Spark #2

Spark #2 is a second in person meeting for Greater Manchester/North West-based artists who want to intervene in the trajectory towards climate breakdown, and is an opportunity to meet other artists and to share information and ideas.

Please note that this event has been rescheduled from 2nd July, and will now take place from 11-1 rather than 2-4.

It follows on from SUSTAIN, our recent programme focussed on low carbon artmaking, and from our Spark #1 session at the beginning of June. The Spark sessions are intended to help seed a new Greater Manchester/North West-based network of artists working low carbon.

Please note this event is in Studio 2 at Manchester Art Gallery – we’d like to say a huge thank you to Manchester Art Gallery for making the space available. You can register at https://spark-2.eventbrite.co.uk

The high demand for places on SUSTAIN showed a clear appetite for collective conversation and cross-fertilisation around low carbon art practice in Manchester and beyond. In response, Castlefield Gallery has organised two in person meetings, facilitated by SUSTAIN co-ordinator Jane Lawson and artist and Climate Emergency Manchester contributor Jackie Haynes, to bring interested artists together and provide space and time to discuss how we can develop effective low carbon art practices.

After a cracking Spark #1 session where we shared our practices and talked about subjects ranging from the mammalian bottleneck to the psychic impact of photographing superyachts, Spark #2 will focus on finding out what kind of activities people would like to do and what they’d like to get out of being connected to other low carbon artists. Suggestions so far include film nights, skill shares, a reading group and making a collective resource map.

If you can’t come to the event but would like to be put on the Spark emailing, please email Jane Lawson at jane@castlefieldgallery.co.uk. NB by doing this, you will be giving consent for your email address to be shared with the other artists on the list.

Jackie Haynes is an artist and art practice-based researcher. Her textiles background includes House of Haynes, a costume-making and fancy dress hire business which she ran for 17 years in Manchester city centre: Jackie still has her stock of costumes. Her PhD research into the German Dada artist and writer, Kurt Schwitters has resulted in an increasingly low carbon art practice, often using left-over materials and ‘making on the move’, on site and out of the studio. Jackie collaborates with artist Heather Ross under the interchangeable name, Artist A & Artist B. She also writes citizen journalism for Climate Emergency Manchester, reporting on Manchester City Council’s Scrutiny Committee meetings, and is part of Manchester Art Gallery’s Climate Justice Group, which selected artworks from the city’s publicly-owned art collection for Gallery 6: Climate Justice.

Jane Lawson is Artist Development Producer for Castlefield Gallery where she runs programmse such as SUSTAIN, bOlder and the Gallery’s graduate programme. She is also an artist with a particular interest in carbon, fungus and diagrams. Before training as an artist she was a knitwear designer, researcher into corporate ethics and climate change activist, helping to co-organise the first three UK Climate Camps. She is also a member of Manchester Art Gallery’s Climate Justice Group.