Come and join artist Karen MacDougall and Penrith and Eden Museum curator Judith Clarke during Wednesday 7th and Thursday 8th April for action packed creative workshops in one of the shops in the Devonshire Arcade (beside the George Hotel) as Art meets History at the shops!

Karen MacDougall: ‘Touch some of the stuff from behind the glass and hold real items from the museum collection, discover for yourself how Penrith has changed and join me in creating your own piece of Iconic Eden – no previous art experience is needed!’

Topics explored will be: The Giants Grave and other myths and legends, making a rubbing of the Penrith seal to take away, a mystery object or two plus items from ‘Whose Story is it Anyway?’ and handling objects from the local studies collection.
Karen will be asking you to vote on Eden’s most Iconic view – let us know what you think!

The workshops are free, running continuously between 10 am and finishing at 4pm. The whole session takes about an hour – you can join at any time and leave when you like.
Suitable for ages 3 – 103, but young children must be accompanied by an adult.

Karen MacDougall and Judith Clarke have led many workshops showing museum treasures and using these as starting points for art. Adults accompanying the school children on school visits to the Penrith and Eden Museum have said that these sort of sessions should be open for EVERYONE, not just school children, so these two days of workshops aim to redress the balance and reach out to Eden residents and visitors to the area.

If you need any more information contact Karen MacDougall 017683 62499.

You are invited to
Arcade in collaboration with Eden Arts
an Exhibition #Town2Town
5th – 20th March 2010
A dual sited exhibition of arts in empty shops in both Carlisle & Penrith

Launching Fri 5th March at 8pm Lowther Arcade Carlisle
with Arts throughout, live music & Mini Food Fest from The Circle Cafe Bar.

Launching Sat 6th March at 12 noon in Devonshire Arcade, Penrith
with Arts in empty spaces and Poetry in association with World Book Week.

plus additional activities programmed throughout including workshops, performances, The Meanwhile Empty Shops Tour (see attachment) and more – see blog arcadeart.blogspot.com/ for updates or visit www.arcadeart.org.uk

Arcade express sincere thanks to Eden Arts, Carlise City Council Arts Development, Meanwhile Projects, Walton Goodland & Penrith Retail Ltd. in development of this project.

Arcade …in collaboration with Eden Arts

arcade is an artist-led initiative which aims to encourage the bringing together of artists and creative practitioners working in broad ranging art forms, and to organise openly accessible events in public ‘non-gallery’ spaces.

Projects to date have been organised specific to a Victorian built walkway Lowther Arcade in Carlisle city centre, Cumbria where the area is turned into an arts ‘hotspot’ using: the main walkway and architecture, several empty shop units or windows, plus adjoining businesses throughout.

May 2008 saw the very first initiative for Arcade with artists working together in consultation with commercial property agents to create a short programme of art interventions specific to the place; establishing new art/business links and importantly highlighting issues of regeneration in the forgotten public ’space’.

Our next Project proposes the same use of the Carlisle space but additionally Arcade are now collaborating with Eden Arts in order to incorporate further empty shop use within Devonshire Arcade, Penrith: thus creating a town to town link project in enquiry which will aim to stimulate interest from both artists practice and happening in survey.

Arcade has now gathered together an eclectic and stimulating collection of artists proposals for both the Penrith and Carlisle arcades – full programme details soon to be announced!

You can hear Chris Hurford’s BBC radio interview by clicking these links:
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[View with PicLens]

We are currently accepting proposals for the shop in Devonshire Arcade in Penrith as to the potential for art projects to use the shop windows when units are empty. Obviously from the owners point of view and from the perspective of the shops that are open empty units are not particularly attractive or interesting or enhancing the arcade.

We can simply place artworks in the windows or more elaborate installations can be created. We don’t have any funds to commission work but we should be able to source/pay for lighting and display materials etc. We are open to any suggestions at present so if you have any please contact us at enquiries@edenarts.co.uk

for further information see http://www.edenarts.co.uk/empty-shop-project/

17 November 2009 1:00pm – 4:00pm; Methodist Hall, Fisher street, Carlisle

Carlisle is set to host an Empty Shops Symposium instigated collaboratively between the Cumbria Network and Freerange Artists, brought together by artist Caroline Dalton, instigator of the Arcade project in Carlisle.

Recently Caroline attended the first ever national Empty Shops conference hosted in Worthing by The Empty Shops Network, and she has brought lots of information back with her, but also she has invited guests including planners, councillors and speakers including Dougald Hine from Space Makers and Paul Kingsnorth author of ‘Real England’ to join in the conversation; aiming to steer a wider debate about the use of empty spaces and their connection to the wider campaign to defend the distinctive character of our town centres.

There are a lot of initiatives popping up throughout Cumbria related to using empty spaces including Devonshire Arcade in Penrith, new spaces in Whitehaven, and ongoing progress in Carlisle. There are also a lot of issues – this event will look at information sharing and gaining knowledge about negotiating the redundant space. Free Event Open to all -
but please book through the Cumbria Network.

http://www.thecumbrianetwork.co.uk/empty-shops-symposium

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This Saturday Penrith will host Eden’s contribution to The Big Draw, a nationwide project using drawing to connect visitors with their museum and gallery collections, urban and rural spaces. Local action group Heart of Penrith and Eden artists A Dab Hand are being supported by The Learning Revolution to run “Drawn in Time” on the next two Saturdays, 24 & 31 October, from 10-3pm.

It’s your chance to have your say – visually – about aspects of Penrith town, whether it’s brand new developments like New Squares or a forgotten corner that has a special place on your heart. And the project will help bring new activity into the town by using one of the currently empty shops in Devonshire Arcade.

“We will be on hand to provide inspiration and give friendly advice” said artists Alex Jakob-Whitworth and Diane Steadman. “It doesn’t matter how old you are or when you last picked up a pencil. The important thing is that everyone is being given a chance to say something.”

The drawings will be professionally bound into a “Book of Aspirations”. Those who can’t access the sessions can submit their drawings via the internet on drawnintime@yahoo.co.uk or at participating Penrith shops, Artware, Sands and Bluebell Book Shop, and architects John Bodger Associates.