Zoom art and news

 Still getting joy from seeing Art and Dancing on Zoom

blogging this as i tidy my laptop and think of tomorrows zoom session

It's easier to capture art, we show our work beginning and end of our session, we have themes, if we want to or not, freedom.

2 weeks ago

2 years ago!

Since then we have had:
 one themed online exhibition Hands,
one group exhibition SOIL,
2 illustrated stories on you tube
and now Josephs second showing of his solo exhibition - see previous blog!

We skip around styles, exercises and music choices in Dance,
playfully interacting with each other via the screen or happily in our own 'dream.'

We hope to reach out to more people now we have Bobby onboard advertising and spreading the word.


NEWS
So much on; Congratulations to the Studios for a great Zine launch with more opportunities to print posters with Redruth Press on Saturday at The Ladder.
Friday Shallal Dance Theatre skipped in and out of the rain, to film and research and feel the pulse of the Barbara Hepworth sculptures in the garden and draw in the afternoon, we will be back again soon
for more R&D with composer Matt Thomason.
Many thanks to the Tate who were fantastic hosts.

This Saturday sees Flamm and Make and Mends procession in Redruth!

Thanks again to Bobby, we now enjoy a diary showing all we do, we hope to share some of it publicly soon, so you can follow us more easily.

Behind the scenes exciting training to be planned and delivered by us and guests,
and
Situated Action, Improvisation and Play - flying around in emails with Jamie Moran with hopes for a podcast in the new year.

Tomorrow a podcast with new trustee Elizabeth Tomos,
touching on education, XR and other areas of interest
which leads me back to tidying my laptop to make storage for it!

BLW is on,
 a great day had by George, Steve and Debs,
short surprise film and walls to be cleaned.

Joseph’s Fancy Landscapes Crazy Cows at Proper Job Cafe, County Hall, Truro

Good news that Joseph's exhibition is on tour! next stop the Proper Job cafe at County Hall.

https://planetradio.co.uk/pirate-fm/local/news/proper-job-project-cornwall/

Anna and I are installing it tomorrow...

not sure how long it will be up for!

Joseph’s Fancy Landscapes Crazy Cows

Paintings by Joseph Wheeler. 

Joseph is 29 and lives in St Ives. He wants to say that he has a learning disability and autism. He has a love of cows and a joy in the landscape surrounding him which translate into wonderful vibrant colourful and, often quirky, art work.

Joseph has been involved in Shallal (an arts charity ww.shallal.org ) as a visual artist, dancer and performer for 10 years. Since the pandemic Joseph has worked remotely from home, with Shallal’s weekly zoom sessions ‘Dance and Art Connection,’ which makes this exhibition and the opportunity for his work to be seen even more special.

Previous exhibitions

Fancy Landscapes Crazy Cows solo exhibition at Dark Pony Coffee Falmouth 2022

In Your Hands, ‘Foraging Nectar,’ Shallal with Arinda Daphine at Newlyn Art Gallery 2021

Small Picture Show at Newlyn Church Hall 2018

Grateful thanks to Lizzie Dennison for support and connections, to the Proper Job Cafe, and to Clive Gaylard and Cornwall Council, for this opportunity to show Joseph’s work to a wider audience, and Anna Willis Shallal’s artist in residence for curation.

Some of the paintings are for sale, please message Jo at admin@shallal.org for prices and information.                                                 www.shallal.org

Back Lane West 2023! yay and some news

 Back Lane West Residency - a favourite time!

draft copy to share and a few thoughts 

and a few spaces left in the diary for artists ...so do contact me

Shallal is excited to be back!

" Back Lane West residency is always a highlight of my year" Jo Willis creative director

A chance to explore and deepen our processes, collaborations and opportunities. To immerse ourselves in cross art forms and collaborations.

To have more time to explore and 'play.'

This year we are pleased to be part of Flamm with Rise and Fall showcasing Janet Hollands vibrant work, with film, music and dance inspired by and surrounding it.

Saturday 26 October 12-6pm https://flamm.creativekernow.org.uk/event/rise-and-fall-shallal-artists/ 

with dancers 1-1.30pm

With residency artist Anna Willis https://www.instagram.com/anna__sophronia/?hl=en*

we are researching artistic relationships, process and materials for our Tate St Ives Winter Festival commission, which has come from explorations from our 2022  residency https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=39Vqu-AjK2s

We are enabling solo artists to have more studio time ie: Bobby Johnson ( who has a St Ives School of Painting Emerging Artists bursary Porthmeor Programme online)

Along with so much more and we hope the '50 Coats' will get an airing!

