REVIVAL, REBIRTH ----- RE-ALLOTTED

The Slug Society is now preparing a follow-up exhibition (to be called "re-allotted") which will be on at the St George's House Gallery from February to April 2017.

The exhibition will adopt a similar theme to "Allotted2016" and will feature both new and old work from the majority of the Slug Soc's artists and writers.

We are very grateful to St George's House and to the Curator Emma Kelly for this opportunity

The Promised (Threatened?) Cartoon

Short Report on the Allotted Project

On the afternoon of July 20^th, David Jackson was at the CVS Forum enthusiastically and energetically promoting the various allotment societies’ initiatives, the Bolton Onion, Leek and Vegetable Show, the programme of Society Shows and Open Days and of course, the “Allotted” exhibition.

The following morning Maggie Hargreaves and Margaret Jackson came into Gallery27 to be told that the exhibition had to close on the evening of July 24^th.

As a group the Slug Society had thought the exhibition would last ‘til the 7^th August but the wheels of Commerce grind ever on and Moorgarth (the owners of Bolton’s Market Place) had found new paying tenants and they needed access to the space in the shopping centre instantly.

There’ll soon be a new store in the unit formerly occupied by the exhibition and Moorgarth have found new premises for the neo:gallery. They’ll be ready by mid-August, so Neo’s Print Prize 2016 exhibition will be fine, but there was no room at the inn for the Slug Society and so it was ‘Goodnight and Goodbye’ for “Allotted”.

So, what’s it been like as a project, this co-operation between an allotment federation, a group of visual artists and a team of writers?

What has gone well? What hasn’t worked? What have we achieved? What have we learned?

The writers took charge of fundraising and publicity (or at least the majority of publicity). They were successful in getting some £800 of financial input from two sources – the Bolton Arts Forum (BAF) and the National Allotment Gardens Trust (NAGT).

This ‘split’ in funding (or to be more precise the lengthy time gap between the two ‘approvals’) lead to the abandonment of an initial plan to create a single combined volume of text and images and to go for a visual catalogue and a writers’ booklet.

The project was then effectively split into two streams.

The BAF funding was allocated to the visual artists and the money was spent on creating and printing the catalogue of works, printing posters (both for the gallery and to distribute) and on the launch event.

The NAGT funding was allocated to abas and was used partly to create and print “the back of the seed packet”, a booklet of essays, stories and poems about allotment life and partly to fund the creation of a range of promotional materials to support the activities of the allotment community over the summer of 2016.

The section of the publicity drive concentrating on allotment and local media had some notable successes – a half-page in Allotment and Leisure Gardener, virtually a full page in the Bolton News and a half column in the ‘Angela Kelly’ feature in the Bolton News. There was also an appearance by Margaret and David Jackson on Bolton FM’s Community Corner and mentions in news briefs in Kitchen Garden and Lancashire Life.

A proposed visit from a TV crew from Granada which was to have concentrated more on allotment issues than art and was to have been filmed on an allotment site was originally abandoned when the weather broke and after another attempt the TV company moved onto other issues. This was very disappointing.

Our attempts to get publicity in the arts media appeared far less successful although there was an entry in ‘Artists News’.

The launch event

The launch event was held on July 2^nd.

It was attended by 187 people (not including the participating artists and writers or neo:artists personnel.)

A feature of the launch event was the provision of a range of ice cream made with allotment fruits. This proved very popular with the visitors

To turn to the exhibition itself.

The participating visual artists are used to putting on exhibitions. They put their paintings, photographs and prints onto the walls, their sculptures go on plinths, their installations fill alcoves and hallways and their fabric hangings dangle and twist from the ceiling.

We are including in the term visual art the photographs and the videos which (especially with their local connections) proved a major draw. The sound pieces (the voices of local allotmenteers) were also successful.

The results in the case of the “Allotted” exhibition were extremely successful. The exhibition comprised some 71 works.

The exhibition was well attended and (up to its premature closure) was heading towards its target audience figures. In all the 17 opening sessions attracted 806 visitors. A particular feature was a visit by 60 Chinese students who were taken around the gallery by Jason Simpson of neo:artists.

The exhibition attracted a varied audience – there were those who regularly attend neo: exhibitions in the Market Place, those interested in Allotments and a number of casual visitors who came in from the main mall out of curiosity.

Some visitors had travelled a considerable distance, the furthest recorded being from Harrogate.

A number of comments were entered in the visitors’ book.  A keynote phrase used by many visitors was “accessible”.

