ask questions if we needed to, but with the right amount of guidance that we could make our own discoveries. We were let loose on a small piece of lino to experiment with mark making, try out different tools and test out our first print. The most difficult part of linocutting is working out what areas appear black and what appear white; the bits you cut away (most often the outlines) become gaps where the ink avoids and therefore appear white, whilst everything else takes the ink and becomes solid colour on the print. The whole process was made really accessible, with the Squricle team successfully demonstrating how easily this could be done at home if we wanted to carry on. We inked our first linocuts and then printed our first pieces using the back of a wooden spoon to apply pressure. And they came out looking pretty great, the humble spoon a more than adequate (Change to suitable) replacement for a large press! Mark making tests completed, birds became the inspiration of our main print. I ambitiously chose a Kestrel, and passed a good hour continuing to get to grips with the materials as I made my design, carefully carving away bits of lino, wary that each mark is irreversible. Everyone in the room was intensely focused on their pieces and slowly, one by one, we all reached the pivotal moment of trying a print. We inked up again and this time my print went through the press; and I can happily say I was very pleased with the results! The act of printing is really exciting, revealing the image you’ve made and whether or not you’ve correctly pictured the effects of your marks. My design came out as I’d expected, and I was quite proud of the impact it had. I carried on experimenting with prints on different coloured paper to see the effects but this time using the back of a wooden spoon to press. Again, it was really interesting to see the difference this made. The image was not quite as sharp as the press, but the softer style was still really attractive. Too soon the workshop was over, but It was amazing how much we’d learnt in such little time. The whole evening was a lovely experience, with Squircle definitely hitting the right balance in the way they delivered the class, and succeeding in making linocutting feel completely accessible. Everyone went home with beautiful prints and hopefully as much confidence to carry on as I felt! Great job Squircle Arts on a wonderful workshop! A Bit More About Squircle Who are we? A squircle is a shape that sits somewhere between a circle and a square. It is a square-circle. For us, it's symbolic. It represents how it all began. Four people who had ideas, and together we had a dream, a vision - to share our love of the arts, nature and culture with our community. In October 2017 Squircle was born. The Squircle Arts team are Kate, Joni, Heather & Dan! What do we do? We are a new community interest company based in Devon. We love the arts and culture and we want to share it with you! We will be popping up in locations across the Bay. Come and find us at future events - in the woods at Lupton House, at Torre Abbey Museum and Gardens, Torquay Museum, on beaches and at festivals. We also take our arts and cultural activities into local schools and residential care homes. Our workshops link to our cultural history and natural environment. Upcoming pop up workshops will include: clay sculpture, making your own screen-printing press, cyanotype botanical printing, outdoor ‘Art Jam’ events, after-school 'Art Pop' and large-scale community projects including our ‘Create one / Donate one’ project. Please find us and like us on Facebook, Twitter & Instagram @SquircleArts & at www.squirclearts.co.uk We love the arts and culture, We want you to love it too. We’ll share everything we know In a pop up workshop near you! #2017 #Squircle #Workshops #TorreAbbey #Artizan #ArtsampCulture

This week, Illuminate - a light festival for Plymouth - took place for the first time at the historic Royal William Yard after many years on the Barbican, and, artist in residence, Martin Bush invited us down to join him and enjoy the experience. It was a chilly but dry night, so we donned our warm coats and woolly hats and scarves and headed on down to Plymouth. The spectacular light show marked the 397th anniversary of the Mayflower sailing from Plymouth to America in 1620, a journey which took 66 days to complete and significant for transporting the first English Puritans to the New World. The event forms part of a worldwide countdown to the Mayflower400, an event which will commence in November 2019 and culminate at Illuminate 2020 to commemorate the 400th anniversary of the voyage. This is, according to Professor Chris Bennewith, lead on the University of Plymouth’s School of Art, Design and Architecture submissions to the festival, “a bit of a test run”, but that is not to say that Illuminate 2017 was merely a warm up event, because it was spectacular! The main piece, a captivating light projection, was displayed on the Melville Building, home of the offices of the old Victualling Board. Alongside this were other illuminations around Royal William Yard, workshops, exhibitions and live music giving the whole space a truly festive feel! The light projections were designed and mapped by a few different organisations, all coordinated by The Media Workshop and Plymouth College of Art, who, as part of the European funded project Euranim, worked in collaboration with animation students from across France, Belgium, Hungary, Denmark and Finland to produce pieces based on the maritime heritage of Plymouth. Light Art installations and visual pieces were also created by the staff and students from the University of Plymouth’s School of Art, Design and Architecture, led by Professor Chris Bennewith who was formerly Creative Director for Wellington’s LUX Light Festival in New Zealand amongst other international projects. LUX attracts over 100,00 across a 9-day festival and Illuminate has similar ambitions, hoping that with 2 years of developing the event, it can attract audiences to rival the Annual British Fireworks Championships hosted in the city and spread across an array of Plymouth’s waterfront locations. All of which is pretty impressive for an event which has its humble origins in an understated lantern parade around the Barbican! This year, Illuminate has certainly made a strong start towards achieving these goals, with the yard buzzing with hundreds of visitors on what was a truly memorable evening. We’ll certainly be along over the next few years and we won’t be missing the Mayflower400. Thanks for inviting us Martin! #2017 #Illuminate #Plymouth #Mayflower400 #ArtsampCulture

