Walking Together

Walking Together

Walking Together is one of the first projects to come under my new social enterprise, Dingy Butterflies CIC, working in Bensham. Angela Kennedy will lead two walks around Bensham taking in the area, bringing people together in a creative way. Walk 1: Thursday 16th July, 1-3pm Bensham Grove Community Centre to the Shipley Art Gallery […]

Guest blogger for TWAM

Guest blogger for TWAM

Tyne & Wear Archives invited me to be a guest blogger on their website to write and present the Spence Watson Archive Project. You can read the article here.  

Hannah Festival: Echoes of Bensham Grove

Hannah Festival: Echoes of Bensham Grove

On the 17th April, Echoes of Bensham Grove took place. Pete Ross, the Scribblers group and some of Progressive Players of the Little Theatre performed and read poetry, plays and spoken word inspired by Bensham Grove as well as a visit to Tyne & Wear Archives to research the Spence Watson collection. Sound artist Nick […]

Women of Bensham Grove

Women of Bensham Grove

For the workshop Women of Bensham Grove, artist Jane Dudman worked with participants at Bensham Grove took place over two afternoons, 21 and 28th May. Jane concentrated on Elizabeth Spence Watson and the archival material found  in a number of archives in the region as well as online. Participants were given audio recorders and camera’s […]

Spence Watson cloud map

Spence Watson cloud map

This is the cloud map that has been produced through looking through the various archives and collections. Whilst the map is not any way a complete picture of the Spence Watson’s I would like to hear how artists and other interested people could use the map, or one aspect, as a starting point to develop […]

Walkabout

Walkabout

Working with artist Ben Jeans Houghton over three days (23-25 April), ten pupils at Kelvin Grove Primary School worked together to help Ben create footage and a soundtrack for a short film. The children painted a jungle scene as a back drop to them being filmed, created masks, walked around Bensham and visited Bensham Grove […]

Echoes of Bensham Grove

Echoes of Bensham Grove

On the 17th April, Pete Ross, the Scribblers group and some of Progressive Players of the Little Theatre performed and read poetry, plays and spoken word inspired by Bensham Grove and a visit to the Tyne & Wear Archives to research the Spence Watson collection. Sound artist Nick Williams interviewed and created an audioscape of […]

Two FREE Workshops in Bensham

Two FREE Workshops in Bensham

As part of the Spence Watson project I am organising two free workshops and performances at Bensham Grove Community Centre run by artists Stevie Ronnie and Jane Dudman. These workshops are part of the Arts Council funded digital arts and heritage project, ‘The Spence-Watson Archive’, I am currently undertaking with Tyne & Wear Archive and […]

Bensham Grove

Bensham Grove

A few images of Bensham Grove inside and out. The internal photographs show the house after the restoration, which was achieved through a Heritage Lottery grant to try and bring the house back to its Arts & Crafts history as well as keep and maintain it as a working community centre. Also included are a […]