Talk and Q&A: Joe Hartley and Sam Buckley

Castlefield Gallery and Manchester Art Gallery invite you to join Manchester-based artist-maker Joe Hartley, and the innovative chef Sam Buckley of Stockport restaurant Where The Light Gets In for a talk & Q&A about their recent visit to South Korea.

In August 2017, as part of the UK-Korea Cultural Season, a group of Korea’s top craftspeople – Living National Treasures (in waiting), as they are known in their home country, or Masters, visited the North West of England as part of a year-long cultural exchange programme called Treasure, between artists and master craftspeople in South Korea and artist / makers in the region.

Whilst exploring Manchester, including Manchester Art Gallery’s collections, and the ‘treasures of Cumbria’, the Korean Masters, Shin Gyung-Kyun, Lim Gae-Hwa and Choe Seon-Hui specialists in black bamboo, pottery (in particular the venerated Moon Vase) and cookery, were introduced to Joe Hartley, Sam Buckley, and Cumbrian furniture-maker and designer Tom Philipson. The artists and makers came together and began a process of exchanging skills and ideas, with an ambition to collaboratively conceive and produce ‘useful’ products that ‘anyone’ can make. Members of the public in Cumbria and Manchester had opportunity to meet, learn, exchange and make alongside the group.

When exploring Manchester Art Gallery’s collections, Master Moon-Vase-maker Shin Gyung-Kyun, was particularly excited by the gallery’s Moon Vase – believing it is particularly special due to its origins and its decorative features which he found to be overwhelming playful.

In November 2017 Sam and Joe traveled together to Busan in South Korea to spend time learning from the Masters, and then onto Gwangju to spend time with emerging contemporary artists based there and associated with artist residency organisation Barim.

Join Joe and Sam at Manchester Art Gallery to hear them reflect on their experience, ask them questions and discover more about Treasure as it will unfold over 2018.

Joe Hartley

Artist-maker Joe Hartley worked as a butcher, a cook and a baker (among other jobs) before studying 3-D Design as a mature student, graduating from Manchester School of Art in 2012. Having started to work with ceramics at the age of ten, his high levels of skill have provided a bedrock for his exploration of clay and other materials. Joe uses objects, and the process of making them, to communicate ideas; the ideas and use dictate the form of what he makes. In 2016 Joe project-managed the building and fitting out of the Pilcrow Pub in Manchester city centre, working with groups from various communities to design and make the fittings for the pubs, in so doing engendering a sense of ownership and belonging. He then co-founded OH OK LTD based around a shared belief that places work better when everybody is involved with building them; OH OK LTD have launched a public fabrication workshop, created large scale public artwork, delivered a number of city centre events, and are overseeing the creation of public events and market space within NOMA. joehartley.org

Sam Buckley

Sam Buckley is chef/proprietor of the Stockport restaurant – Where the Light Gets In. It is here that Sam and the team explore nature and our connection to it through a ‘no choice menu’ often spanning 16 courses. Sam’s food is concerned with bringing the diner closer to the idea that beauty and intimacy are first found in the natural state of the produce itself. Sam studied with renowned chefs Simon Rogan at Enclume and Paul Kitching at Juniper. In between stints in the kitchen time was spent traveling throughout Europe and Asia watching closely how a community engages with their food culture to create strong community links and healthy bodies and minds. wtlgi.co/

VENUE: Manchester Art Gallery, Manchester

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The programme, Treasure, is a collaboration between Castlefield Gallery and Grizedale Arts in Cumbria, supported by the Arts Council Korea and Arts Council England. Castlefield Gallery are delighted to be among the 21 performing and visual arts projects in England and South Korea to receive awards from the joint-fund. The Arts Council England–Arts Council Korea co-investment sits alongside and complements the UK/Korea 2017–18 season, jointly organised by the British Council and the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism of Korea.

BALTIC in the North East of England are leading a consortium of English organisations including Castlefield Gallery, FACT, Grizedale Arts, New Art Exchange, Site Gallery, Spike Island and Wysing Arts Centre that are working with Korean partners and artists to develop an Artists’ Residency Exchange Programme for emerging artists based in the UK and Korea. See https://www.castlefieldgallery.co.uk/event/treasure-a-new-collaboration-between-leading-crafts-and-design-people-from-korea-the-uk/ for further information on Treasure.