Artcrimes

I have not been blogging as much as I should and have had taken part in so many exciting things that I am not even sure where to begin, so let’s start with TEAm.

After all the concerted effort and the stalwart and unshakeable belief of those of us who knew this could happen, we had our TEAm exhibition at the Gerald Moore Gallery, Eltham College, London, in February. It was a superb visual treat to walk into the gallery and see the huge blown up images from sketchbooks, alongside many of the books themselves. It was even more of a treat to touch, hold, and explore the books and to meet many of the artist teachers who created them. Seeing sketchbook partners meet for the first time was equally powerful, and it was also very moving at times.

The exhibition was created from the work of the artist teachers but curated and managed by Elinor Brass and her team at the College and Gallery.

We also had opportunities for a number of artist workshop sessions, this brought together not only TEAm participants but also those who had signed up for a day of drawing related activities. We had installations, projections, ceramic scultures, bookbinding, camera obsuras and it was all supported by wonderful catering….of course with copious amounts of tea. A room bursting at the seams with pro-active art educators on a Saturday was a sight to behold and an atmosphere tobreather in and soak up, and keep us going for months. And it will.

Sue Grayson Ford the Director of the Campaign for Drawing and Sophie Leach, Assistant General Secretary of the NSEAD opened the show as the day drew to an end. Their words of encouragement were so appreciated.

The main funding for this event came to us from the J.A. Clark Charitable Trust and their belief and support helped to make this happen.

It’s been an incredibly busy start to 2014 but, hand on heart, this was an event I will remember for the rest of my life. Thanks to absolutely everyone, especially Elinor, Georgia Naish and Karen Wicks. If anyone would like to suggest a collective noun for a room full of art educators- I would be happy to hear your suggestions.