SPARK #5: (Local) Democracy

SPARK #5 is a fifth 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.

Saturday 5th November 11:00-13:00 : In Person Meet-up – meet in the ground floor studio at Manchester Art Gallery (accessible from the atrium)

Facilitated by artist Jackie Haynes, SPARK #5 will focus on democracy and especially on how artists can intervene in local democracy. The session will be preceded by a walk for those who fancy it (see below for more info on this). In the session at Manchester Art Gallery after the walk, we will spend some time in the Climate Justice Gallery prior to our plotting and making session downstairs.

We will be joined by Climate Emergency Manchester.

Suggested texts and resources

https://open.spotify.com/show/3oR3c5wkdusWT4q9rM0MwW?si=zSDRrrPnSRKmwzPy3G3Y-A

https://open.spotify.com/show/0NxAvBkJKxzzy7dcHyWjBx?si=8aGGrUF_THuEblBz-7xp2Q

https://climateemergencymanchester.net

Optional Extra – city centre walk – meet at 9 am outside Manchester Art Gallery

Ahead of the session, Jackie Haynes will lead a city walk which will head for sites resonant with historical, contemporary, future, local, national and international democracy. Ideas for these sites are welcome.

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.

You can register for the session at https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/spark-5-local-democracy-tickets-440288363347

SPARK #5 follows on from Castlefield Gallery’s SUSTAIN programme focussed on low carbon artmaking and from our first four SPARK sessions at Manchester Art Gallery and Rogue. The SPARK sessions are intended to help seed a new Greater Manchester/North West-based network of artists working low carbon.

If you can’t come to the event but would like to be put on the Spark email list, 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.

Spark #5 is supported by Castlefield Gallery and Manchester Art Gallery.

Image credit: Spore Print X (2019), Jane Lawson