Thursday 29 July 2010

leeds alternative comics fair

The following is being organised by right-good-lad Hugh 'Shug' Raine and Steven 'Banal Pig':

Leeds Alternative Comics Fair
18 September 2010
12:00 - 18:00

At: Nation of Shopkeepers, Leeds (Cookridge St, behind the Art Gallery)

More info Comics, zines, and more from the cream of small press creators from Leeds and the North.

List of exhibitors to be announced soon.

See the Facebook Page

'big society'

A window exhibition, viewed from the street
4/08/10 – 28/10/10

Space Station Sixty-Five invites you to respond to the notion of ‘Big Society’.

What is the 'big society' if not arts for everyone? Tiny grants already stretch far into communities, making music, dancing and art, engaging with history and heritage, drawing people together in shared emotions and experiences. Civic pride, quality of life, pleasure and endeavour (and art for arts sake) is cheap for its rich returns, but it's not free. Polly Toynbee, 'Arts for everyone is cheap considering its rich returns', The Guardian, Wednesday 28th July 2010

Your contributions may be selected to make an evolving window exhibition at Space Station Sixty-Five.

To take part please email us a Word, RTF or Pages document or a jpeg with an image at 300dpi.

You may also post contributions, no larger that A4, to Space Station Sixty-Five, 65 North Cross Road, London SE22 9ET

We are sorry, original artwork will not be returned, copies are preferred.

If selected, your work will be attached to the inside of the Space Station Sixty-Five window and viewed from the street.

We look forward to receiving your emails and postal contributions; the exhibition will develop as they arrive. As we receive submissions they will be put up in the window, so the sooner you send us stuff, the longer your work will be seen for.

Space Station Sixty-Five
65 North Cross Road, London SE22 9ET
020 8299 5036
http://www.spacestationsixtyfive.com
info@spacestationsixtyfive.com

Tuesday 13 July 2010

the big bum jumble

(From my inbox...)

The Big Bum Jumble
Saturday 14 August 2010, 12-5pm
Stratford Circus
Theatre Square
London E15 1BX
www.stratford-circus.com

Email: bigbumjumble@gmail.com
Blog: www.bigbumjumble.blogspot.com
Facebook group: Big Bum Jumble

The Big Bum Jumble, where Fatshion in the UK takes an ethical turn

The Big Bum Jumble is landmark fatshion event selling low-cost second-hand and vintage clothes in sizes XL+. It will take place on 14 August 2010 in London's East End, and will comprise a traditional jumble sale, a catwalk show and other activities, as well as the chance to participate in a film of the event.

Kay Hyatt, its principle organiser, is a fat activist who often struggles to find clothes to fit. Knowing that other people were in the same position, she decided to do something about it after attending a similar event in the US. Kay explains: "I was impressed by the celebratory atmosphere, the friendliness, the sense of community and, of course, the excellent fashion. It was like jumping into a giant dressing-up box. I wanted to bring that feeling home."

Kay says: "Fashion can be creative and playful, it can help you feel really good about yourself. I think this should be available to everyone regardless of size or background." She adds: "Although The Big Bum Jumble is a sale, it's also anti-consumerist, all about reusing and recycling, and it has a DIY-culture ethic of making something out of the resources available to you."

"The situation is improving but, unless you can afford the high-end stuff, plus-sized fashion is often limited to poor quality, overpriced and ethically-dubious products sold by companies who see fat people as self-hating, desperate consumers. We deserve better."

The Big Bum Jumble is a fundraiser for further fat activist community events in the UK, including the proposed 2012 Fattylympics. The Big Bum Jumble has been partially funded by The Fat of The Land: A Queer Chub Harvest Festival, which took place in London on 3 October 2009. Please visit that event's blog for more information: http://queerchub.blogspot.com

birmingham zine festival postcards exhibition

From my inbox, from Lizz Lunney...

Artists! Email birminghamzinefestival@gmail.com for a postcard for the
Birmingham Zine Festival Postcards Exhibition
Tell your friends! details are on the website www.birminghamzinefestival.com
(it's exciting, you get artwork sent to you by someone else at the exhibition!)

