programs frame

Our programmes include opportunities and services for schools and communities, training for artists and makers and an Artist in Residence Programme.

Yorkshire ArtSpace has been involved in Education and outreach activities for over 20 years, providing exciting opportunities in the visual arts and crafts for children, young people and adults to develop their creative thinking and practical skills. Much of our work in this area is now done as part of the Artist in Residence programme, however, we still offer the following:

“It’s a complete eye opener. You see things in galleries or shops and you don’t always think about how they get there. Here the whole process is visible.

You see that someone actually makes these things. It all begins to make sense.”
- Teacher, Springfield Primary School following a tour of Persistence Works studios.

Education Space Hire
If you don’t have the space we do! Our dedicated Education Space is available for hire by individuals or groups and is suitable for running practical creative activities.

The Programme receives support from Sheffield Assay Office, The Sheffield Town Trust, The Goldmsiths' Company and Arts Council England

If you need further information or wish to arrange a visit to the workshop, please contact Mir Jansen, programme manager by email: mir@artspace.org.uk or ring 0114 2130111.

These sessions take place every month and offer advice on career planning, funding applications, marketing strategies and anything else relating to artists’ professional development. Maximum of 3 places per month. Advertised in the monthly E-newlsetter.

The Artist in Residence Programme

Programme ll 2007-2009

The Artist in Residence Programme offers selected artists access to space, time and money to develop new lines of enquiry or create new work. In general, each residency runs over a period of 8 weeks and usually focuses on a particular area of artistic practice.

The artist has 24/7 access to a workspace and receives a fee and production budget. Artists from outside the region are offered accommodation or can choose to be re-imbursed for travel expenses. The programme enables us to work in close collaboration with partner organisations with whom we devise a range of different education & outreach projects and/or artists’ professional development activities.

We have 3 residencies per annum and one of the resident artist will be given the opportunity to ‘formally’ exhibit work developed during their time with us.

Both our first and second publication, highlighting all 9 residencies and associated projects, are available on request.

Artist Residency at Sheffield Town Hall & Persistence Works

Artists announced

This year Yorkshire ArtSpace is offering two 8-week residencies linked to Sheffield Town Hall, for artists living and working in Sheffield. We have selected artist Trish O'Shea to undertake the first of the two residencies - scheduled to take place in July and August 2008. For the October/November 2008 residency we selected Katie Davies. More information on the two artists and their proposed projects will be available on this website in due course.

Programme II - Residency 4

21st April - 15th June 2008

Artist: Junko Mori

Junko Mori is an artist who specialises in metalwork. She was born in Japan and studied Industrial, Interior and Crafts Design at the Musashina Art University in Tokyo. She continued to study Silversmithing and Metalworking at Camberwell College of Arts in London where she graduated in 2000. Junko lives in Manchester and has her workshop at AMP studios in Salford.

Junko's residency at Persistence Works is now complete. During her time with Yorkshire ArtSpace Society she conducted research into Sheffield's historical background as a centre for the metal industry and took inspiration from the various private and public metalwork collections housed in the city. This initial investigation formed the basis for a new public art work commissioned by The Sheffield Assay Office and Galvanize Sheffield 2008, an annual festival that celebrates contemporary metal design in the city. The work will be installed in the Winter Garden as part of Galvanize 08 (14 Nov - 14 Dec), before being moved to its permanent location at the new Sheffield Assay Office in Hillsborough.

Yorkshire ArtSpace Society also commissioned Deirdre Figueiredo and Andy Horne from Craftspace, Birmingham to write a text to accompany the residency.

More information about the residency and text will be available in due course.

'Moss' (forged mild steel) Junko Mori 2004

Programme II - Residency 3

8th November - 15th February 2008

Artist: KanXuan

Yorkshire ArtSpace with support from ACE International Artist Fellowship Scheme and SKA Culture Shanghai appointed contemporary visual artist KanXuan from PR China to undertake a 12 week residency at Persistence Works.

Kan Xuan exhibited work developed during her time in Sheffield as part of Art Sheffield 08 YES, NO & OTHER OPTIONS which was curated by Jan Verwoert and Sheffield Contemporary Art Forum. Further details about this event can be found on the website www.artsheffield.org (follow link to art festivals).

A text and images on KanXuan, written by ART SHEFFIELD 08 co-curator Jan Verwoert, can be downloaded by clicking: Jan Verwoert on KanXuan

Click here to view the Arts Council England podcast, featuring a discussion between Kan Xuan and Jan Verwoert: http://blip.tv/file/1009091

More information on this and other ACE International Artists Fellowship projects can also be found on www.internationalfellowships.org.uk

Programme II - Residency 2

11th June – 3rd August 2007

Artist: Humberto Vélez

Originally from Panama and resident in the UK for over 10 years this residency provided Vélez with an opportunity to concentrate on developing a more intimate work drawing on his personal experiences and history in the north of England using Sheffield as location and inspiration. Vélez’ film Mates, shot whilst in residence, explores the lives of two young men living on the Park Hill estate in Sheffield. This work is a departure for Vélez from his usually complex collaborative and performative work for which he has built an international reputation.

