Art Academy at the ICA, London.

Islington Mill Art Academy visited London at the weekend to take part in Word/Play, an event curated by Terry Smith at the ICA. Word/Play is a part of Talk Show, a month long season of events, discussions and artworks, including an exhibition of speech taking place throughout the ICA. The Art Academy previously worked with Terry Smith taking part in a 'Speakeasy' event at Wimbledon School of Art in January this year. Word/Play brings together many of the elements which have been successful during the first season of 'Speakeasy' at Wimbledon. More information is here: http://www.ica.org.uk/Talk%20Show+19466.twl

Visiting Artists: Pippa Koszerek & Caner Aslan

This week, IMAA has the pleasure of hosting artists, Caner Aslan and Pippa Koszerek who are here at Islington Mill for short residencies.

Caner has travelled all the way from Istanbul and is here at the mill for 10 days. We first saw Caners work in last years Berlin Biennale when we were in the city organising the Free Art School at Westgermany. Caner has recently taken part in 'Straw Poll', a poster exhibition in the windows of shops and other premises along Chapel St. in Salford, coinciding with the 'Sounds from the Other City' festival.

Pippa is here for the first of three visits to Islington Mill, which are to take place over the next two months. Her work involves the creation of organisations as artworks/curatorial projects such as the Independent Art School (1999-) and The Unasked-for-Public Art Agency (2006-).

Art Academy at the Arnolfini, Bristol.

This week, Islington Mill Art Academy took part in a panel debate held at the Arnolfini in Bristol entitled 'Who can afford to be an artworker?' The debate is Swedish artist, Annika Eriksson's contribution to the 'Lapdogs of the Bourgeoisie' exhibition just opened at the Arnolfini. The panel debate which took place before the opening of the show was preceded by an intense and exciting month-long email debate with the 3 other participants, Fatima Hellberg, Metod Blejec and Helen Marten. 'Who can afford to be an artworker?' aims to explore the mode in which a young generation is shaped by the pragmatics of working and living in the art world today. 

Opening of Islington Mill reference Library

This week sees the launch of the new Islington Mill Arts reference Library, initiated by the Art Academy working with artist Gary Leddington. The library is an arts resource comprised of artists monographs, exhibition catalogues and survey publications as well as cultural theory ranging from philosophy to art. One of the long-term goals of the library is to develop a specialised section of publications from locally based artists. The library is a free and publicly available resource compiled on a donations basis, with over 300 publications attained from the initial call. The library will be launched on Monday 16th and will be officially open to use by appointment from then onwards. Coinciding with the exhibition The Dilemma of Archive, the launch will see the library open for browsing and is the perfect opportunity to bring along any donations.

Instructions for a Drawing Class

IMAA have begun the first of a six week long remote postal project with artist Chloe Briggs. We have enlisted 4 groups to take part in the project. The other groups are based in Marseille, Glasgow and Berlin. Communication between the groups will be restricted to the postal service only for the duration of the project. Here are some excerpts from Chloe's introduction to the project: "The 'Instructions for a Drawing Class' are being offered as an experimental form of art school syllabus that I will send by post once a week. I am interested in the potential for a written set of 'instructions' to activate a meaningful class/educational experience directed from a distance and without a teacher present. The 'classes' that I have designed evolved out of my interest in how to engage students in a creative process that involved risk-taking rather than a limited focus on the assessed end product required by the institution; work that interests me most is often deemed a failure by students."

Art Academy take part in Frieze Survey

Islington Mill Art Academy have contributed a piece for the current Frieze magazine survey on professionalism in the arts. Frieze asked 16 curators, writers and artists how they thought the languages, codes, education and buisness methods resulting from an increasingly professionalised art world are affecting creative freedom. You can read the piece here:

http://www.frieze.com/comment/article/professionalization

IMAA at Wimbledon School of Art

Eight members of Islington Mill Art Academy travelled to London this week at the invitation of artist, Terry Smith. Terry is a drawing fellow at Wimbledon School of Art. He organises a weekly 'Speakeasy' session which he describes as 'a drawing class where no one draws'. Terry invites people whose work he is interested in, to suggest a format for each session. The events are open to students from all disciplines at Wimbledon as well as students from Chelsea school of art and Camberwell.