What wasn’t quite as successful was the ‘written’ element. The participating writers aren’t used to exhibitions. Many aren’t really used to working in teams, writing is usually a solitary profession. But the group felt that the writers should be part of the end result, part of the exhibition.

The first idea was that some of the written work could be displayed as ‘text art’, and indeed a couple of pieces of work by Ros Davis and David Jackson’s ‘100-word’ piece ‘Rabbit’ made it onto the walls. ‘Rabbit’ has moved at least 2 tender-hearted visitors to tears.

The writers also wanted to keep their involvement in the exhibition going, so each week they wrote a piece called ‘Gallery Thoughts’ recording their experiences of being involved in the exhibition. Every Friday morning this was ‘white-tacked’ up on the far wall of the gallery and then ‘posted’ on the project blog. The project blog is http://allotted2016.blogspot.co.uk it provides a running commentary on the progress of the project. The ‘Gallery Thoughts’ sheets in the exhibition gallery were read by many visitors.

However it was the visual art that dominated, that’s what made the impact.

What’s gone well?

The posters etc. that accompanied the exhibition were very well regarded as a piece of design in their own right and were effective in getting the message over

The exhibition was a success in its own terms. It attracted a wide and appreciative audience into the gallery. It provided a base from which participants could engage with visitors whether they were primarily interested in the art or the allotment aspects.

The local (Bolton) publicity worked well, both Press and Radio.

What hasn’t worked?

We are not sure about the degree to which we integrated the two teams – the visual artists and the writers. As we have said it was the visual art that dominated visitors’ experience. Simply putting the poetry on the walls (although it worked for some pieces) isn’t quite enough. We are not sure that having two publications (the catalogue and the booklet) was a good idea.

We do not feel we got promotion to the ‘arts’ community right.

The premature closing of the exhibition (over which we had no control) led to a number of initiatives planned for and already started to re-promote the exhibition during its last two weeks being wasted.

What have we achieved?

A very accessible, well presented and well received exhibition which appealed to a varied audience beyond that which normally attends events in the neo:gallery. We would hope that neo: retains at least an element of this new audience for its future exhibitions.

A platform through which a group of local artists have been able to display their creative output.

An outlet for three local writers.

What have we learned?

Integrating words and images needs more thought. It was a mistake to abandon our initial plan of producing a combined volume of text and images to accompany the exhibition.

That although the generosity of commercial groups such as Moorgarth enables groups like neo:artists to provide gallery space for exhibitions like ours in prime sites, the nature of the relationship between neo: and its benefactors does lead to insecurity for the voluntary groups who are running events. If a commercial opportunity comes up, then the main landlord has to take it and there is nothing we can do. Until and unless there is a dedicated exhibition space (of comparable quality and location) in Bolton accessible to smaller creative groups like Slugsoc this will continue to be a problem.

Finally

We would like to thank:

·         The Bolton Arts Forum

·         The National Allotments Gardens Trust

·         Neo:artists

·         The Association of Bolton Allotment Societies

And a whole host of individuals

For their support for this project

David & Margaret Jackson

on behalf of the Slug Society

Closure of Allotted

We tried to submit the press release shown below to the Bolton News but unfortunately it was not included in Saturday's paper.

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Could you please let people know that the  Slug Society's  "Allotted" exhibition in neo:gallery27 in Bolton's Market Place - will close after Sunday's session?

The exhibition has been very well received and very well supported and the exhibitors had hoped to fulfil the advertised run until August 7th.
However the continuing success of the Market Place means its owners have now found paying tenants for the space occupied by the exhibition and those tenants want the space as quickly as possible.
The Market Place have generously  provided a new space for the neo:gallery (also on the 1st floor of the Market Place) so the future of neo:artists' exhibition programme is secure - they will restart with the Print Prize exhibition in August.
However there is no space available for the Allotted exhibition at present and so the Slug Society and the team will be packing its bags and (rather sadly) be making an early departure.
The Association of Bolton Allotment Societies are hoping that they may be able to offer the artists and writers some space for the writers' booklets and maybe a few prints at the Bolton Onion, Leek and Vegetable Show on August 20th but for now  from all concerned with the exhibition it's thank you and goodbye. 

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We could unfortunately do nothing to save the exhibition, neo simply got a message on Thursday morning (July 21st)  telling them they had to have the gallery cleared by Friday 29th July. As you can see above Moorgarth have offered them new premises further down the mall and these will be available for the next exhibition (The Print Prize) in August.

However there was no provision available for the continuation of the Slug Society's "Allotted" exhibition, so there was no alternative but to take it down.