Here at Artizan it goes without saying that we love art, so much so that even on our days off we feel compelled to find somewhere to go to get our daily art fix! With breaks in the schedule few and far between though, we unfortunately miss out on the opportunity to see some wonderful exhibitions. We were determined that the SWAc Annual Open was not going to be one of these and it just so happened that the one window we had to get over to Exeter fell on the last day of the show. It also, rather fortunately coincided with a visit from long serving gallery intern Frances who was back in the bay. So, on the morning of the 25th we hopped on a train and were soon Exeter bound! This year’s venue was Exeter Castle, a prestigious location set in the lovely Northernhay Gardens, a mere two-minute walk from the Central Station. A difficult venue to miss… you’d think. Disembarking the train, we exited into the town centre and, deep in conversation having not seen each other for a while, we began to make our way to the exhibition. After a festive 15-minute walk, taking in Princesshay’s Charity Christmas Tree Festival, we arrived…at Castle Gallery! Whoops, well at least we’d enjoyed all the Christmas trees! Take two! Retracing our steps, we made our way back towards Northernhay and this time found Exeter Castle. You might have guessed that this was our first visit and we were immediately impressed by the site. The Castle itself has stood on this site in some form or other since 1068, with a previous structure being destroyed there in 1003. Now, there are very few remains of the very early buildings within the walls and viewed from outside the majority of its towers and battlements are hidden by the foliage of the Gardens. From inside the central courtyard though, the formidable fortifications can still be clearly seen. Inside, the Castle is a fantastic venue to show art, and with work displayed across three spaces there was plenty for us to explore. The South West Academy is a registered charity dedicated to advancing the creation and appreciation of art in the South West and have an annual calendar of exhibitions and events that take place across the region. They have been coming to the Castle for four years now and their Chair Phil Creek told us that they had been overwhelmed with applications to be part of the show this year, making the selection process extremely tough. Hard work that undoubtedly paid off though; the resulting exhibition is a show full of originality, rich, diverse and visually captivating! We were delighted to see several artists that we knew, a handful of whom having exhibited with us previously and some who are set to join us at Artizan in 2018. Impossible to pick a favourite but that is what visitors are invited to do when they first arrive. We left having been unable to narrow it down but with cultural appetites thoroughly satisfied. Another great year for SWAc! #ExeterCastle #Exhibitions #2017 #SWAc

After a very successful Summer Open we're really looking forward to our final exhibition of the year where we welcome artists from across Devon to help us fill our gallery with wonderful wall art, sculpture and prints for the Christmas season. This year, as well as inviting new submissions to the event, we'll also bring all of our 2017 exhibitors back under the Artizan roof one last time! Our open shows are an exciting opportunity for new artists to join us for the first time and for new exhibitors to test the waters in a friendly exhibition space. Equally, for long-serving artists and friends to the gallery, they're a great time to join us once again and share the space with local colleagues. Meanwhile for our visitors, these showcases offer an immense breadth of styles ensuring there really is a piece to suit every taste. The exhibition will run from 28th November to 23rd December with two artist preview events on December 1st and 2nd. Tickets available at the links below. Friday 1st December Artist Preview Saturday 2nd December Artist Preview #2017 #ArtsampCulture #exhibition #WinterOpen #Artizan