We aim to have a Sharing during the weekend of 28/29 October, times tbc. 

* Anna has been involved on our BLW residencies since they started and epitomises the cross art form blended creative approach, my words not hers. As her mum i have to be careful what i say!! 

https://www.instagram.com/anna__sophronia/?hl=en

so Congratulations to her for surviving the seas of a Fine Art degree and we are pleased to share sometime with her on projects she has inspired by her practice and inspiration.

Also fantastic to be meeting with Laura Menzies today who was involved in our first residency and whose inspiration it was for us to apply for a residency at Porthmeor Studios, which was an important milestone in the development of Shallal Studios.

Lou who wrote a successful bid for that Porthmeor Studios residency went onto to develop the Studios has also made a film for Rise and Fall,  Colour in the Air.  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hm3-J0Z845Y

Looking forward to 

'In this Together' exhibition and also Gaia!

We have enjoyed working with Make and Mends and creating a RELEVANT banner, in these times everything has to have relevance to answers and solutions and awareness raising.

On another personal note my brother Mark Deeble, who i interviewed on Passing on Passmore Podcast 1, https://youtu.be/tKj-KT0GymA?si=gMGeA43-_A0lgreH

has just received, with his wife Vicky Stone, a Legacy Award for their work from Jackson Wild film festival 

https://www.jacksonwild.org/legacy-award.html

and within work/art family my inspiration Wolfgang Stange was awarded an honourary doctorate from Roehampton University

 "A good teacher is not a person who passes all the tests, but one who shows humility and is willing to learn from their students"

Whilst truly celebrating these moments and thankfulness for peoples generous creativity, and life times contributions. I hope Wolfgang gets more recognition!

Shallal never has, and i hope never will, give out certificates, accreditation or awards, we are about life long involvement in the creative process, collaboration, access, equity, community and learning from our own starting points, the sheer joy of it all!

Last thing so enjoyed chatting with architect Adam and Hannah, so glad to see Access Equity at the beginning of conversations https://adamkhan.co.uk/

and Arts Lab have put in a sustainability on their latest application form: What measures might you put in place when planning and delivering your project that promote environmental sustainability? E.g. materials, travel

Universal Design and Sustainability in the heart of it all, we need to see the change!

News past and present

 I realise i haven't posted for sometime especially over the summer, such a busy wonderful time.

from this year ...Shallal were pleased to work again with Arts Lab and return to Double Trees School 

https://youtu.be/WV1FzKp7i0k?si=rr6rcVRam8O__r6N

So many outings and when we returned on Saturday the Shallal Chill Out tent with Janice ( its creator)  and Demelza was at Watergate Bay https://www.watergatebay.co.uk/events/arts-on-the-beach/

along with the Mr and Mrs Passmore Puppets invited to the St Ives September Festival 

https://www.stivesseptemberfestival.co.uk/...

while i was at an equally wonderful event a friends wedding! https://www.instagram.com/p/CxBNei1IY6y/

so now Shallal expands and i can step back a little, especially with the exciting news of the role of marketing and communications going to Bobby Johnson who is already doing great things for us, 

before anyone was in this role i felt pressure to provide images and information, a joy but not a skill of mine! so am grateful for Phoebe and Lou in the Studios seeing the need and helping us recruit for the role

we also returned to celebrate Summer birthdays especially Katherines 80th, with a Performance Party, i think we might do these in the future for 'grand' events! a chance to see other skills and talents of those we know and love! and invite in friends and family.

poster by Eddie and Toby

Tina as Mrs Passmore

                                              

                                             https://www.instagram.com/reel/CxVG_ZrIexn/

This week Anna and I visit The Tate St Ives for an R&D towards Shallal Dance Theatre's  commission for their November weekend, we are looking forward to it, working with Mat Thomason, music https://www.matthewthomasonmusic.co.uk/ and Bobby Johnson, film

inspired by Barbara Hepworth who loved 'the human figure in the landscape' and interconnectedness

https://www.tate.org.uk/research/tate-papers/20/figure-and-landscape-barbara-hepworths-phenomenology-of-perception

The Puppets also have a nearly the last 'swan song' outing at The Ladder, Redruth in October, thanks to Felix and Josh for the invitation. 

Bobby has made us shared calendar which will also relieve a lot of my communications time, so more time for art and less background jobs not within my skill set - hurray!

so much to tell this term...which includes visiting theatre show and workshop, Flamm https://flamm.creativekernow.org.uk/about/, Back Lane West Residency, Tate St Ives, Make and Mend at Kresen Kernow.... and more....hope to see you somewhere

Many thanks to everyone in Shallal and welcome to those yet to join us!