We brought a number of ideas with us to the event, one of which was our task bag, a paper bag containing 50 cards each outlining a different task. The task bag was something that we developed with artists, Helmut Lemke and Kerry Morrisson during the first months of the Academy. It was to be used in the event of reaching an impasse with a piece of work or being in the studio and not knowing what to do. Putting a hand in the bag to take out a card meant tha the task had to be completed. 

We talked with the students about our respective experiences of art education and it was an interesting experience for us to connect with peers who have opted to take the University route through education. We managed to maintain an informality to the events throughout the day. The afternoon session evolved spontaneously into a staring match between students from Wimbledon and the Art Academy. Each group stood and sat in classic school photo formation on either side of a large assembly room with a long roll of paper on the ground connecting us. Each person to lose their composure had to leave their team. It was a long and testing battle of minds but at the outset, the free educators won the day!

Visiting Artist: Tony Trehy

Tony Trehy, text-poet and curator of Bury Art gallery visited the Academy this week to give a talk about his work. Tony talked about his approach to writing and read some extracts from his latest book of poetry, 50 Heads. He also shared ideas about his curatorial work at Bury Art Gallery and the success he has had in bringing internationally renowned artists to work there. A number of members from the Art Academy presented recent work after the talk.

Visiting Artists: Terry Smith & Chloe Briggs

On Monday, artists, Chloe Briggs and Terry Smith made journeys from Paris and London respectively to visit us here at Islington Mill. Chloe and Terry were introduced to the Art Academy through the letter that we contributed to the Art Monthly 'Future of art education' debate and were interested to know more about the workings of the group.

Chloe is an artist and tutor at the Parsons school of Art and Design in Paris while Terry is an artist and drawing fellow at the Wimbledon College of Art in London. They both have a personal interest in art education having written on the subject and have both employed experimental teaching methods in their practice.

We gave them a tour of Islington Mill, introducing them to the way in which we work. We talked about our ideas for our education and how we are trying to achieve this through the Art Academy. We hope to work on some projects with Chloe and Terry in the near future.

Art Academy at Transmission Gallery

Islington Mill Art Academy are taking part in a show called Moot Points taking place at Transmission Gallery in Glasgow throughout November. They will be there from Monday 3rd till Sat 8th November and will be organising a range of events during this time. For anyone who will be in Glasgow during that time you are more than welcome to come along:

The timetable of events is below. To get in touch;

Email: artacademy@islingtonmill.com Tel: 07917714369 | 07876617711

  
 

