Take a Walk in Leicester This Weekend

This weekend I'm taking part in the ArtHouse 5th Annual Exhibition -

Sat 11th & Sun 12th June 2011.

ArtHouse is an Annual Exhibition of over 40 Artists, in 9 individual houses in the Clarendon Park and Stoneygate areas of Leicester. A great opportunity to take a different kind of walk, the streets are full of interesting buildings and tucked away treasures. I'm exhibiting with Sarah Kirby in the stable / studio at 67 Avenue Extension, a terraced house with a fascinating history, behind large blue doors there is a cobbled courtyard leading to a converted Victorian coaching stabling building.

Sarah's work features lino prints of many landmark buildings in Leicester and I have some mono prints and a selection of bottled jewels inspired by the Held in the Hand Hoard, I made for Leicestershire Museums earlier this year. Jo had a major part to play in the Held in the Hand commissions and you can see the fabulous first handling collection here

The Art Houses are

18 Ashfield Rd LE2 1LA,

73 Holmfield Rd LE2 1SF,

6 Aber Rd LE2 2BA,

67 Avenue Road Extension LE2 3EP,

24 Portland Rd LE2 3AB,

231 Queens Rd LE2 3FP,

222 Clarendon Park Rd LE2 3AG,

192c Clarendon Park Rd LE2 3AG,

12 Pendene Rd LE2 3DQ (no parking available at this address).

Extraordinary Art in Ordinary Houses.

Open 11am until 6pm each day.

Hope to see you there.

There will be cake!

New commissions and a little Coalville history

Carole and I have both got ourselves new commissions!

I will be working on my Myth Maps project at Snibston Colliery in Coalville.  Carole will be working on a project for Leicestershire Museums, which she has called The Held in the Hand Hoard.  I'll let her tell you more about that herself.

I am particularly pleased with my Myth Maps project as it draws together a number of things I have been thinking about, things I have been blogging about here and it links with this project.

Leicester & Swannington rail ticket

A little history...

The colliery at Coalville, as I blogged before (see Preservation and Persistence), includes the wonderful historic railway track.  A line was put down by George and Robert Stephenson for the Leicester to Swannington Railway (L&S), one of the first of England's railways, opened in 1832 to bring coal from pits in west Leicestershire (Whitwick, Ibstock and Bagworth) to Leicester.

The Leicester & Swannington Rail Line

Whitwick Colliery, 1926

George Stephenson was known as the "father of railways", having built the first public railway using steam locomotion (the Stockton and Darlington Railway).  His son, Robert,  worked with his father and developed the famous "Rocket".  Robert was the engineer for the Swannington line and George opened the Snibston colliery the following year.

Midland Railway Station in Coalville, 1889

Sidings at Bardon Hill quarry

So the history of Snibston colliery and the railways are intertwined.  It was the success of the railways to speed up the transportation of coal that enabled the coal industry from west Leicestershire to thrive, which enabled the opening of the pit at Snibston.

Coalville East Station

Thanks to the Coalville Heritage Society website for these pictures.  Also, they have a wonderful sound archive of Coalville dialects, called Covill Tork - click on the link if you want to find out what the following mean (and make sure you have your speakers on!):

Woreeawreet?
Ayoopmissusenthemassteeratom?

Covill Tork 

A new journey

Welcome to the beginning of our new journey: Undiscovered Networks.

We have started this blog to open up our conversation as our new project develops.

Following our last project, which took place in Corby, Northamptonshire, UK, (please visit Fingerprints on the Pew to see our project book), we became interested in the new train station recently reopened. When a new rail network is re-opened, how does that connection affect a town? We started thinking about the idea of connections, networks, and undiscovered places.

We have selected 12 places that are linked to Corby on the network. 12 places we don’t know, 12 undiscovered places. Our project will find connections between these places.

Corby
Metheringham
Cleethorpes
Blythe Bridge
Peartree (Lincs)
Thetford
Dore
Haven House
Langwith-Whaley Thorns
Fiskerton
Whatstandwell
Wittlesea
March