Curated by the fabulous Robert Spence, the Artizan Acoustic Nights are, an unplugged, open-mic evening of laidback music and melody featuring talented local performers and exciting guest sets! This month we're excited to welcome Nicky Swann to the gallery! Award winning UK singer songwriter Nicky Swann showcases songs from her latest album. 'Tell Them Of Us' is a dark, simmering journey through family history, based around her Uncle’s role as an RAF bomb aimer during the second World War Burma campaign. The songs becomes a vehicle for questioning our moral compass and how we are connected to the past. Rooted in human nature, history and her home in Devon, there are shades of Laura Marling and Kate Bush here. #Music #Acoustic #Events

The Lost City of Z exhibition runs at Torquay Museum until the 17th of February 2018 with a number of supporting talks as part of the Explorers' Season. For more information, visit their website: www.torquaymuseum.org “I really don’t come here often enough!” I heard this phrase, or words to this effect, uttered by so many people at last night’s exhibition launch at Torquay Museum, and I confess that I am one such individual who is guilty of not spending enough time in this incredible space. The event I was there to attend marked the official opening of The Lost City of Z Exhibition, a new curation of fascinating objects and documents from Torquay Museum’s own archive that capture the life and expeditions of locally born explorer Percy Harrison Fawcett. Fawcett has received considerable attention in recent years. Firstly, in the 2009 release of David Grann’s book, which shares the same name as the exhibition, recounting the activities of the British explorer, and more recently in the 2017 film adaptation of this tale starring Charlie Hunnam, Robert Pattinson, Sienna Miller and Tom Holland; I am yet to read or view either, but they’re certainly on my list having visited the exhibition! For the museum though, a passionate interest in the intrepid Torbay hero has been harboured far longer, as director Basil Greenwood recounted in his opening remarks. The museum’s extensive collection on Fawcett in fact began long before his story became popularised in literature and film, both productions being heavily informed by the materials held and preserved by the dedicated team here. This is clear to see if you venture into the permanent Explorers gallery in which Fawcett’s name and activities feature heavily. The new exhibition however, offers the opportunity for a more detailed “exploration” (pardon the pun!) of this extraordinary individual heralding from Torquay. The exhibition largely comprises of items donated by Fawcett’s granddaughter, Mrs Rolette de Montet-Guerin, who, in the interests of protecting the legacy of her grandfather, bestowed the items to the museums archive. This acquisition in itself demonstrates the hugely impressive work of the staff and the archival practices taking place here, reassuring Mrs Montet-Guerin of the safe-keeping of her family’s legacy. And the collection is extensive! Featuring in the objects displayed as part of the exhibition are a wide array of Fawcett’s personal items including tools from expeditions and, rather intriguingly, the engraved silver collar of his beloved Jack Russell, Bill Nai. These practical items are interspersed with curios found on Fawcett’s expeditions through South America, all navigated by carefully selected texts from detailed and often encoded diaries, journals and letters, which offer an often poignant look into the strenuous realities of early exploration. One such text, a proposal to the Royal Geographic Society for his fateful trek to find the City of Z following the war, in a gruesomely matter-of-fact tone under the heading “Members”, expresses that it is Fawcett’s anticipation that of the five people required to undertake the expedition, only two will ultimately make it to the final goal, with the other men succumbing to illness or madness. Small extracts such as this, along with personal letters to his wife, and the ultimate tragedy of Fawcett’s fate, ensure that the exhibition captures both the thrill of adventure and the humanity of this remarkable individual. Expert curation and incredibly well presented supporting research complete the package to produce something that the Museum, Torbay and Fawcett can undoubtedly be proud of. There’s so much more we could say about this exciting event which will run into February next year, but its far better seen for yourself. As well as the exhibition, Torquay Museum will be hosting a wide array of talks as part of the Explorers’ Season, so these too are not to be missed. Make sure to pay them a visit and head over to their website to find out more! #2017 #Exhibition #TorquayMuseum #Magazine