Naturally the Slug Society (as a group) are very disappointed that the show has been closed before its planned date. We had known there was a risk that new tenants might need the space but had hoped to keep going until at least the end of the month.. A great deal of effort went into planning the show, getting funding, getting pre-publicity and creating the two publications (the catalogue and the writers' booklet). At least some members of the group now feel somewhat disillusioned at not being able to see the project brought to its planned conclusion.

We hope that opportunities will be found to show (and potentially sell) at least some of the artists' works in other venues at other times. David is keeping the blog going for a few more weeks - he hopes that the projected 'review' of the exhibition can still be completed and published.

We'd like to apologise to those who were planning to come along during the last two weeks of the exhibition i.e. up until August 7th - we've tried to let as many people as we could know about the closure by email wherever possible.

We hope that the Slug Society has a future, exactly what form it will take will be up to the members once they have time to take stock.

In the meantime, we 'd like to thank everyone who helped bring "Allotted" into existence especially our sponsors The Bolton Arts Forum and the National Allotments Gardens Trust and most of all, all those people who came along to see the exhibition, talk to us, leave comments and more...

THANK YOU

LAST CHANCE TO READ?

Farewell #27

(with apologies to e.j. thribb)

So, farewell town centre gallery

That’s been our home

This last four weeks

Well, that’s enough of that…..

We thought we were here ‘til the 7^th August but the wheels of Commerce grind ever on and new paying tenants want this space.

There’ll soon be a new store in this spot and in August neo:artists will be opening a new gallery down the mall (the old Next store) and presenting the Print Prize 2016 exhibition but in the meantime there’s no room for us at the inn so it’s ‘Goodnight and Goodbye’ for “Allotted”.

Yesterday evening was hectic, we had to produce a ‘Last Chance to See….’ Press Release to tell as many people as possible that this coming weekend will be the final opportunity to see “Allotted”, we had to email participants to ask them to come in and help dismantle the exhibition next week, and we had to contact people we’d invited to come along in the last two weeks to tell them we won’t be here. And in the medium term David is going to have to find the right way to tell the sponsors that the six week exhibition they funded turned out to be for four weeks only.

Abas may be able to help us put on something very limited at the Bolton Onion, Leek and Vegetable Show, maybe display and hopefully sell, a few prints and the writers’ booklet. Because a show like “Allotted” is also a sales opportunity for the artists, and two weeks of potential sales has just gone.

We (Robert and David) had started to plan the final thoughts (the one that would have gone up on August 5^th). It would have featured David’s cartoon of a hard-up and homeless poet, sitting begging on the pavement with his sign ‘Will rhyme for cash’. As with all David’s cartoons the poet looked very like him. But there hasn’t been time to finish it. Maybe we’ll keep the blog going. Maybe we’ll put the cartoon on the blog with the poet surrounded by piles of unsold copies of “the back of the seed packet”.

It’s been an interesting project, but for now, the party’s over (and other clichés)…

Whither (or should it be wither) the Slug Society now?

So here we end “Gallery Thoughts” and (if you have been) thank you for reading them

Robert Eldon

David Jackson

22.05.2016

GALLERY THOUGHTS #4

The view from the desk

Sitting at the desk at the front of the gallery, you’re on the edge of the exhibition looking in. A lot of the exhibits are concealed from your view by the big square central pillars.

And you start to wonder as no-one comes in for a while, does the view through the front doors encourage people to enter the gallery? Do people realise we’re open to the public, that we won’t charge them?

To your left Margaret’s ‘Honeysuckle’ painting gleams spot-lit, to your right are Susan and Jennifer’s fabric hangings, while through the gap between pillars you see the edge of Maggie’s clay table with it black wooden dining chairs.

Carol’s glass piece is sideways on, the green frame is clear, but the writing on the glass is lost.

Ahead three of Kevin’s photos are visible, and the edges of Maggie’s mobile spiral and dance in the air currents caused by the fan.

Finally. In the far distance, at the end of the gallery, you can just make out the three previous issues of ‘Gallery Thoughts’, tiny grey and black rectangles between the porthole-like mirrors.

Which brings us back to why I’m sitting here writing this, because this will be Thoughts #4.

Being on the edge of the gallery looking in is pretty much the writer’s view in life. That of the ‘observer’, whether engaged or dispassionate, whether omniscient or ignorant, this is the natural role for a writer.

And that’s what I feel I am, a word artist looking in on a world of visual artists, from one world, one set of parameters into another. In a way it’s like being at a theatre, looking in on someone else’s performance through the ‘fourth wall’ rather than feeling like a participant.