Date	Time	Details of Event
03/11/08	10.30am onwards	The Gallery is Open: Please join us for a Monday morning at Transmission Gallery as we welcome and begin the first day of Moot Points. Members of Islington Mill Art Academy will be serving tea/coffee and fresh Transmission bread baked mysteriously during the night. We will be discussing events and activity planned for the week ahead and will be wide-awake and willing to answer any questions you may have. All welcome!
03/11/08	6pm	Reading Capital: A fortnightly reading group at The Salford Restoration Office, Salford dedicated to reading, in its entirety, Karl Marx's Capital Vol. 1: A Critique of Political Economy. We have organised a simultaneous reading group to take place at Transmission coinciding with the third session of Reading Capital in Salford. We will be discussing the text in conjunction with David Harvey's online lectures. Harvey, a respected academic and writer, has been teaching open classes on the book for 40 years, and the current set of lectures given at the City University of New York have been filmed and made available on-line - http://davidharvey.org/. Please send us an email if you would like a copy of the text in advance.
04/11/08	12 noon	Drawing Club: Sapna Agarwal presents an afternoon of games, drawing with and from memory, including one made famous by Whistler in the text "Painting as a Pastime", by Winston Churchill, which is to be read in the gallery on the following day (5/11/08). Some refreshments and materials will be provided and all are welcome to attend.
04/11/08	6pm	The Free University at Saltoun Arts Project, 1987 – 1991: The Free University started in early 1987 and emerged out of various events across the areas of education, art, politics and  literature. It proposed an inter-disciplinary approach to learning not based on vocational skills, and to challenge the loss of community and neighbourhood. It intersected with many projects and gave rise to more specific, semi independent interest groups. The FU dispersed around 1991. Some of the original members involved in independent publishing and autonomous art projects at the time including Here & Now, Variant, Edinburgh Review, the Saltoun Art Project, and others - will attempt some observations on the continuities across the two decades. All welcome.
05/11/08	2pm	A Joyride in a Paint-box: A reading and discussion group with members of Glasgow Art Club. Texts for this event are: 'Painting as a Pastime', Winston Churchill, 1932 and 'Moot Points', Walter Crane. Please send us an email if you would like a copy of the texts in advance. All welcome.
05/11/08	6pm	Experimental Writing Workshop: led by Michael Wilson. In this writing workshop we will use Polaroids of local public text to create pieces of experimental writing. This piece is borne out of a collaboration between Islington Mill Art Academy, poets and workshop organisers from all over Glasgow. The activity has been developed between the poets, who include workshop organisers from Glasgow University creative writing department and the Mitchell Library. Will we focus on speed, dynamism and group collaboration, everyone welcome.
06/11/08	2pm – 3.30pm	Them and Us: A workshop with John Powles from The Centre for Political Song exploring the origins and tradition of political folk song and its continuing relevance today. The Centre for Political Song is an archive and research centre based at Glasgow Caledonian University. It exists to promote and foster an awareness of all forms of political song; an appreciation of the role of political song in the social, political and cultural life of communities; and to facilitate research in relevant areas of study, whilst remaining free from any political bias.
06/11/08	8pm	An Evening of Political Song with bands and musicians from Glasgow selecting and playing songs from the archives of the Centre for Political Song. Music courtesy of The Tremenduloes, Foxface, Alaistair Huwlett, Plates and Jocky Venkataram.
07/11/08	12noon	Comic Jam: led by Heather Williams. Comic Jams involve the creation of a comic by multiple artists, often without a script to work from. This event will explore unusual themes, games and experiments in storytelling using image sequences. All abilities and skills are welcomed.
07/11/08	7pm	Cinema in Sections: Dr. Jekyll & Mr Hyde: Cinema in sections will present Stevenson's familiar narrative as a installational cinematic experience composed of existing adaptations. Echoing the mid 20th century cinema goings of Bresson and Vache who often spent their days wandering from cinema to cinema watching only incomplete sections of a film before moving to the next; Cinema in sections will break up the usual passivity of the cinematic experience and present a multi-state narrative, navigated according to the subjective whim of the viewer.
08/11/08	2pm	Strawberry Switchblade: The Fans Convention: Andrew Beswick from Islington Mill Art Academy will be using his week in Glasgow to assess the legacy of the 1980's Glasweigan pop duo, Strawberry Switchblade. Andrew will be making a film of his exploits during the week in addition to holding a convention for fans of the band. If you are an admirer of Strawberry Switchblade or know someone who is, please get in touch with Andrew at artacademy@islingtonmill.com
08/11/08	8pm	Band by Night: Maria Dada of Islington Mill Art Academy will present a showcase of new bands and music collectives that are only a few hours old. Prior to this, Maria will be inviting and selecting 10 persons to an afternoon session at Transmission where they will form a number of musical groupings. With Maria's guidance and direction, each of these groups will present the outcome of their collaborations at the showcase gig in Transmission later in the evening. If you are interested in taking part in this ambitious feat of social engineering, get in touch with Maria at artacademy@islingtonmill.com Previous musical expertise is not required.

