Open Studios 2015

Professional Development with NICE

Professional development opportunity for early stage artists with NICE and Prince’s Trust

Monday 10th until Thursday 13th August, 10am – 3pm
Navigator North, Dundas House, Middlesbrough, TS1 1HY

Navigator North are pleased to announce that we will be hosting Prince’s Trust for a four day professional development opportunity – Explore Enterprise, as part of our ongoing programme called NICE (Next steps In Professional Experience) for early stage artists.

There are six FREE places available to emerging artists between the ages of 18 to 30 years old, who work less than 16 hours per week. As well as being able to attend all four days participants should be able to attend a one hour introductory session between 10.30am and 11.30am on Wed 29th July.

The four days will include –
•Day one: Inspirational talk, personal goals and skills, personal money, legal structures
•Day two: Marketing and selling
•Day three: HMRC, pricing, managing money in a business
•Day four: Business plans, mentoring and next steps, practice session

These sessions, led by staff and volunteers are designed to be practical, interactive, visual and based around discussions and activities.

Places are limited. To reserve your place email nice@navigatornorth.com with Prince’s Trust in the subject header by Friday 24th July.

Places will be allocated on a first come first served basis, with a reserve list in place if it is oversubscribed.

For further information visit The Prince’s Trust website 

Navigator Print Studio artist residency

Suzie Devey was selected from a range of artists who applied for the opportunity earlier in the year to take up a residency in our Print Studio between May and July 2015. Suzie has a range of skills and interests which she has brought to the residency as well as a passion for creating work which connects to the area through printmaking.

In the first part of the project Suzie has been visiting and documenting an allotment in Thornaby. Using drawing, photography and lino printing Suzie is in the process of collecting images along with textures and surfaces found on site.

 

Suzie describes her work –

The 3 month residency is an exciting opportunity for me to develop my practise as a printmaker but also to explore new ideas and ways of working with others.  I will be developing a project  which will take me into the heart of communities in the Tees Valley where I can meet people and hear their stories, to discover why  the places they love have so much nostalgia for them.

Since memory, people and places are interwoven like a tapestry I will seek out the places where the urban environment has a beauty of its own. A beauty that has been created by the lives lived in that place: scuff marks on an old door from the passing of thousands of footsteps, peeling doors revealing layers upon layers of ancient paint or drainpipes darkened with years of crumbling rust.

Having gathered the stories I will then gather these urban remnants upon canvas to create “urban fabric”. Just as the physical environment is a backdrop to our lives, this urban fabric will become the backdrop to the portraits I create of the storytellers I meet.   I will carve the stories into lino or board to make printing plates and these will be used to create a series of original prints on the urban fabric.

 Artist Event with Suzie Devey

Thursday 6th August, 4.30pm – 6.30pm

Navigator North Print Studio, Dundas House, Middlesbrough

We have a very special opportunity to come and meet the artist, find out about the residency and have an opportunity to see and take part in the processes Suzie has used in the Print Studio including the ‘urban fabric’ technique.

This event is free, however places are limited and should be booked in advance by emailing printstudio@navigatornorth.com

Sara Cooper – Event at The Coop, Dundas House

For further info about Sara’s project visit our website or Facebook event page

La Biennale di Venezia – 56th International Art Exhibition

On 5th May we took a research trip to Venice for La Biennale di Venezia-  56th International Art Exhibition. It was an amazing experience, seeing such an extraordinary amount of art and the biennale. 5 days wasn’t enough time to see everything at the biennale, but we sure tried our best! Here are a few snaps…

Our very own Nicola Golightly received a bursary from a-n The Artists Information Company to visit the Biennale and write a review about the experience. She has reflected on the scene of the Biennale and how it might inspire her future work and Navigator. You can read the review ‘Picture the Scene’ here, along with other contributions from the 21 a-n Go-See Bursary recipients.

 

Dinner Arty comes to Middlesbrough

On Saturday 23rd May we welcomed in approx. 40 guests for an evening of food, drink and more at Dundas House, Middlesbrough as part of a collaboration between Navigator North and Dinner Arty.

Here’s what Dinner Arty say about their events –

Dinner Arty brings creative strangers together for agenda-less networking. Occupying a time and space just long enough to share some food and a conversation, Dinner Arty events may take the form of large, celebratory occasions or smaller, more intimate experiences between two individuals.  All such meetings are documented in some form as a key element of the Dinner Arty transaction is a permanent record of what is otherwise a fleeting moment in two transient lives.

With the focus on bringing together artists from Newcastle/Gateshead and those from Middlesbrough the event had a relaxed feel with a good chance that artists might know some people but not all. The idea behind this was to get people talking and create a comfortable space for sparking conversation.

The event started off on our 3rd floor HUB space, with drinks and then a self-serve hot buffet with amazing food lovingly catered by The Dining Room, based in Marton, Middlesbrough.

After the meal we invited everyone upstairs to our ‘Penthouse’ – a very special space we have at Dundas House, complete with original features and great views!

Entertainment for the evening came in the form of Middlesbrough’s own Heavy Petting who performed a range of sketches to delight and thrill the audience!

 

Edible art from Paul Murray and a bespoke cocktail from Sophie Gowling completed the evening.

Thanks to everyone who took part

All photographs taken by Jason Hynes

Mbro Winter Garden event this Saturday

It’s here and it’s NICE!

We’re currently looking for 8 early stage artists, between the ages of 19 and 25, to take part in our NICE programme in 2015.

You Are Here, Where Next?

Creative mapping with studio holders in our Bishop Auckland space

 

Start Small, Be Class!

This January join Pulled Print Club’s Jade Sweeting for a comprehensive day of DIY Screenprinting techniques – Start Small, Be Class

Saturday 31st January, 10am until 5pm
£65 per person

Places must be booked in advance.
Deadline for booking this workshop is Saturday 24th January.
To book a place email printstudio@navigatornorth.com

The session will provide an insight into accessible screen-printing and will cover –

• The basic DIY screen bed/exposure unit set up
• Prepping a digital image and exposing a screen
• Using stencils
• Inks/paper and other supplies
• Pulling a print onto paper, a Tote bag as well as a T-shirt to take home
• A fool proof hand out

About the artist
Pulled Print Club is a DIY screen-print studio situated in the back streets of Newcastle, located in an old shell of a shop. Graduating from Northumbria University with a Fine Art degree and a love printmaking I progressed onto a graduate fellowship in Printmaking, soon to realise when the facilities are taking away from you it’s pretty damn expensive to continue to produce work. Using my enthusiasm, passion and my hardworking Boro ethos I created Pulled Print Club. Pulled Print has been up and running as a fully in house screen-printing studio for just a year with its key aim to spread the word of hand pulled printing at an affordable rate to everyone and anyone.

Facebook/pulledprintclub
Instagram/pulledprintclub