Did we, in this exhibition achieve a marriage of our disparate art forms? I tend to think not. Of course there are a few examples of ‘text art’ on the walls (Rabbit, Up Against It, Winter Beauty). Did you notice them as you walked through this gallery, what impact did they make? Can text compete with image? Does text indeed belong on wall (other than as graffiti)? Robert would argue it doesn’t.

Because it’s the visual art that dominates, the images that remain in the memory.

Maybe you’ll look at ‘the back of the seed packet’ – the anthology of essays, stories and poems that we created to go with this exhibition. Should we have integrated the catalogue of exhibits with that booklet, made a joint publication of it? I think we should have, but the way the funding came through mitigated against it. A lesson for next time perhaps, if there is a next time and if we want our writing to be read.

David Jackson

15/07/2016

GALLERY THOUGHTS #3

We continue our series of pieces written by our writers while they're 'minding' the gallery with this piece from Robert Eldon, prompted by a visitor's comments.

What looks like a Community Notice Board sits above Ros’ “Conversations / Seed Trays” piece, back to back with Margaret’s “Allotment Diaries”.

And the visitor said that ‘it shouldn’t be there’, it ‘brings the gallery down’. It ‘makes it look like a Branch Library’ (for those who can remember such places) and it ‘detracts from the art’.

And I think this betrays a very elitist view of what a gallery is, an exclusivist view of what art is and who it’s for. It’s a view that ‘art is for some (vague and unspecified) art elite, (other artists?) that’s the group we should be addressing. Anything that might affect their verdict must be erased.

Yet neo:gallery27 is in a shopping centre. The vast majority of the people walking past aren’t artists or from some elite group. 

 And that viewpoint also holds that the work on display must be work that is aimed at the tastes and preferences of that narrow target group (the term ‘accessible’ suddenly becomes a term of disdain.) Anything else is ‘amateur’ or ‘community art’.

Allotted is not about “community art, it’s about promoting professional art into the community and that surely is what a gallery in a shopping centre needs to do.

It’s about creating and interacting with different audiences. It’s about making the wider public of Bolton aware that the gallery in the Market Place (and the artists who exhibit in it) exist. It’s about getting the public interested in the subject of the exhibition, it’s about getting them to want to see the works, and finally about getting them to actually enter the gallery.

 Such an audience is not to the exclusion of other audiences, there must remain a place for the ‘intellectual’ exhibitions, but surely over the programme exhibitions need to be inclusive.

In my own field, there’s a form of writing which is aimed at and seeks the approval of other writers. It’s called the ‘literary novel’. And as one American writer wrote recently – ‘the term ‘literary novel’ is industry shorthand for ‘disappointing book sales.’ So, if for no other reason than the economic survival of the artist group, the more people and the wider the cross-section of the public that enter the gallery, the more catalogues will be sold and the greater the possibility of selling work.  And surely it should be by selling work that the ‘true’ artist becomes viable.

Robert Eldon

07/07/2016

What's on?

Part of the exhibition's remit - and part of the basis for the support we have received from the allotment community and in particular the National Allotment Gardens Trust - is to promote the community aspects of allotment sites.

Many of our Bolton allotment sites are having events over the summer designed to bring the public onto the sites and show them what we do.

abas (the federation of Bolton allotment sites) has produced a poster which is prominently displayed in the gallery. A4 copies of this poster will be made available to Site Societies at the abas meeting on July 11th (Astley Bridge Cricket Club - 8.00 p.m.)

The poster is reproduced below:

Details of this programme appeared in the Bolton News w/c July 4th and the details have also been sent to Bolton FM's "Community Corner".

The 'Gelati' Man

(photo by Jason Simpson neo:artists)

For the launch party for "Allotted", Dave Jackson took the role of the 'ice cream seller' dishing out free ice cream (made by his son Rob) to the guests.

(Rob) Jackson's ice cream is home-made in Bolton from (whenever possible) locally sourced ingredients (they're are currently foraging whinberries for this season's whinberry ice cream). Rob and Dave sell their ice-cream (along with Lancashire Cheese and Black Peas) at a number of artisan and farmers' markets in Lancashire and North Cheshire - among them Sale, Hoghton Tower, Bromley Cross, Romiley and Cuerden Valley. They'll also be taking ice cream to the Open Day at Sapling Rd Allotments on August 14th and they'll have ice cream, cheese and some baked goods such as their cheese and onion bakes and pasties at Harpers Lane Allotments' Open Day on the 11th September.

For followers of local food, Rob has a blog-site www.jacksonsicecream.blogspot.co.uk

GALLERY THOUGHTS :FIRST IMPRESSIONS

An early press release for this project said: “We’d like to tell you about a project in Bolton – ‘The Slug Society’ – which involves artists and writers in celebrating their experiences of allotment gardening and food growing .