 
 

Events taking place throughout the week:

 
 

Date	Time	Details of Event
03/11/08 – 09/11/08	10.30am	Breakfast at Transmission: Islington Mill Art Academy will be hosting a daily breakfast at Transmission during the inaugural week of Moot Points. Breakfast discussion topics will be focused on a critique of the previous days activity in the gallery space. The aim of these sessions is in building an element of evaluation into the gallery program as it is unfolding. The breakfasts are open to all and to aid the process of evaluation, the group will invite a specific person to anchor the debate each day. Tea/coffee and fresh bread from the Transmission overnight bakery will be served. Please bring anything else that you would like to eat.
03/11/08 - 09/11/08	Continuous	The Realest:is an occasional zine/publication produced by the people behind 'Comfortable on a Tightrope', the Manchester based live music and art night. Inspired by the scientific/humanist periodical, 'The Realist', the aim of the publication is to produce something real, earnest or sincere. The current issue takes for its theme, Black Mountain College. During the week at Transmission, Comfortable on a Tightrope aim to produce a new issue of 'The Realest' which will document and respond to events unfolding at Transmission. Richard Perry and Laetitia Glenton who make up COAT will be working in the gallery space throughout the week to make this happen. They welcome your ideas, input and contributions.
03/11/08 - 09/11/08	Continuous	Amy Pennington from Islington Mill Art Academy will spend her week in Glasgow keeping an eye on the threshold of Transmission, those that are outside, those that are in. Amy will be engaging with the public using text-based works which will be presented in the gallery over the course of the week.
03/11/08 - 06/11/08	Continuous	Picture Booth : For one week only, your chance to have your picture taken in the only machine of its kind.  Running from Monday till Thursday alongside all of the other events at Transmission this week.
03/11/08 – 09/11/08	Continuous	Aye-Aye Bibliotechnic: Aye-Aye Books is an independent publisher and bookseller based in Glasgow and Salford, steered by Sapna Agarwal and Martin Vincent. The Aye-Aye Bibliotechnic is a small library of books dedicated to the themes and activities of the Islington Mill Art Academy, Moot Points and the expanded field in which they graze. The books come largely from the personal collections of Agarwal and Vincent with additional sequestrations from the stock of the Aye-Aye Books retail operation.

PUBLIC DEBATE

What is the Future of Art Education?A debate about the future of art education is raging on the pages of Art Monthly. In September and October readers will have the opportunity to come along and put their questions to one of two panels of educational professionals and policy makers. The debates will take place in London and Birmingham. The panels will debate the future of art education: is further privatisation, corporatisation and instrumentalism inevitable or are there alternatives? They will respond directly to the question What is the Future of Art Education? Monday October 6 2008, 6.30-8.30pm Ikon Gallery1 Oozells Square, BrindleyplaceBirmingham, B1 2HSThis event is free but booking is recommended.To book call 0121 248 0708.

Morry's letter published in Art Monthly

Kurt Schwitters Merz Barn Residency

Islington Mill Art Academy has recently returned from a week-long residency at the Cylinders Estate in Elterwater, Cumbria. The site is currently being restored and developed as a centre dedicated to the memory of the German Dada artist, Kurt Schwitters. Schwitters worked on the third and final of his Merzbau projects, the Merz Barn in the last year of his life (1947/1948) at Cylinders. The original barn still remains on the site, however one of the walls was taken to the Hatton Gallery in Newcastle in 1965. 

The group used the time to reflect on the development of the Art Academy, one year on from its formation, on how we have developed as artists during this time and how we can progress into the future. The residency was a valuable opportunity to spend time in a peaceful and inspiring landscape and to make work in a contrasting environment to the urban setting in which the group is based. The spirit and legacy of Kurt Schwitters is still very much present at Cylinders and many of us felt inspired to make work in response to this. Cylinders and the Merz Barn residency project is managed and developed by the Littoral Arts Trust.

Posters in 2 Parts

A combination of exhibition, gig and poster making party organised by Maurice Carlin of Islington Mill Art Academy. Reference material was available including Japanese 'Little Theatre' posters, psychedelic posters from the 1970's and a collection of 1980's gig posters from Manchester. Live music was provided by Voida Voida, A Middle Sex and Amy Pennington as well as a few unscheduled and very improvised sets close to the end of the evening! All posters made on the evening have been archived.

