ARTISTS TALKING

# 7 [23 June 2007]

We are now coming to the end of our second exhibition at Gallery Glue, Shop. If you haven't seen it you should come along this week. The final day is Sunday 1st July and we are open 10-6 all week! We have had some really positive feedback about the show and it has been a great opportunity to showcase local talent. We have also been doing the rounds at some free festivals namely the Green Festival and Banoffee Pie Festival. It was great to meet people and spread the word of Glue! The research trips were a great success. We went to market gallery, glasgow sculpture studios and lowsalt gallery in Glasgow. They were all slightly different with their set up but had similar elements to what Gallery Glue wants to do so we have gained some good advice and contacts! In edinburgh we visited Red door gallery (this was more of a shop with artist products, but we visited it for research into displaying items in the shop exhibition), Analogue (a lovely little shop selling artists books with a space in the back to exhibit work) and Total Kunst/ Forest. Total Kunst is an exhibition space joined onto the forest cafe. The profits from the cafe fund the gallery space and exhibitions they put on and the food is rather lovely! Well worth a visit! Next month we are using the gallery space for residencies. A list of which artists and days will posted on here soon. Felicity GG

# 6 [27 May 2007]

Well, its been an extremely busy few weeks for us Gallery Glue folks, so I shall give you a brief run down on what we've been getting up to. 

Our opening exhibition Analogue-9 has been running rather smoothly, we've had more and more people coming into the space since the opening and the response has been very positive.

As mentioned in a previous post we are beginning to build up relations with local schools and community groups and on Thursday, just gone, we hosted an animation workshop taught by Taryn Edmonds and Laura Maragadouki.

Wednesday 30th sees us of on our research road-trip, where we head first of all to the Low-Salt and Market galleries in Glasgow and then to Edinburgh on Thursday to meet the people of Total Kunst and The Embassy. This shall be an invaluble opportunity for us as the more we discuss our project and ideas with similar organisations the more insight we can gain into the 'does' and 'donts' of such a venture.

The past few weeks have been jam packed with meetings in order to establish a structure and a program of events for your viewing pleasure (I have included a list of definite events below... so put them in your diaries!) 

Hot Dog Eating Championships (fundraising event)

Saturday 2^nd June 6pm

Youtubesday (interactive film screening)

Tuesday 5^th June 8pm

Shop (next exhibition)

Preview Friday 8^th June 7-9pm

9^th June - 1^st July Open 10-6pm everyday

Horseglue (sound art festival)

Tuesday 24^th July 6pm

Echo Bar, Chillingham Rd, Heaton

Full details of all these events are up on our lovely website which will be continually updated as we schedule more exciting wonderments.

http://www.gluegroup.org.uk/

Glue Group Claire.x

# 5 [17 May 2007]

Today we had a meeting with the local primary school, St. Teresa's.  We are planning a series of events involving the children from the school.  All sorts of workshops, including performance based art works, photography, out of the ordinary drawing...  We are also pulling together a summer camp week for late July.  We hope to be involving the Hatton Gallery by incorporating our own work with ideas represented in their forthcoming Russian Futurists exhibition.  More information to come.  gg x laura

# 4 [11 April 2007]

It's been a busy few weeks for the Glue Group.  It's important to get you up to speed with our developments, of which there have been many, so this could turn out to be quite a long entry...

Most of our energies have gone into refurbishing the space.  We have all shared a hand in the mammoth tasks of plastering walls, fixing lights, filling in holes, sanding bumps, smoothing cracks and endless layers of white paint!  After some industrious late night sessions we are nearly there.  We have a couple of "problem areas" but I'd say these things add character!

We've had our initial diagnostic session with Esther Salamon, organised by a-n to help us identify our mentoring and research needs.  The session and resulting report was extremely useful in helping us to focus our aims and objectives and identifying the group's strengths and possible threats to our future plans.  These are all issues that must be considered when writing a business plan which we are currently tackling. (Oh the joy!)

It's not all about the painstaking tasks though.  We have put aside a few days in May for a group research trip to Glasgow.  We hope to make contacts with other artist's groups and galleries and get advice and inspiration that we can take back to Gallery Glue.  A road trip is a great opportunity to strengthen the group's dynamic and to get ideas flowing!

The group is gradually becoming more structured, with each of us taking responsibility for different roles.  It has been decided that these roles are to be flexible - much of this project is a massive learning experience and it's important to enable each group member to be involved in a range of tasks and responsibilities.

The Glue Group's website is under construction.  Be sure that we'll inform you when it's ready, and mark this occasion with a launch party, hey why not!?  (On a similar note, there's talk of another fundraising meal at Belle and Herb's Café.  Watch this space for more info.)

One final note - and I think I might keep harping on about this - but since we embarked on our Gallery Glue journey the support from other artists and organisations has been amazing.  It's an aim for the Glue Group to fully integrate ourselves in the existing art community and establish rewarding relationships with other artists, networks and spaces.  We have already received expressions of interest from other parties for collaborative projects and we are looking forward to exploring these further...

Promise to keep you posted, Glue Group (Hannah).

# 3 [8 March 2007]

My word, wasn't wednesday night fun!!  Rammed full, the Belle& Herbs, provided a rather delicious 3 course meal of finest french cuisine to happy eaters!

The whole night was a success - we all knew it would be, the moment the accordian and clarinet duo took stage!!  Tooting and wouwzing!

All proceeds have been put in a pot.  They will be used to perfect the gallery space and prep it for the months ahead.

We have started discussions on organising our first research trip.  We are eager to gain knowledge on the success and failures of organisations similar to ourselves.  Edinburgh may be our first port of call...

# 2 [3 March 2007]

We have organised a series of fundraising events to take place in the next couple of months. The next fundraiser:

Venue/Eatery: Belle'n'Herbs, Heaton Road.

Time: 7.30pm.

Date: Wednesday 7th March.

Price: £15.

Info: A three course evening meal will be held at the Belle'n'Herbs café. Inspired by northern French cuisine, there will be three dishes to choose from, for each course. There will be live music throughout the evening and an auction of art related goods. Customers are asked to bring their own alcoholic beverages.

 We've been galloping through piles of boring business planning and money keeping.  I think we all feel very happy to be able to concentrate on our actual art work now!!  We've each got a 'hard business' role of sorts but the time has come to start enjoying the fact that the next few months are going to be incredible. yehhh!!

# 1 [18 February 2007]

We are hosting a fundraising night in the gallery space (192a, Heaton Road, Heaton, Newcastle) on Friday 23rd Feb. There will be many an arty activity and music from a smashing local act!!!  Starts at 8pm.  Come along and mingle. £2 donation.