Now when most people think of allotments, they probably think of elderly men in flat caps, a bit like Peter Tinniswood’s ‘Uncle Mort’ sitting in sheds and cultivating the land by knocking their pipes out on it.

Yet allotments nowadays are home to a whole range of creative people, and there is a strong influence of women in modern allotment gardening, evidenced by the number of women artists in this exhibition.”

Yet sitting in the gallery I’m surrounded by images of old men in flat caps, in paintings, in drawings, in the photographs and in the videos. Given that, can we legitimately ask the question: Are there too many old men in flat caps?

Ok, so one portrait is of the artist’s grandfather, and older faces often offer more character, the evidence of a life lived, but the only female face is “Pam” in Kevin’s photographs. (Ok, I’ve forgotten the all-female line-up in Margaret’s committee photo, but give me a little poetic licence please!)

I know (being one myself) that old men have to have somewhere to go, otherwise they just clutter-up their homes and drive their wives mad (another cliché), so the array of ‘man caves’ on display serve a useful purpose. (Is there a female equivalent of a ‘man cave’? A ‘she den’, which would abbreviate to a shed wouldn’t it?)

I know that Margaret and the others would argue (very convincingly) that their work shows a distinctively female gaze on allotments, but (as Ros’ piece in “the back of the seed packet” sets out) there are women on plots and children come on a lot more now, do the images in the exhibition reflect that? And does the question matter?

ROBERT ELDON

OPENING DAY

Saturday afternoon saw the launch of the exhibition proper.

We'll try to put a proper review in next week's "Gallery Thoughts"

Over 180 people attended the preview event including two presenters from Bolton FM, our local radio station.

The project had had good coverage in the Bolton News during the week and at one stage we hoped we'd get TV coverage from Granada Television (but the weather turned and the planned filming session with artists on allotment sites had to be cancelled).

At the launch the most frequently used term about the exhibition was "accessible", people understood what it's about, could relate to the work and were emotionally engaged by much of it. A number of visitors commented on the fact that it had made them feel better and reminded them of the joy and pleasure that gardening and food growing can bring.

Some felt drawn into the exhibition by Margaret Jackson's bright "Honeysuckle" and "Sunflower" paintings and then lead on into the main body of the exhibition by Janet Brady's large charcoal drawing of a man sitting outside his shed which hangs on the far wall .

Kevin Shipley's photographs are a major draw, the characters are well known and recognised. Similarly Steph Shipley's video and images from Shepherd's Cross St Allotments attract an interested crowd. There are appreciative comments about Ros Davis' "Winter Beauty". Maggie Hargreaves growing table attracts a lot of interest, while the true plot-holders spend ages on Margaret Jackson's allotment diaries. One early visitor wanted to carry off Carol Barlow's stained glass piece "Trespassers will be composted!"

Finally, Jennifer Gilmour and Susan Syddall's textile hangings based on Florence Avenue make a real statement and it's very much worth your time listening to their recordings of plot-holders on site there. The remark about showing carrots is worth a trip in itself.

Some reactions are interesting: Visiting site committee men seem particularly drawn to Dorothy Ellin's piece "Conflict" - does this tell us something? Some people seemed affected by David Jackson's piece "Rabbit". One visitor commented of Maggie Hargreaves "Shed" that he'd wanted to see inside that shed for thirty years but he'd never been allowed a glance!

No images yet, if you want to know what it looks like - then come along to neo:gallery27 - Thursday to Sunday 11.00 a.m. to 5.00 p.m. - and see for yourself.

PS The free "Allotment Ice Cream" was an undoubted success, served up by David doing his act as an itinerant ice cream seller (see Jason's picture on Twitter) complete with blue and white jumper, apron and straw hat.

PPS A number of visitors said that they had been surprised to find an art gallery like neo:gallery27 in the centre of Bolton, it had altered their perceptions of the town. Others said they'd made a special journey to see the exhibition as they "didn't really come into the town centre much these days".

GALLERY THOUGHTS

 All participants in "Allotted" take their turns at looking after the exhibition - acting as security, talking to visitors and hopefully selling works and publications.

The original idea (well David and Robert’s idea) was that the writers would use the time they spend ‘minding’ the gallery to write.

Sitting in the gallery (particularly on quiet days – of which there haven’t yet really been any – we had over fifty people through on Friday) – gives a writer lots of time to think, undisturbed by the demands of the day (such as ‘I’ve made you some coffee, come and drink it now’ or ‘I forgot to get any watercress, can you go to Sainsbury’s?)