Summer Al Fresco Cinema

Film & Video Lunch & Dinner returned to Islington Mill on Monday evening for a special Summer outdoor cinema. Managing to find a 90 min slot between light rain showers, we showed 'Chronicle of a Summer' by Jean Rouch. BBQ and food was kindly provided once again by Ruth. We are planning further outdoor events to take place later in the Summer in the now very beautiful and floral yard at Islington Mill.

Reading Group with Joseph Brotherton 1783 - 1857

A reading group with other events at the Joseph Brotherton Statue, Riverside Walk, Manchester. Music and refreshments will be provided. Please come along.

Monday 14th July 2pm - 7pm.

We will be discussing three texts which are connected by the idea of the 'Art School'. They are:

'The Education of the Un-Artist, Part 1' Allan Kaprow 1971

'The Proto-Academy' Charles Esche 2001

'Opting Out' JJ Charlesworth 2008

Please email us if you would like a copy of these writings in advance.

NB. Riverside Walk does not appear on any map of Manchester. To find it, walk down Bridge St.  leaving Manchester till you reach Albert Bridge. On your right hand side, there are some steps leading down to the banks of the R. Irwell. We will be there.

Free Art School Berlin - Program of Events.

Islington Mill Art Academy                                              

Free Art School -27th May - 8th June.

Westgermany, Skalitzer Str 133, Kreuzberg, Berlin.

Contact: artacademy(at)islingtonmill.com            UK: 00447917714369  Germany: 015204290418

Wed 28th May. 4pm-8.30pm. Initial meeting at Westgermany. This is a chance for persons who have contacted us about the Free Art School to come along to Westgermany to meet with us. We will be serving up Yorkshire tea and biscuits and it will be a good opportunity to talk with us about the upcoming activities at Westgermany. Please come along!

Fri 30th May. 1pm - 2pm. Lunchtime Film Screening at Westgermany. 'A Distinctly Trippy Edge' is a selection of film curated by artist, Gaz Leddington. A mixture of artist film and video, archival footage and excerpts from feature length pictures, 'A distinctly trippy edge' is an hour long meditation on the cultural climate of the 1960's. Part curatorial endeavour and part artwork the show reel takes the various fictional and non-fictional instances of Don DeLillo's 'Underworld' as its organising principle and in a compressed format, attempts to chronicle the ethos of the time.

Please bring along something for your lunch and join us to watch this selection of film.

Sat 31st May. 1pm - 5pm. Drawing Club. Artist, Sapna Agarwal has devised a range of drawing games and activities to be interpreted by the Free Art School. We invite you to join us at Westgermany for an afternoon of drawing! Please bring along materials that you would like to use. We will have materials available for you to use also.

Sun 1st June. Midday - 4pm. Breakfast at Skalitzer Str. 33. amy Pennington from Islington Mill Art Academy would like to invite you to a traditional English breakfast at the apartment (vegetarian option available). There are a limited number of places for this so please email us if you would like to come along.

More information on Skalitzer Str 33: A number of artist groups and individuals from Manchester, Uk have taken on a year-long lease on this space which began on May 1st this year. We see this initiative as a good opportunity to strengthen links between Manchester and Berlin, to create dialogue and build relationships between artists from both cities. Islington Mill Art Academy will be the first of many groups from Manchester to stay in the apartment over the coming year. We hope that you will have the chance to meet with them in the coming months.