Mates will be shown for the first time during Yorkshire ArtSpace's Open Studio event on; Friday 23rd November 6-9pm and Saturday 24th November 11am-4pm.

(for more info about Open Studios see news & events section).

A text on Humberto’s residency and work has been written Sonia Hughes. Click on link: Sonia Huges on Humberto Velez for text and images of work produced.

On 17th July 2007 we organised an artist professional development day entitled: Artists & the Social Context. This event was chaired by artist/senior lecturer in contemporary visual art at Sheffield Hallam University Lesley Sanderson. Speakers on the event were Ruth Ben-Tovim from the Sheffield based collaborative 'Encounters', David Harding MBE and freelance public arts consultant Jason E Bowman.

For a transcript of the event please click on link: artists and social context

Programme ll – Exhibition 1

Acting Up: 13th April – 11th May 2007

Artist: Robin Close

A new development in Yorkshire ArtSpace’s Residency Programme is the opportunity for a previous artist in residence to have a month long solo exhibition at Persistence Works. This provides the next level of support to artists in the development of work and ideas first initiated during their time on the Residency Programme.

For this first exhibition we invited Robin Close who was resident artist in 2006. This exhibition of new work comprised a series of 18 pencil drawings on paper and a video piece, building on the research that the artist conducted during his residency, exploring the clichéd comparisons made between madness and creativity. An investigation into perceptions of mental health and the way society seems to have become obsessed by ‘psychological freakery’.

Robin Close

Acting Up

(video still)

2007

In the video work, Close humorously – and with the skill of a professional actor – re-enacts the many different moments from Hollywood movies, TV commercials and art videos in which individuals express, or act out, moments of emotional extremity which we associate with the loss of self and of self-control. What Close reveals through his different forms of role-playing is that even someone ‘losing it’ is, in contemporary culture, potentially ‘acting up’. Extract from text by JJ Charlesworth

Full version of text by JJ Charlesworth and images are available on this pdf download

Programme ll – Residency 1

Liverpool born Paul Morrison studied Fine Art at Sheffield City Polytechnic between 1986 to1988 and completed his MFA at Goldsmiths College London in 1998. He now lives in Sheffield.

Paul’s work spans many different media such as painting, print, sculpture, wall-painting and film. Most recently he was one of three commissioned artists to design the cover for the Sainsbury’s ‘Super Shopper’ re-usable shopping bag. Best known for his limited palette of black and white and his botanical themes, Paul is proposing to use his time at Persistence Works to research and develop a range of new works that will extend his enquiry into the genres of landscape and portrait painting. Recent solo exhibitions include ‘The Contemporary Museum, Honolulu; Spruth Magers Projekte, Munich; Alison Jacques Gallery, London and Cheim and Reid, New York.

We organised an artist's talk for 20 students at Sheffield Hallam University and an open studio event to mark the end of the residency. A text on Paul's residency and work written by Ossian Ward and images of his new work are available in this downloadable pdf document

Further information relating to each of the 6 Residencies in the initial 2 year programme is outlined below:

During his 8 weeks in residence Derek Lodge made a film about Sheffield based on his experiences of the city with the collaboration of local society’s and individuals. Lodge’s practice incorporates a variety of media including; video, music, performance, sculpture, printmaking and drawing. Much of his work has been derived from interactions and collaborations with other people or groups. His film ‘The Butcher Called Me Love’ is made up of 7 chapters each derived from his interactions with; The Sir Cliff Richard Meeting House (the local Cliff Richard fan club), Sheffield City Morris Dancers, Sheffield Circle of Magicians, the Caledonian Society of Sheffield and a life drawing class he attended at Persistence Works.

We linked this residency to our Open Studio event in November 2006, so Lodge used the opportunity to engage visitors in his project and gather information from them. He asked them questions like: ‘tell me something you like about Sheffield’ or ‘I am new to Sheffield, what is the one thing I absolutely must do before I leave?’ and he asked them to complete sentences like: ‘The problem with Sheffield is … ‘ or ‘if I ran Sheffield I would … ‘ Answers to these questions and other information gathered during his filming and meeting with the groups formed the lyrics to songs which are the soundtrack to The Butcher Called Me Love.

