COU COU
ART CURATION
Clare Carswell is a Creative Arts Industry Mentor for
Stepping Up : The Next Creative Generation
for OYAP, Oxfordshire Youth Arts Partnership.
The programme is an intensive course of training, learning, mentoring, project development and leadership for 18-25 year olds who are looking to start their creative career.
By investing in the talents, skills and creativity of young and emerging artists, young people and cultural organisations will engage fully in participatory arts, which will help open up the arts to young people across Oxfordshire and Milton Keynes.
© Oyap Trust 2015
Sam Isaacs is a young web designer who worked with Clare as his mentor on the OYAP
Stepping Up programme in 2015. Sam now works for Radio Bicester and runs his own design business. You can view Sam's work at www.samisaacscreative.co.uk
After completing the OYAP Stepping Up programme young illustrator Luke Daniels worked with Clare for two years as an intern artist as he developed his illustration work and started his career as a creative. He worked alongside exhibiting artist Cendrine Colin and helped put up her exhibition SHIFT in 2013. He did an ART PITCH residency in 2013. He taught a successful two day illustration course SPOOKI for teens in October 2014 in the project space and had an exhibition of drawings, prints and books, DELI PAPER DOODLES in the AYYO gallery in October 2015. Luke now works as a graphic designer and tattoo artist in Oxford and was a participating artist on Year One of the ILLUSTORY project. As an outcome of that project Luke has been offered a solo exhibition by The Theatre Chipping Norton in July 2017.
© Luke Daniels 2015
© Sam Isaacs 2015
William Harvey, a young inter-disciplinary artist from Oxfordshire is the 2016/17 AYYO intern. Will completed a foundation course at Abingdon & Witney College and has used
his time at the studio to develop new work using sculptural installation, photography, sound, code and data moshing. Will was a participant artist in the 2016 Illustory project
and has now gained a place to study Fine Art at Goldsmiths in October 2017. He was selected to participate in the FESTAL FAVOURS programme for the Charlbury Festival in June 2017. He worked with artist technologist Neil C Smith on an audio visual installation ARC for the Larcum Kendal room in The Corner House Charlbury.
© William H Harvey & Neil C Smith 2017
ILLUSTORY EU launched in the summer of 2016 and is a project offering professional development for emerging artists, illustrators. sound artists and games designers from
the UK and Netherlands.
Mentoring by artists, illustrators, publishers and curators as well as international
networking and exhibition opportunities is offered to participating artists.
Participating artists are encouraged to delve into the literary works that are emblematic
of their own cultures, to consider why they are so loved and to make contemporary visual responses to them and to vision new stories together.
Year one artists, Amy Frances, William H Harvey, Harry Cann, Luke Daniels & Alain Phillips made a successful exhibition 'High Seas and Palm Trees' in response to the pantomime Robinson Crusoe in November 2016 at the gallery The Theatre Chipping Norton. The
theatre will award one young artist a solo exhibition each year. Luke Daniels exhibited
in July 2017.
From 2017 AYYO is partnering with The Theatre Chipping Norton to run the project.
Partnered by
The Theatre Chipping Norton
to run the Illustory project
SLEEP
is the exhibition to accompany the 2017 panto Sleeping Beauty at The Theatre Chipping Norton, by the four young artists who are the 2017 ILLUSTORY project members. They are Ella Sheperd, Emma Pearce, Rosannagh Scarlet and Amy-Rose Holland, all recent graduates from Oxfordshire. You can read short biogs and follow links to their websites below.
AYYO has partnered this year with The Theatre Chipping Norton, to run the ILLUSTORY project, which offers professional development and exhibition experience for young artists from Oxfordshire. The theme of the project is discovering stories and the artists are encouraged to delve into the literary works that are emblematic of their own cultures. They consider why they are so loved and make contemporary visual responses to them and vision new stories together.
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These four artists have taken the play 'Sleeping Beauty' as inspiration for making. The artists have had access to the theatre's unique script, models of the set and sketches of the costume design. Taking in to consideration all of the aspects of the production and story, alongside their own individual research, the artists have worked in collaboration with each other to create an immersive space in playful response to this particular version of the well-known story.
Look out for their artwork all around the theatre foyer and gallery.
The performances will take place between 14th November 2017 and 14th January 2018.
Please go to www.chippingnortontheatre.com for more information.
The Private view will take place on 18th November 8pm - 9.30pm.
There is a performance at 6pm on the same day.
THE ARTISTS
Rosannagh Scarlet Esson
Rosannagh graduated from Oxford Brookes University in 2016 with a 1st Class Honours Degree in Fine Art, and was the winner of the Fine Art Dissertation Prize. She has exhibited in various locations around Oxfordshire and London and, outside of the studio, works in exhibition planning and art consultancy.
Amy-Rose Holland
Amy-Rose graduated in Fine Art from Winchester School of Art in 2015, during which she spent time studying at the prestigious Ecole Nationale Superieure des Beaux-Arts (ENSBA) in Paris. After graduating, Amy worked freelance designing and making, with highlights including working with set designer Simon Costin and helping to house the world's largest uncut diamond at Sotheby's. In January she became Artist in Residence and Technician at Berkhamsted School, where she still currently works.
Emma Pearce
Emma Graduated from Oxford Brookes University in 2016 with a degree in Fine Art and Art History. She has a background in graphics reflecting her study of Art and Design at Banbury College. Her experience as a professional sign writer in the local area since 2010 informs much of her practice; allowing traditional processes and materials to underpin the work. These include: painting, drawing, print making techniques, traditional and analogue photography processes, collage, spoken word and book arts. Drawing inspiration from her own personal experiences, continuing themes in Emma’s work are identity, connection and the idea of taking the viewer on a journey.
Facebook: Em J Design @Emjdesign
Ella Shepard
Ella graduated from Oxford Brookes School of Art in 2016 with a Fine Art BA (Hons) Degree. She has been involved in a variety of creative pathways from assisting contemporary set design at the Royal Court Theatre to working as chief scenic artist at her local theatre. Day to day, she works with cutting-edge technology at Aerial Motion Pictures, using drones for film and TV. Ella has been taking part in group exhibitions for the last few years, exploring the themes of Identity, Exposed and the Unconscious in Brick Lane, Greenwich, Tottenham Court Road to Bath and local Arts Centres.
COU COU curates exhibitions and events in a variety of spaces as well as in our project space. In the last year we have curated events small and large in galleries as well as in urban and municipal gardens, historic buildings, at a solar farm, on a village green, and in the grounds of a French chateau.
We partner with other artists and arts organisations to make innovative and exciting art events happen and as we do we support the artists we work with to take their work to new audiences.
Recently we worked with young curator Sam Hall and artist Janey Carline of Everyone's An Artist to host the DIG experimental performance art week-end for eleven artists in May this year.
We are looking forward to working with the Fundación Sierra de Libar in Spain to deliver the COU COU ANDALUCIA open call international screen event at the Pueblos Blancos Festival in September.
We worked in close partnership with the Charlbury Festival to curate the Festal Favours platform event of performance art, sound installation and experimental printmaking for the Charlbury Festival in 2017.
We work in partnership with The Theatre Chipping Norton to deliver the ILLUSTORY project each year in their gallery.
We partnered with OYAP, Oxfordshire Youth Arts Partnership on youth mentoring.
Partnered by Charlbury Festival
to present the Festal Favours programme