 So we decided we’d write a piece each week to be called Gallery Thoughts.

We are trying (Margaret feels David is particularly trying) and we have produced two pieces so far. The first (by David) was rejected on grounds of “inappropriate language”, while the second (by Robert) was felt to be “likely to offend”. Robert has now written that ‘while writing, and indeed art, probably should offend and shock, it mustn’t offend or shock the writer’s wife.’

David has reverted to being ‘the gelati man’ (copyright Malcolm Pryce – “Last Tango in Aberystwyth”) for the day. Robert has been inspired to change his ambition from getting a play on Radio4 to becoming the Frankie Boyle of Bolton Allotments, and is working on his next offering.

The more sensitive hope that Ros’ return may provide some more seemly material.

 Meanwhile ‘the naughty boys’ skulk in their corner plotting their next outputs, Watch this Space!

ROBERT ELDON

DAVID JACKSON

Saturday 2nd July 2016

More Allotted coverage

We're in the Bolton News again today - 29/6/2016 -in Angela Kelly's column

It's a great endorsement....

We were hoping to have a visit from a Granada TV crew yesterday, but they also wanted to do some filming on an allotment site (we were going to take them to Harpers Lane), but then the weather turned and they postponed. The weather's no better today and we've not heard from them. We'll keep you posted.

As Dave said "Once more the Gods of Destiny vomit on the duvet of my existence"

Putting up the exhibition

Here are a few images from the tasks of putting up the exhibition on Monday and Tuesday

Carol Barlow's piece of stained glass was one of the first pieces to be hung

Dorothy Ellins' piece has been half-installed

Maggie Hargreaves' mobile was a complex piece to install

Jason and Ged putting up Kevin's photographs 

Margaret surveying the progress

A view through part of Susan and Jennifer's installation

Hope the pictures make you want to come along to the exhibition, there's a lot more to see yet

The Slug Society and 'Allotted' are in the Bolton News today (27th June)

4 pictures and an article - a whole page and right hand side too (apparently this is very important!)

PRESS RELEASE - 20/06/16

‘Allotted’ - Art and Allotments

Allotments, food growing, wildlife and nature are all fertile soils for the creative impulse.

A new exhibition - ‘Allotted’ - shows how the 9 very different artists** who form part of the Slug Society have responded to the ‘allotment experience’. The resulting work, displayed at neo:gallery27 in the Market Place, Bolton, covers a range of media from stained glass through paintings and prints, photography and video to 3-D and installations.

Three writers*** are also members of the Slug Society and they have produced a 32 page booklet ‘allotted - the back of the seed packet’ – containing essays, stories, interviews and poems inspired by allotments. (The printing of this booklet has been funded by the National Allotments Gardens Trust.)

The exhibition will be open from 11.00 a.m. to 5.00 p.m. Thursday to Sunday, each week between June 30^th and August 7^th. The exhibition has been partly funded by a grant from Bolton Arts Forum.

The Slug Society can be contacted at slugsoc2015@yahoo.co.uk or by phone at 07767 220391(David Jackson)

There is a blog-site chronicling the ‘Allotted’ project(s) at http://allotted2016.blogspot.co.uk

** The 9 artists are: Carol Barlow, Janet Brady, Dorothy Ellin, Jennifer Gilmour, Maggie Hargreaves, Margaret Jackson, Kevin Shipley, Steph Shipley and Susan Syddall

*** The 3 writers are: Ros Davis, Robert Eldon and David Jackson

Weekly Update

Margaret checked the proofs of the allotted catalogue yesterday - all is now clear for the catalogues to be delivered on Thursday 23rd June

The final proofs of the writers' booklet were approved today and that booklet too should be here by the end of next week

Forms for submitted works have now been sent out to all participants

Work on Press Releases etc. will start tomorrow

It's all getting closer

The Book's Away!!!

Just an update to tell the world that this morning we sent off the (we hope) final version of "allotted- the back of the seed packet" - to the printers.

It should be back w/c 20th June.

Ged has produced the second draft of the artists' images catalogue - "allotted2016" Ged just needs some final details from one artist on medium and size-  He and Margaret are having a final design meeting this week and then that can go too.

Ros is working on an exhibit to replace the sound recordings - we all proved ourselves to be pretty bad actors - David aims to get a comedy sketch out of the (abortive) recording session.

Funding Arrives!!!

Good News !

The funding from the National Allotments Gardens Trust has come through.

The text booklet is off to the printers tomorrow.

It's a great relief.

