Black Swan Arts in Frome will be taking part in BBC’s nationwide Get Creative event on Saturday 8 April, from 2-4pm, alongside ‘The Future Can’t Wait’, an exciting show of exhibits from 30 MA postgraduate students across four disciplines – ceramics, fashion and textiles, fine art and visual communication.
5 Artisans who hold studios at the centre will be offering drop-in taster workshops for adults and children. Jewellers, Linda and Yasemin of Studio 2 will be offering free interactive jewellery-making demonstrations where all ages from 8 years to adults will have a chance to have a go at cutting and texturing metal, forming silver wire into intricate patterns and adding gold touches (keum boo) to sterling silver. Lila Streether will be in Studio 1 painting flowers and fruit.
Visitors will be welcome to ‘have a go’ at doing a small painting. Jack Perkins will be demonstrating an Illustration technique using fine liners and watercolour washes to bring instant flair and colour to your ink drawings and will be encouraging you to have a try. In Suzi Waterworth’s ‘Porcelain bead painting taster-workshop’ she will demonstrate how an unglazed porcelain bead can be decorated, and participants can have a go, using basic acrylic paints (suitable for age 10+).
Also for ‘Get Creative’ from 2-4pm, there will be free drop-in workshops in the Long Gallery as part of Black Swan’s exhibition ‘The Future Can’t Wait’, which runs from 18 March-15 April, with a preview on Friday 17 March at 6-8pm to which all are welcome. The exhibition showcases emerging artists from Bath Spa University. Curated by two students on the MA Curatorial Practice course, a key element of the exhibition is to interact and engage with the local community, particularly children, as they are our future. For their debut in Frome, MA artists invite children to explore the exhibition that introduces art from a range of disciplines. Artists will offer unique creative activities and sensory experiences for the children to make and be inspired, including origami, textured collages or mini sculptures. Children will be encouraged to look, touch, participate, have conversations with MA artists, explore their ideas and be part of the exhibition. The children’s creations will be exhibited online as the exhibition progresses – a chance to collaborate and expand the show together.
Local school children will be involved in workshops in the last week of March. Throughout the exhibition there will be free ongoing activities to stimulate children’s creative responses. There will be an artists’ panel discussion in the Long Gallery at 6.30pm on Thursday 23 March, featuring 6 MA students who will explain the context of their work – a great chance for young creatives to consider future opportunities within the creative sector.
‘The Future Can’t Wait’ addresses the issue of uncertainty in a time of political, economic and environmental upheaval. Dr Andrea Medjesi-Jones, course leader on the MA Fine Art course and an artist herself, says: “It is hard to envisage what the future holds or indeed looks like. Can the future exist at all, and if so when does it start? There are no easy answers, but one thing is certain – the future can’t wait.”
On Saturday 8 April, from 2-4pm Somerset Skills & Learning will also be offering the opportunity to get creative outside.
For more information visit www.blackswan.org.uk. To follow Black Swan Arts’ Get Creative projects, visit twitter #GetCreative and visit BBC get-creative-weekend.