Passmore Edwards Bicentenary Cycling Challenge

 Passmore Edwards Bicentenary Cycling Challenge

John Passmore Edwards, the Cornish Philanthropist was born 200 years ago this year. In his life he was a social and political reformer, anti slavery and anti capital punishment activist, delegate at the Paris and Brussels Peace Conferences, MP, and the most significant newspaper owner of his time. Having earned his wealth by the labours of others he said he would redistribute his money to help his fellow workingman He funded 71 public buildings, including libraries, Hospitals, schools, art galleries and convalescent homes. In Cornwall he funded 20 buildings, all of which have survived and your challenge is to visit them all on bicycle. You can undertake the ultimate challenge, visiting all 20 buildings in one day, its around 300 km, or you can take 2, 3 or as many days as you wish.

You will be provided with a list of the buildings and a Google map showing their location. There is also a gpx file of a suitable route, which is a figure of 8 centred on Truro. However, you may choose your own route and start from wherever you live and transport your bike to the point on your route where you previously stopped, cycling at least 300km in total.

There is a finishing “medal”, an engraved wooden coaster, to commemorate your achievement and the bicentenary, which you will receive once you have submitted evidence of your ride. This can be by a Strava record, something similar or some photos of the buildings visited with dates.

There is a modest fee of £9 which doesn’t even cover the cost to us.
To enter, email with name and address. The entry fee should be paid by bank transfer to our account at Lloyds Bank, Any entry for someone under 18 must be from a more responsible adult, who will be responsible for their safe participation. All entrants are responsible for their own safety. There will be no route markers, fuel stations or backup vehicles,’ you are very much on your own, though we will be “virtually” cheering you on all the way round.

RIDE FOR CHARITY

Amongst the many Passmore Edwards bequests was a 130 acre farm at Chalfont St Peter,,which he gave to what is now the Epilepsy Society. He went on to fund 5 homes for those with Epilepsy who worked and lived there and their main administrative building. This remains the national headquarters of the society. Why not ask you friends and family to sponsor you on your cycling challenges this year, with the proceeds going to fund the society’s continuing work. www.epilepsysociety.org.uk Mention the Passmore Edwards Bicentenary when you send your donation.

Entries to

bicentenary@thepassmoreedwardslegacy.org.uk

Payment (£9.00), to Lloyds Bank Sort Code 30-98-97,
Acc No 85422263. Reference (Your Surname) or Cheque made out to Passmore Edwards 200. Please write name, address and email address on the reverse. 

Passmore Edwards Buildings in Cornwall.

TRURO: The library in Pydar St is in fact two buildings; the Free library with entrance to Pydar St and the Technical School behind it. PERRANPORTH. The former Convalescent Home is in Granny’s Lane, going out of Perranporth “:up the Coombe”. It is now a block of flats. MITHIAN. Blink and you will miss the Mithina Institute. It is opposite the pub.

ST AGNES: In the main st near the Parish Council Offices the MMI, Miners & Mechanics Institute, hosts a good little cafe for tea and cake. BLACKWATER. The Institute is on the old A30 route through the village, by the war memorial.
CHACEWATER INSTITUTE: In the centre of the village. Now domestic properties.
REDRUTH LIBRARY: In Clinton Rd, recently taken over by Rift Theatre to be restored and reopened as The Ladder.
REDRUTH WOMEN’S HOSPITAL, CHILDRENS WARD. Going out of town westwards, it is own the new Gweal Pawl Estate.
CAMBORNE old LIBRARY. Look for the statue of Trevithick on the roundabout.
HAYLE: On the main road through the town.
ST IVES: Still in use as a library right in the middle of the town. On the corner of Gabriel St.
NEWLYN ART GALLERY: Backs on to the sea on the road out of Penzance. HELSTON SCIENCE & ART SCHOOL. Now an arts Centre, CAST, in Penrose Rd. Excellent cafe.
FALMOUTH LIBRARY. On the Moor.
FALMOUTH COTTAGE HOSPITAL: Now AGE UK Day care Centre, Killigrew St. By the roundabout onto Western Terrace.
BODMIN LIBRARY: Old library. On the corner of Lower Bore St and Robert’s Rd.
LAUNCESTON OLD LIBRARY. A rendered and terracotta building, easily missed. Dockacre Rd.
LISKEARD LIBRARY. Barras St, in the centre of the town.
FORMER LISKEARD COTTAGE HOSPITAL: Now part of a sheltered housing complex; Passmore Edwards Court, Barras Place.

https://www.google.com/maps/d/u/0/edit? mid=1DgKoaRZeoDQnsyDxbwBzry9nEq2S68g&usp=sharing

Musings after Blue Light Day

 I haven't written here for a while Shallal has flourished and grown, we are fine as we are for a while now, we have community dance groups in more locations, a thriving studio, performance groups, developing our outreach, responding to the times, zoom, live stream etc

I started blogging many years ago, 2 websites ago! I was chatting to a nice person at the The Works telling them what we did, while trying to understand from her the landscape of funding - I now say i have a view of the map ( of funding )  but I'm not the best person to drive you there, ie write bids! She said how does anyone know your connections, process etc and so I started writing some of it down.