Dave

Bank Holdiay Message

Hi folks

Happy Bank Holiday

Posters have arrived and are available for distribution in the Print Room at the studios.

Ged should be back from Germany soon and then the catalogue will go off to the printers in Wigan.

Bad news is no word yet from the NAGT re funding for the writings booklet. Good news is it's finished, and we've found a local printers who can do the job for us at a reasonable rate and is willing to look at a run of 50 booklets. Problem is the end of next week (10th June) is the deadline for handing the stuff to them if we want it for the launch. If the funds don't come then it looks like the writers will be funding the printing themselves - self-publishing I suppose 'Squeaky bum time' as Sir Alex Ferguson once called it.

Ros is organising the recording of a scripted piece for the exhibition. Recording will take place from 1.00 p.m. on June 2nd at the studios. She's sending scripts to those who've said they'll take part.

Allotted Writers

Two of the "allotted" writers (David Jackson and Robert Eldon) appear on the Emryst Press blogsite - www.emrystpress.blogspot.co.uk

The third writer Ros Davis has her own website -  rosdavis.vpweb.co.uk

Although "allotted" contributions are not (yet?) posted to these sites, other work has been. Emrystpress however is very much a work-in-progress although the body of work should build rapidly in the coming weeks.

POSTERS

The posters should be with us in the next week. Then we can get them distributed. The poster chosen was option 4.

Publicity for Allotted

The current issue of "Kitchen Garden" carries a short piece about the "Allotted" exhibition - see below

Update 17/05/2016

Hi

Much has been happening behind the scenes.

The Catalogue
The exhibition catalogue is now in the final processes of being prepared for our printers. All the images and text are with Ged. The 'master' needs to be with the printers by mid June. The posters went some time ago. The catalogue will feature only the artists, with each having their own section and set of images. The catalogue has been funded by a grant from the Bolton Arts Forum.

The Writers
There will be a separate "booklet" ("Allotted: the back of the seed packet") which will contain the essays, prose and poems that have been written about the allotment experience by Ros Davis, Robert Eldon and David Jackson. The booklet will be A5, with 24 pages of content. The layout and order has been finalised and final editing and proof-reading is under way.

Funding for the booklet has still not been secured. A bid by Abas for funds is being considered by the National Allotments Gardens Trust (NAGT). The Trust hope to come back to Abas with some clarifying questions after the 20th May and they should then be able to make a decision. It's really going to the wire, and is somewhat stressful for the writers, who are still not yet certain that their work will be printed. We are all keeping our fingers crossed that the decision will be positive and will come in time to get to the printers.

Some of the writers' work will appear as part of the exhibition, both Ros and David are producing short pieces which will be wall-mounted.

Publicity
A short piece about the Exhibition / Slug Society has appeared in the current issue of 'Allotment and Leisure Gardener' (issue 2 2016 page 41).

Ros has been informed that a piece about the exhibition will appear in the 'News' section of the next issue of 'Kitchen Garden'.

Conversations with Allotment Gardeners

'ALLOTTED' - Conversations with Allotment Gardeners,

by Ros Davis

I've been visiting Bolton allotments and talking to allotment gardeners since December 2015. It's been an overwhelmingly positive and fascinating experience - even in the rain!

This is one of the areas we covered: What having a plot means to people.

Plots have transformed lives, provided relief from pressures, kept people going. Here are the things people said:

'it's my little piece of heaven', 'my peaceful place', 'it's so peaceful', 'a sanctuary', 'a release', 'thereapeutic', 'healing', 'it's somewhere to escape to', 'where I can be alone', 'lose myself', your own domain', I feel at home', I just like being there', 'there's lovely views', 'it's my own', 'I come every day', 'it's really rewarding, friends always ask about the allotment'.

Press Coverage

News about the "Allotted" exhibition appeared in the Bolton News on Monday 2nd May.

We will also appear in the 'News' section of 'Kitchen Garden' - the June edition which comes out on May 25th / 26th

We should also appear in the next issue of 'Allotment and Leisure Gardener' which should be distributed to members of the National Allotment Society in late May / early June

About the Catalogue

At last Friday's gathering we decided 

1. The catalogue is solely for the artists – the writers are creating their own pamphlet – they are seeking separate funding

2. That means we have 40 pages and 9 artists

3. Each artist will get 4 pages – the first page will have the artist's name down the leading edge (vertical) and will also have a short (50-100 words) statement by the artists about their work. Artists' could also give a contact point 

4. The remaining 3 pages for each artist will contain their chosen images - with each image give -title, medium, size - these details will appear below the image - maybe in the footnotes section

5. Since the catalogue will have 40 pages that leaves 4 pages remaining  - I am proposing that the first RH page be a frontispiece based on a design David and I have come up with – it has “Allotted” and mentions the “Slug Society” - I've attached the first draft.