The film was shown on the evening of Persistence Works’ 5th birthday and attracted an audience of over 130 people. Fiction writer Simon Crump was commissioned to write about Lodge’s work and residency. Crump's text is available on this downloadable pdf document

Artist in Residence: Robin Close undertook an investigative study into societal perceptions of mental health during his 8 weeks in residence. In particular the tendency within the media to ridicule marginalised members of society. This research was conducted in a deliberately neurotic and scatological manner as a commentary on clichéd comparisons made between ‘madness and creativity’.

Close commented that “being an artist in residence could be seen in some ways as analogous to spending time within a mental health care unit: both involve an intensive institutionalisation of the individual.” The residency culminated in a public event where Close ‘revealed his findings’ opening the doors onto a studio scene which reflected the research undertaken during his 8 weeks at Persistence Works, an installation comprising video pieces, drawings and various archive material. Writer and curator JJ Charlesworth was commissioned to produce a text about Close’s residency.

We ran a 5 week performance based film project Horseplay where artists Alan McLean and Alexis Gotts worked with young people dealing with mental health issues. We also held an artists professional development and information event around working in the arts & health sector. Text by JJ Charlesworth, images and information about the complementary activities are available in this downloadable document. Robin Close pdf file

Artist in Residence: Claire Morgan used her 8 weeks residence to explore the function that her artworks have in a ‘public realm’ context. Morgan’s work is primarily sculptural, materials-based and usually temporary and/or time-based. They are frequently created for a particular site. The majority of her works have been aerial, composed of hundreds or thousands of similar and familiar objects such as dead insects, fresh strawberries, leaves, tulip bulbs and broken pieces of glass. These labour intensive works, suspended in space, have been displayed in a variety of public spaces both indoors and outdoors. Morgan says of her work: ‘I want to make things that fill a place, regardless of the size o the individual components used. My ideas are often linked to points at which opposing forces merge; chaos and control, life and death, growth and decay’.

During her residency at Persistence Works, Morgan developed 2 new pieces of work: ‘Perge (Crowdpleaser)’ is a 14 metre long aerial sculpture made from thousands of tiny torn pieces of plastic bag. ‘Warning’ is a 5 metre high exclamation mark for which Morgan used bits of grass, debris and fluff.

Deborah Kermode was commissioned to write the text on Morgan’s work. This text and images of the work created during the residency can be downloaded here Deborah Kermode pdf file In conjunction with the residency we invited a number of speakers to talk about the ‘role of visual art in the public realm’. The transcript of that event can be downloaded here pdf file

Programme I - Residency 3 ‘Artists and Contemporary Visual Arts Festivals’

Artist in Residence: Becky Shaw worked for a period of 2 months at Persistence Works as part of the Art Sheffield 05: Spectator T contemporary visual arts festival. Shaw makes projects that explore and experiment with the relationship between individuals and society. Originally wondering whether Tony T, the fictional character created by Gavin Wade for Spectator T, would perhaps be interested in signing up for a course in Forensic Engineering, Shaw started to look into the nature of this course. According to the course handbook ‘… forensic engineers are employed in various engineering practices, such as accident investigation, to find out the cause, responsibility and remedial action needed to prevent a similar accident’. ‘Like Tony’, Shaw concluded, ‘the course is interested in the qualities of destruction, rather than construction.’For further details on Spectator T, please visit www.artsheffield.org A text by Jaspar Joseph-Lester and images of work are contained in this downloadable document

Programme I - Residency 2 ‘The Social Function of Art’
June/July 2005
This residency looked to explore the role of artists within society and their potential for working in a community context. Artist in Residence: Hilary Lloyd produced a number of photographic slide works based on encounters she has with different people ‘doing things’ in Sheffield. More information and images are contained in this (PDF download text and images). We also ran a collaborative community project; Artists United a hip-hop football derby which brought together local talents in visual art, music and dance as well as sport. The project artist acted as a creative facilitator and mentor for two placement artists and with the support of many local agencies, organisations, groups and individuals brought about an event which enabled people of diverse cultural backgrounds, age and gender to unite. More information and images of this project are contained in this downloadable document, ( pdf format, 325kBytes).

Programme I - Residency 1 'AUTONOMY?!
February/March 2005
This Residency in partnership with Creative Partnerships Barnsley, Doncaster, Rotherham explored creative thinking and learning skills. The project involved the artist in residence and also four creative learning projects with artists working in partnership with schools and eight placement opportunities for emerging artists wanting to work in education. Through exploratory and experimental activities 72 pupils were enabled to lead and motivate their own learning experience.
Artist in Residence: Benedict Phillips tried to reveal the invisible world of the Dislecksick Intelagent Visjon (DIV) and to share his creative process with a wider audience through public performances, contribution to seminar event and school visits.
More information and images about this whole project are contained in this downloadable document, ( pdf format, 450kBytes). ‘Autonomy?!’ publication is available on request from rachael@artspace.org.uk