Now we can live in a sea of accessible information, much of it unnecessary, and we are creating 'warehouses' of unseen pollution through the internet which will come to haunt us i feel like single use plastic has and so I love to share what we do with images, chat and spread our ethos and vision, but we are larger and times change and we need to restrain it.

Why this reflection;

Yesterday we went to Blue Light Day, we started going invited by Sam's auntie Sue  and although it can be "an assault to the senses" the noise in one section we are in through the day, it is always a joy to see old friends and make new connections.

So yesterday amidst a great day out I heard that Mary Derrington had died before the pandemic. Mary was a performer in Shallal Dance Theatre at its start. My children told me i have been saying 30 years for a long time so now it's nearer 40 years ago, Oh my, I'm 60 so now I'm in an era of serious reflection. Yesterday we sat opposite wonderful images of women with varying 'disabilities" they were writers, comedians, models with down syndrome or other differences ? language needs to catch up, it usually lags behind, so the world has moved on from Mary's time. Yet i still met yesterday someone I know who was blocked from a potential career as a dance maker, wanted their own dance company which they had the skills to try for and has DS, and at the same time met someone with DS who is younger and wants a dance career and had a tutor advocating for them and introducing her to us.

Thank you to all the wonderful performers with their supporters who came to perform yesterday. I had asked Chris our manager, to come along to support on our stall, we are constantly feeling the benefit of his role, and it was so good to see him meet people and develop our partnerships, connections and potential ways forward.

We still have no core funding so are always in survival mode, ok for a year and then what next? However we are still here and now with a wider more experienced and skilled team. So apart from Mary Derrington the other aspect causing me to turn to blog, apart from the myriad of places and events  Passmore Edwards puppets have taken us to Holifield Big Tent and Blue Light day recently, is that Anna and i plan to go to.....tonight.

Last week i sat in car on my phone listening to Mydd and Emma of Wild Works, to their new project across Cornwall they are birthing and to their continuation and honouring of the Cornish tradition of outdoor spectacle theatre held by Kneehigh and Wild Works and in my adolesence, the wonderful anarchic hilarious and glorious Footsbarn https://www.footsbarn.com/about-us/.

Images never to be forgotten; hilarious gravediggers all called Derek in Hamlet by Footsbarn as well as a bunch of comedy crows, alongside Mary Derrington dancing to Holding Back the Years, a Simply Red tune chosen by Anna Murphy, at Barbican Theatre, Plymouth ( our first Shallal - then called Sea Saw - show) and it being beautifully lit by Wilf, and seeing how framing delicate sensitive work could amplify and honour it ( he lit them Mary and George Jacklin in a full moon style shadow) ever since then i have said we have the images, the dances, what we often haven't had is how to ' frame' it to it's best advantage, which comes down to funding for creative technicians, which is sadly the last box in trying to get funding to survive.

So at 50 i chatted with Dot Peyer as she kindly battled through to write us an Arts Council matching bid for Doorways 2 and during the process we chatted about were i might be at 60 and succession in Shallal so life has needed me to 'back myself up' and Sapphire and Colin have kindly and skillfully done that recently and to bring on younger people and Anna is one of them, she graduates next week with a first in Fine Art from Camberwell UAL London and we hope she will be available to head up Back Lane West Residency and our project with the Tate St Ives this autumn, the project was inspired by her approach explored last year at BLW by Colin Toby and Kerry T and Kerry J. So this wiggly blogs looks back to roots of Cornish theatre and Mary Derrington's wonderful contribution and presence she was unque anda wonderful character small and strong and spoke only in a whisper and a small dismissive hand gesture, yet could shout when absaliing down a cliff! I can hear one of our cats are exploring the inside of Passmore puppets head/body structures slightly worrying! they are currently behind our sofa

Affect on Teaching Practice

 There  are many ethos and inspiration hopes we have in Shallal 

One is to model a person centred, collaborative, community approach

so this feedback was a wonderful gift