We'll lose the 'Fork and Scythe' motif for the frontispiece

 I am assuming that the front cover will be fairly plain (as most neo catalogues – just the exhibition title) – but if others want something different please make your suggestions

6. Other spare pages  can be used to thank funders and neo etc.- if preferred we can give all artists' contact details on the inside back cover

Margaret Jackson

blog-site

The correct address for this blogsite is

www.allotted2016.blogspot.co.uk

BOLTON FM

Carol Barlow and Margaret Jackson will be appearing on BOLTON FM's "Community Corner" (7.00 p.m. to 8.00 p.m.) on Wednesday 27th April.

They'll be talking about allotment matters and of course about the exhibition.

Exhibition Reports

We hope during the run of the exhibition to publish some writings based on the images in the show and our reactions to them. To give a flavour we include below a piece relating to a previous environmentally themed exhibition ' Take to the Trees'

"Raven" by Margaret Jackson

"As she goes through the exhibition, the visitor reaches the back wall of the gallery. She turns her head to look at the painting that takes the centre place. .

Her expression changes and she shudders as if caught by a sudden chill wind.

‘I hate it,’ she says. ‘It’s evil, I couldn’t have that in my house!’

I stand back and consider the painting; needless to say, there is no red spot next to it.

On the blank, white wall of the gallery, the painting seems to throb with life, dominating completely the works around it. The canvas is under-painted in a dense shiny black, creating the illusion of a ‘black hole’, sucking light and life from its surroundings.

The shape made by the grey rocks forming the background resembles giant bleached skulls, or the heads of pagan idols, making the hollow appear as the courtyard of an abandoned temple.

The black, spindly outline of the rowan looks like a skeleton, still wearing its ragged shroud, or perhaps a priestess, guardian of the temple, standing at the entrance; but is she beckoning me in or warning me off?

The circle of shocking, vivid red that dominates the central ground looks like a ring of fire, like a lava flow, or the fires of hell itself. Is this a lost entrance to the underworld?

And then, as my eyes focus on the two outsized black feathers lying in the middle of the ring, the ring becomes a sacred circle, and my mind turns to the ‘black cockerels’ of Lancashire witch-lore; to Satanism and sacrifice.

And I make a mental note to set all this down as soon as I’m out of the gallery."

Excerpt from Pictures at an Exhibition" by David Jackson

SUSAN SYDDALL

Susan Syddall who will be exhibiting at "Allotted" was featured today in the "Bolton News"

Susan is also exhibiting in the current exhibition at the neo:gallery27 "Structure"

Progress Update 14.04.2016

Some Notes from the Slug Soc meeting on Wednesday April 13th 

There were a number of decisions made

1. We selected an image by Kevin (Shipley) to use as the poster -There's a first draft idea for the poster done by David (Jackson) below but Ged Young (Neo) is improving the layout etc. and arranging to get it printed etc. 

2. We have established this 'blog-site' www.allotted2016.blogspot.com to record the development of the exhibition - 

3. We have decided on a layout for the 'catalogue' - it's A5 (based on the one from Dana's exhibition) and each of us gets three pages for images and / or text

4. Ged has agreed to do layout and editing of the catalogue for us - he will need any text ./ images for inclusion by May 8th (although April 30th is preferable) - printing will probably be through Gemini at Bryn (Wigan)

5. Margaret and Maggie are curating the exhibition with help from Janet and hopefully Jason.  – We’re hoping that everyone else will pitch in with the physical side of hanging.

6. We have a current budget of around £550 at present - we think £80 or so for the posters, £300 for the catalogue and the rest divided between setting up costs and the launch / preview.

I think that's everything

Margaret

Provisional Poster

Here's an idea as to how a poster for Allotted might look

It uses an image produced by KEVIN SHIPLEY - who's part of the team, and whose photographs will be featured in the exhibition.

Ged Young from Neo:artists will be improving the poster before it goes on walls, this version is just David playing with his Photoshop app.

Welcome to the Allotted Blogsite

Hello to everyone

This blog records the project by the Slug Society and others to put on the exhibition 'Allotted' at the neo:gallery in the Market Place, Bolton. The exhibition will run from June 30th to August 31st 2016.

The exhibition is being partly funded by a grant from the Bolton Arts Forum and other support is being sought.

We will be updating this blog on at least a weekly basis.

The next meeting of the Slug Society is on Wednesday April 13th - after which we'll post an update