On the 15th of October, on a Sunday. I went to the Cockington Apple Day Event. At that time, I was here for 3 weeks. I heard about this event for the first time, when I arrived here. My host mother told me about the coming event and I thought that it would be a great opportunity to learn about the traditions in South England. When the day arrived I took the bus and began my exploration tour. Soon I realised that this event, was not just an usual event, but it was something what belongs to Torquay and had a huge influence to the society. In front of the Cockington Court there were many different stands. Some of them were jewellery stand. Several of them were consistent with the Apple Day Feast and a few were perfect for Halloween. The other stands were mostly food stands, with a wide selection. The buildings and the atmosphere gave you feeling that you are in the period of middle ages, especially because of the hay on the ground. It was full crowded and suitable for children, a dream place for children, because of the huge bouncy castle, which you could see at a distance of a half kilometer. Inside the Cockington Court all the studios were open, which were all art studios from craft to paintings. Some of them did a show, how they produce their own work. The crowd was really enjoying it, I could see is on their faces, additional it had a bit of a funny sense, because pirates walked around Cockington. #2017 #Review #StudentBlog #Event #Cockington

We're looking forward to another great year in 2018 and we want you to be a part of it! We've got two main opportunities at our home venue next year and there's promising to be loads more out an about at other venues! Keep reading to find out how you can be involved. 2017 has been a wonderful year at the gallery. By the time we hit December we'll have had 10 lovely solo shows from some immensely talented artists alongside two of our biggest ever open shows. We've topped all this off with two shows at Torre Abbey and showcases in several restaurants and cafes, with many more exciting collaborations with local partners. We've had a lot of fun, but we're undoubtedly looking forward to a little Christmas break to recharge our batteries! Looking forward to 2018, we're showing no signs of slowing down, and we want to take this opportunity to give you a quick overview of two of the big ones to look out for next year. 2018 Main Space For the main space next year there's one big change. We won't be restricting this space to solo shows anymore but instead will welcome proposals from any artists for solo, group or open shows. We hope this will offer a greater degree of flexibility to our exhibitors, encourage collaboration and continue to foster an atmosphere of an accessible, community space at Artizan. We're excited to have already confirmed a number of next years exhibitions but there are still several months available to book. February, and November are currently available and we are also accepting proposals for January and September. Additionally, whilst July and December are still preliminarily reserved for open shows, we are also happy to consider applications here. All the details for this opportunity can be found in the application pack on our Calls Page and submissions can also be made on the CuratorSpace website. We hope to confirm a complete 2018 calendar by the middle of December so please get in touch soon! 2018 Garden Salon Show This is an exciting new show for the Gallery, a year long rolling open show which will run on a subscription basis. The exhibition model is incredibly simple. Pay £15 and bring in a piece of art to hang in the Garden Salon. Upon acceptance, your piece will then be on display for one month at which point you can guarantee it stays up the next month for just £10. And that’s all there is to it! We hope this will be a great opportunity to welcome all of our local artists, as well as those from further afield, to show a sample of their work on our walls on a long-term basis. Once again, the full details can be found in the application pack on our Calls Page and submissions can also be made on the CuratorSpace website. There is obviously a rolling deadline for this opportunity but we welcome as many submissions as possible for the launch of the Garden Salon Show when we reopen our doors in January. Other Opportunities This isn't all we've got planned for next year, there's loads of other exciting projects to look out for. Whilst its still early days on many plans we can tell you that we will be looking to take on a number of artists on a permanent basis next year and have some great opportunities for these "Artizan Artists". We'll also be building our team and will be looking to collaborate with a wide range of volunteers, content creators and hopefully even some new directors of our fledgling Community Interest Company. So watch this space, because next years going to be our best yet! #opportunity #exhibiting #exhibition #call #2018

An exciting last minute addition to our 2017 exhibition calendar. Find out about Winter Fest at Torre Abbey! This Christmas, Torre Abbey will be hosting their first ever Winter Fest in the historic setting of the museum. Arts, crafts and food stalls will be selling some truly unique Christmas gifts, while you can also expect live seasonal music, a children’s Christmas trail around the house and some indulgent nibbles and beverages on sale. This promises to be a charming event in the heart of Torquay and the perfect opportunity to dig out those Christmas jumpers and hats and get into the Winter Fest spirit. The festival will run from 10AM till 5PM on both days. Entry is just £2 per person, which includes entry to the Abbey. As part of Torre Abbey’s Christmas Programme, Artizan Gallery have been invited to curate a modest open exhibition of works. The exhibition will be accessible to all visitors to Torre Abbey and will run alongside a broad programme of events as an extension of their Winter Fest. Our exhibition will run for the full Christmas period as an unstewarded exhibition, with the Artizan Team on site with an additional stall for the Winter Fest weekend. We're now accepting submissions and you can download an application form from our Calls Page. This is a selective opportunity. #opportunity #exhibiting #exhibition #external #TorreAbbey #call