What Occurred at this is where it's Art? - Brittany Coxon's Event Report

This is where it's Art happened on the 8th, 9th and 10th of June in the Spennymoor Town Hall and Spennymoor Leisure Centre. We encourage all visitors and exhibitors to get in touch with their own write-ups, reports, photos and thoughts on the event, so that we can share them (with your permission).

You can email us at thisiswhereitsart@gmail.com or message us on Facebook or Twitter with your stories. Please do tag us in your Facebook photos if you took any during the event, we'd love to see.


This is a little run down of my personal (Brittany's) highlights for the festival, accompanied by photos.

Friday

It was great to meet everybody on Friday, the variety and quality of work was excellent. I spent a good part of the day getting to know the other exhibitors and learning my way around the Town Hall in preparation for the busier day that would be Saturday. There was a wonderful atmosphere as the exhibitors greeted one another, shared stories and swapped knowledge. The atmosphere generated in those first few hours lasted throughout the entire festival.

Saturday

We had a bit of bad weather but the folk of Spennymoor were not put off and the Town Hall was full of curious visitors. Curious in a good way, everybody was genuinely interested, both in the art and the people behind it. At noon there was a flash-mob in the market square, a street dance performance by Kdanz, which unfortunately I missed, though the kids involved enjoy it, commenting that dancing in the rain made it all the more dramatic. Paul picked up some honey from the bee man (South Durham Honey), who had an observation hive set up in the Town Hall bar, they were fascinating to watch, I took far too many photos of the bees and learned a great deal about them while doing it.

Sunday

The weather cleared up a bit on Sunday and the Town Hall was filled with visitors, some of which had come along on the previous day and returned, this time with their entire family. There were plenty of activities for all ages, including a comic book workshop over in the leisure centre, stained glass fusing workshops in the Town Hall and weaving, which happened in the exhibition space. I mention the weaving specifically as it managed to keep several children occupied all weekend, each going away determined to continue this new hobby.

I'm looking forward to the next one already, it was such an enjoyable festival, full of lovely, friendly people. I even found a new favourite food place in Spennymoor, Bistro Fifty3, which kept Paul and I very well fed during the weekend. 

Thank you to everybody who came, everybody who helped spread the word and the people of Spennymoor for being so lovely. 

Brittany Coxon.

You can view all of Brittany's photos from the event on her Flickr page. 

Meet the Exhibitors - Wreckonize

Who are you?
We're Chris and Joe aka Wreckonize, part of a larger crew called WHK

What do you do?
We dance, eat, teach, stretch, dance...that's pretty much it!

Why do you do it?
Because we love it! Its never boring, every day we're teaching or dancing in a different place. Also watching our students improve and grow as people, and seeing what they come up with on their own inspires us and teaches us things we might not have thought of. What's the most exciting thing you've done recently? Mastering a new move is pretty exciting, it brings the possibility of new combinations and ways to link what you already have. Chris has been getting some nice flares lately and I'm starting to get 90's after trying for a long time.

Further Info:


http://www.wreckonize.co.uk/breakdance/
Wreckonize on Facebook

Meet the Exhibitors - Dayyani Square

Who are you?
The band is called Dayyani Square. We formed about 18 months ago and we have spent the time since putting together an ever expanding selection of original material, some of which we are about to record as our first studio album.

What do you do?
We are all creative people who love great music. We are lucky enough to be a prolific song writing band and we have developed a very strong sense of our musical direction and have a definite sound of our own. We are always well received wherever we play and we are firm believers in focusing on the listeners experience rather than the image with which the music is presented.

What's the most exciting thing you've done recently?
We recently played an excellent gig at a record label launch and supported a band that was launching their new album at the event. It was an amazing night with a great crowd and venue. We are now working with this record label. Also in the previous few months we have played live and been interviewed on local radio stations and recently our singer/guitarist had two tracks played on BBC Radio via their BBC introducing platform.

Why do you do it?
We play mainly because we are all music lovers. Individually we are reasonably normal guys working normal lives, so spending time writing and playing our music is a very important outlet for us all. Band members have creative interests outside of the music including graphics, design, film making and digital production. We do it all because we hope to offer up something interesting and thoughtful and also because we have a strong desire to create.

Further info:
You can find us on: Facebook, You Tube and Sound Cloud by searching the band: Dayyani Square.

Meet the Exhibitors - Art Heroes

Who are you?
Art Heroes is Daniel Clifford, writer, and Lee Robinson, artist.

What do you do? 

Art Heroes publishes all-ages comic books, and facilitates workshops that use comic books to engage young people in reading, writing and creativity. Art Heroes can also be commissioned to create material for other publishers and businesses.

What's the most exciting thing you've done recently?

Halcyon & Tenderfoot issue 1 was launched at Newcastle City Library on March 31st. We ran a Quick Comics workshop and held an talk about putting the comic together, which were both well attended. But the best part was receiving fantastic feedback from readers and the parents of young readers/workshop attendees. Some young people aren't interested in prose and our comics are designed to engage those people - seeing that working out is heartwarming.

Why do you do it?
The comic book industry has been shrinking for many years. Young people don't spend as much money on comics as 20-40 year old men, so the industry has stopped catering to them. We're making comics suitable for young people so that there are still comic book readers in ten years.

The workshops come from Daniel's struggles with reading as a youngster. Prose wasn't interesting to him - it's only through reading comics that Daniel developed his linguistic skills and graduated with 1st Class Honours from Northumbria University. Art Heroes aims to capture the imagination of similar young people through comic books and workshops.

Further Info:

ArtHeroes.co.uk is the place to go for further information, comic book preview pages and the Art Heroes online shop.

This is where it's Art! - The Blog

Hello folks. We've been busy bees the last few weeks, we've set up a website, got loads of people involved and are starting to tell the world about our fantastic arts festival. 

So first up, what are we? 
An exciting new project which will bring together artists, crafters and performers from the North East into one amazing weekend of exhibitions, talks, discussions, productions and hands on workshops for all the family. 
The event will be held over three days, the 8th, 9th and 10th of June 2012. With events across Spennymoor's town centre. 


For more information you can check out our website http://thisiswhereitsart.co.uk/ or email thisiswhereitsart@gmail.com. 


If you're a Facebook we have a presence there too. 
This is where it's Art on Facebook - please drop by and like us.
This is where it's Art Facebook Event - let us know you're coming, there's enough room for everyone. 


Or you can follow us on Twitter, we're Thisiswhereits.


Keep an eye on this blog over the next few weeks for info about our exhibitors, events and things to do in Spennymoor.