Sun 1st June. 7pm - 10pm. Fluxus Experimental Workshop. We invite you to join us in a series of fluxus inspired activities, interventions and random play. This workshop will be a re-interpretation of key performances from the 1960's art group by artists such as Yoko Ono and George Brecht. You can find information about the work of Fluxus at: www.fluxus.org

Mon 2nd June. 11am start. Film re-enactment. Nosferatu: A Symphony of Horror, the German expressionist film by F.W. Murnau is the focus of a film re-enactment project by a group of artists from Manchester including members of Islington Mill Art Academy. We will meet at Westgermany at 11am to watch excerpts and discuss sections from the film. Following this, we will venture out into the city with film cameras to re-enact and film sections from the movie. We invite you to join us in this activity. The project is an ongoing self-directed activity by the artists involved. In this sense, it has no fixed outcome, instead allowing each development of the project to suggest the next stage. The recordings and decisions taken in Berlin will contribute to a collection of film recordings and documentation from the entire group. It is hoped that collaborators from Berlin will continue working with us on this project in the future and/or choose to develop sister projects from Berlin.

Mon 2nd June. 7pm - 8.30pm. Reading Group at Westgermany. The Salford Restoration Office reading group is a weekly discussion group reading cultural theory and philosophy at Salford Restoration Office, Salford, Manchester every Monday evening, meeting at 6pm. We have organised a simultaneous reading group to take place in Berlin at Westgermany. We will read and discuss the same text that is being read in Manchester. The text for discussion this week will be the introduction to In a Queer Time and Place by Judith Halberstam. We will send an email link to this text prior to the day and will also have a few spare copies to hand on the evening.

Tue 3rd June. 12 midday. Artist Talk: Nick Crowe is an artist based in Manchester and Berlin. His work encompasses a range of strategies which explore the role of technology and its contingent effects on everyday life. He has a specific interest in the use of glass as a contemporary material and has worked extensively with digital media making works for gallery and internet presentation. More information is available at www.nickcrowe.net

Tue 3rd June. 8pm. Poetry Reading at Westgermany. Michael Wilson and Andrew Beswick from Islington Mill Art Academy will be reading from selections of their own work and other writing that has inspired them. Prior to this, Andrew will be collecting poetry from Berliners in various locations of the city throughout the day. The reading will be informal and open to people who would like to read from their own writing so please feel free to bring along your own work!

Wed 4th June. 4.30pm. Walking Tour of Skulpturen Park, Kommandantenstrasse / Neue Grunstrasse, lead by Hannah zinecker. Meeting point to be announced by email in advance.

Fri 6th June. 9pm onwards. All the Critics Love U in New York. Artist, Yuen Fong Ling invites you to take part in a public life class with members of the Islington Mill Art Academy. A mix of performance, workshop and tutorial, the format is twisted to explore the popular mythology of the life model. All levels of drawing skill are invited, please bring materials with you, some will be provided.

Free Art School-Berlin. 27th May - 8th June

Islington Mill Art Academy will be setting up a temporary free art school in Berlin later this month from 27th May till 8th June 2008. We will be working from an art and music space in Kreuzberg called Westgermany (133 Skalitzer Str.) We are inviting Berliners to join us in a number of activities that we will be organising during our residency there. If you would like to get involved, please email us.

A number of groups and individuals from Manchester (including the Academy) have taken on a year long lease on a flat in Kreuzberg, Berlin so we hope to be spending quite a bit of time in the city over the coming year. We see this as an opportunity to make some strong links between Manchester and Berlin and to create dialogue between artists working in both cities.

Symposium of the Local. Castlefield Gallery

Islington Mill Art Academy are participating in 'Symposium of the Local' at Castlefield Gallery. Conceived by p-10, a curatorial group from Singapore, the exhibition aims to explore how locally based creative industry and artists work in an international arena and the extent to which location, nationality and geography play a role in the production, direction and dissemination of contemporary art.

Visiting Artist: Mary Oliver 07/04/08

On Monday, we were joined by artist, Mary Oliver. Mary talked about her practice and we discussed work including 'Mother Tongue' in which Mary performed in synchrony with herself as her mother and her three sisters and more recent works like 'Fly me to the Moon' and  'Somewhere between Heaven and Earth'. This was followed by members of the Academy in turn presenting recent work. Much of the days discussion was focused on art education with Mary sharing her experiences of working within University based art education.