Ipswich Art Society Registered charity no. 219257 Issue 77 www.ipswich-art-society.org.uk July 2021 newsletter From the Chair First of all, we all owe each other fulsome thanks and congratulations for persevering, during a rather barren time, with life in general and for our continuing support of the Art Society. The Committee has been using the time to build our position for the future. We are planning to expand the number and range of activities for when the world emerges blinking into the light. These support a dual purpose. First is to make up in some way for our isolation and celebrate (dare we say?) at least a partial release, and reconnect us as a society. Second, with an eye to the future, we wish to provide every opportunity to attract new members. There are many artists and groups that may not have come across the Society, or that have not connected for some reason. As plans are developing towards our 150th Anniversary in 2024, our thoughts turn to the next 150 years. We are looking at ways to connect the valuable legacy Man Up by Honor Giles of the Society with the future, so that we can continue its growth and AAA Exhibition continue its mission. These events should connect us with a wider public. In addition, you will see in the Newsletter details of several more immediate events - some already in train and others in formation - which should attract different styles of participation. For those in the formative stages, we invite all our membership to add comments and suggestions. We are always open to further help as well. Small and energetic sub-groups of the Committee are generating ideas, developing plans and exploring new venues. Extra input is very welcome at all stages – from suggestions and comment early on, or to help with detailed planning, through to sleeves-up in mounting the events on the day. Please do contact the Committee members who have generously offered their email addresses to take your input. We held the AGM virtually this year, and a special thanks to those who responded to the request to make suggestions for new activities. Two in particular were popular. One was to have a social event of some kind when we are able, perhaps with a theme of interest – a talk or activity – that would attract people, but would include plenty of time to catch up with each other. We are investigating venues and ideas for this – again, comments welcome. The second was to have a larger number of smaller shows. This would enable individuals or small groups to show more of their works than the one or two there is room for in the Open or other exhibitions. This would also create more of a discourse between artists in the Society. Smaller in scale and over shorter runs, they would be much less onerous to put on. As for a venue, we are lucky that our member, Jon Field, is offering space in central Ipswich and a proposal which could help get this ball rolling. Please look at the details below in the piece on Sandbox Studios. We sadly have lost two valued and respected Members this year: Bridget Lapsley and Robert Dickerson. Please see the obituaries by Paul Bruce and Chris Edmondson. Stephen Cassidy Dates for Your Diary Comments and participation are invited for several of the events in planning. Please see the individual articles in the body of the Newsletter for details. 2021 23rd, 24th or 30th September. Ideas development session in a collaboration between Suffolk Records Office and the Art Society. If you are interested in developing ideas towards 2024, please get in contact with preferred dates. See the article below. September: The Anna Airy Award Exhibition will be on-line during September. Make sure to have a look on the Society website mid-month. October: An opportunity to show your work in Sandbox Studios. See the article below for an early exhibiting opportunity. October 28th – November 10th. Works on Paper exhibition, Artspace, Woodbridge. November 25th – December 1st. Small Works exhibition, The Aldeburgh Gallery. 2022 May/June: Ipswich Annual Open Exhibition. This is the date under discussion with the Town Hall as our temporary home for this during repairs at the Museum. May/June: BORDERS exhibition. We hope to run the “Ipswich leg” of the joint Ipswich and Colchester BORDERS exhibition consecutively with the Annual Open. In planning stages: Ipswich Print Fair and Paint Out Suffolk – please see the articles below, and get in touch. 2024 A series of events in development to celebrate the 150th Anniversary of the Ipswich Art Society. Exhibition opportunity for individuals or groups: Sandbox Studios I am sure we all want to leap at the first opportunity to show some work in a very safe way! Located in central Ipswich at 8a Queen Street (by the Giles “Grandma” sculpture), Sandbox Studios is a recently opened small exhibition complex. Managed by our member, Jon Field, Sandbox aims to work with local artists to develop the profile of contemporary art in Ipswich. To celebrate its opening, Members and Friends are invited to submit two-dimensional work in any medium for an initial group exhibition to be held on site in October. Working with documentary film maker El Mourmane, exhibitors will also be invited (should they wish) to make a short video interview about their work. These will be included with images on the Sandbox website and linked to the IAS website, to help promote visibility and sales. The number of works invited, dimensions, etc, will depend on the size of the response. Please get in contact with Jon to let him know your interest: jonfi[email protected] Anna Airy Award Exhibition As the University of Suffolk is dealing with a backlog of events and unable to confirm dates for this year’s AAA Exhibition, we’ve decided to follow last year’s format and have the exhibition online. Schools have been invited to choose their Star Student of 2021 for an Anna Airy Award. The continuing generous sponsorship from The Arts Society: South East Suffolk has been added to this year by the generosity of The Arts Society: Woodbridge. This means we will also be able to offer an award for the Runners Up. The Schools will now submit an image of their award winners’ work The Colours of Nature by Jessica Parker for the online exhibition. We’re delighted that despite all the upheavals over the past year, 11 schools are participating. All welcome this as a unique opportunity to give their students a chance to have their achievements recognised at a time when their usual end of year exhibitions have been restricted. The exhibition will be online during September, so do look at the Art Society website, and possibly comment on this excellent exhibition. Jan Watson Works on Paper Picking up our occasional series of focussed exhibitions, we are planning an exhibition with the theme “works on paper”. This therefore includes drawings, prints, pastels and watercolours etc and will have a size restriction in order to maximise the number we can hang. It will be held at Artspace, Woodbridge, 28th October to 10th November. Invitations and submission papers to be sent out nearer the time. Small Works This special show of small works will include paintings, sculptures, prints and drawings and will provide a great opportunity to buy original artwork. The size of works should fall within a 34cm square (including frame), or within that footprint for sculptures. It will be held at the Aldeburgh Gallery, 25th November to 1st December. Invitations and submission papers to be sent out nearer the time. Ipswich Print Fair The Committee has been discussing the possibility of setting up an annual Ipswich Print Fair (we already own the domain name in readiness!) You may know about Ipswich Print Week, organised by Tower Street Print Studio, that took place recently, in fact some of our members took part, exhibiting their work at the Whistler Gallery. Our event will be slightly different and later in the year so as not to compete, but we see the events as being able to support and promote each other, raising the awareness of printmaking in all its forms and providing more opportunities for local printmakers to exhibit their work. If you have any comments or suggestions please get in touch, equally if you are interested in being involved as part of the event organisation we’d love to hear from you! To find out more, express interest or comment, please contact Ruth Day on email: [email protected] or Tel: 07710189976. Paint Out Suffolk Paint Out events have been established in Norfolk for a number of years and even ventured to Sudbury in 2018! (See www.paintout.org for more information about them.) With a view to providing a greater variety of opportunities to our members, we are investigating the possibility of hosting a collaborative annual Paint Out event in Suffolk. Artists of various mediums welcome, all you need is a sense of adventure to potentially discover new sights around our wonderful local area and spend a few hours depicting them for the viewing Artist Kate Gabriel painting Winterton pleasure of exhibition visitors later the same day. Again, if you allotments, Paint Out Norfolk 2020 have any comments or questions please get in touch, equally if you are interested in being involved as part of the event organisation team we’d love to hear from you! To find out more, express interest or comment, please contact Tammany Hunt on email: [email protected] Ipswich Annual Open and BORDERS exhibitions A whole sequence of dates for these had been agreed with the Town Hall, and then cancelled for obvious and of course entirely understandable reasons.