The gif animation above covers 20 images taken last weekend at Nottingham Castle & Museum.
I’ve lived in this part of the world for about 20 years now, longer than I have lived anywhere. I diss’ it quite a lot but as I haven’t moved on it must be ok. They say you can travel a 1000 miles and you never escape yourself, so why collect AirMiles? ‘They’ are however idiots.
The Castle Museum & Art Gallery are currently hosting ‘Street Art – Contemporary Prints from the V&A’. I’m big fan of traditional printmaking (it was my Degree study after all) and it’s encouraging to see such a vibrant art form making good use of this almost analog art form. I love it that the artists wear such fun pen names. We have on show SickBoy, Sweet Toof, D*Face, Dscreet, Pure Evil, Pablo Picachu, Blek Le Rat, Nomad, Deadbeat Donny and of course the ubiquitous Banksy. I think I need to get myself one of those.
The exhibition is well curated and the images hang together really well. Mixed shows are sometimes a difficult and discordant thing but that isn’t the case here. Also featured is local artist done good Jon Burgerman. He’s worth a Twitter follow @jonburgerman. Nottingham has a fairly lengthy tradition of good quality street art. There are several off site shows that accompany the main show including a ‘Dilk’ retrospective and open submission ‘Salon de Refusés’ at the Surface Gallery.
I can highly recommend the show to anyone with an interest in contemporary art.
The Castle has many other things to recommend it, including the permanent collection, the local history exhibition, some great models, kids activities, Robin Hood stuff, the death mask of Oliver Cromwell and some amazing views across the city and beyond. Here is a panorama shoot from the Castle Wall looking out towards the River Trent. Click on the image and you should get a full size view.
So, there’s my little bit of local promotion. So……. Visit Nottingham. It’s not as bad as it sounds! I wonder if I could sell that to the City Council?
adrian4 
Nottingham Castle Open 2012
One of the best parts of my day job is being able to get involved in various art projects, exhibitions and events. With the WEYA season coming to a close over the last two weeks I’ve been working with the staff at New Walk Museum in Leicester on the August Sander – Artists Rooms Exhibition and accompanying educational project, and on Saturday evening, the preview of the Annual Nottingham Castle Open.
The Sander show is really engaging, social photography from the mid war period in Weimar Germany. All walks of society painstakingly photographed, right at the beginning of the process. Many of the images on display have been handprinted by Sanders grandson Gerd, who was present at the preview. The exhibition is very much worth a view if you are in the area. New Walk is a great public museum with a big focus on educational engagement at all levels and is a credit to the staff and the City Council.
The Castle Museum, Nottingham is another great venue and I hope that the consultation currently underway, leads down the right path. Nottingham has a huge historical past and whether it’s Robin Hood or Charles the First, a lot could be done to develop an awareness of our cultural heritage.
The Open Exhibition is always enjoyable and I have been nominating prize winners of the (ssshhhh day job) prize for the last 5 or 6 years. This year I chose Lucy Stevens, a print maker from Leicester and Peter Jackson, a photographer from Nottingham. I’m an ex printmaker so have always had an affection for printmaking & Peter’s photograph of the Forest Recreation Ground reminded me of living in the area, being stuck in traffic there and taking the children for walks there. Its was a great mix of social & landscape photography and I hope he benefits from the prize.
It was a very pretty evening light and weather wise so heres a little gallery of images.
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In the next few weeks I’m helping out at Derby Museum and with more events around the Sander exhibition. All very enjoyable and hopefully worthwhile for all.
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Filed under Comment, Fine Art, Hipstamatic, iPhonography, Photography
Tagged as August Sander, Forest Recreation Ground, Leicester, New Walk Museum, Nottingham, Nottingham Castle, Robin Hood