Also to express interest in being involved in any other part of the festival- get in touch! yes yes

We will be sorting out stall bookings in the next couple of weeks (there is limited space but we have communal tables too and plenty of other stuff you can be involved in)

Tuesday 6 July 2010

out of the closet and into the street exhibition

Out of the Closet and Into the Street: Posters of LGBTQ Struggle

July 3, 2010 - September 26, 2010

Venue: ONE Archives Gallery & Museum
Location: 626 N. Robertson Blvd., West Hollywood, CA 90069 USA
Website: www.politicalgraphics.org

Gallery Hours:
Friday: 4:30-8:30
Saturday & Sunday: 1-5

Despite decades of affirmation and positive role models engendered by the LGBTQ liberation movements, discrimination based on gender and sexual orientation continues. Hospitals still refuse to allow lesbians and gays to be with their sick or dying partners by restricting visitation to “family” only. Same-sex couples are denied equal inheritance rights, pensions and health-care benefits, and lesbian and gay parents are often denied custody of their children. Violent attacks and homicides against members of the LGBTQ community continue and recent legal gains are tentative and subject to reversal—Californian’s right to marriage equality was taken away; open lesbians and gays continue to be excluded from the military; and as recently as February 2010, the Governor of Virginia signed an executive order deliberately removing gays and lesbians as a protected class in state-wide hiring procedures.

For more than 40 years, political posters have been one of the primary art forms to challenge the oppression of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer individuals and communities. Whether institutionalized through legislation or conducted culturally through physical violence or psychological negativity, this exhibition focuses on homophobia as a violation of human rights and uses the power of graphics to expose injustice, defend rights and celebrate victories.

Sunday 4 July 2010

taking cultural production into our own hands - online

The content of the zine, Taking Cultural Production Into Our Own Hands is now available to read online, via the Grassroots Feminism website.

Thanks to Red for organising this.

Read it here: http://www.grassrootsfeminism.net/cms/node/701

bedizzened

Rachael House is exhibiting at this; I therefore suspect it's likely to be bloody great!

Bedizzened
A thorough diffusion of feeling


APT Gallery, 6 Creekside, Deptford, London SE8 4SA

8 – 18 July 2010

Free exhibition, all welcome

Thursday to Sunday from 12noon to 5pm and at other times by appointment.

Preview: Wednesday 7 July 6pm to 8pm
Discussion with artists: Thursday 8 July 3pm to 5pm
Tea party: Sunday 18 July 3.30pm to 5.00pm
Performance by Calum F Kerr: Sunday 18 July 3.30pm


Transport:
DLR – Deptford Bridge or Greenwich
British Rail – Deptford Station from London Bridge
Bus – 47, 53, 177, 188, 199
Free parking on Creekside

Exhibitors:
Edwina Ashton, Jennifer Ball, Donna Barnett, Johanna Berger, Cornford & Cross, Jenny Dawes, Othello De’Souza-Hartley, Sophie Eade, Russell Eade, Sandra Erbacher, Mia Fernandes, Rebecca Fortnum, Karin Hanlon, Rachael House, Robin Hutt, Marcus Jefferies, Calum F Kerr, Louisa Minkin, Richard Moon, Damien O’Connell, Cathie Pilkington, Nicola Plant, Matilda Power, Alice Prior, Liam Scully, Lucy Soni, Finlay Taylor, Lindi Tristram, Jessica Voorsanger, Sara Willett, Rosalie Woods, Amy Petra Woodward

Cathie Pilkington appears courtesy of Marlborough Gallery
Edwina Ashton appears courtesy of WORKS|PROJECTS


carnival of feminist cultural activism

I'm on the organising committee for this upcoming conference/festival. Please feel free to submit proposals...
Love, Melanie x

[edit as of Sept 2010: I am no longer personally involved with this event]


CARNIVAL OF GRASSROOTS CULTURAL FEMINIST ACTIVISM AND ART

www.FEMINIST-CULTURAL-ACTIVISM.net
3-5 March 2011
Centre for Women's Studies
University of York,
UK
E: carnival@feminist-cultural-activism.net

Conference Announcement

We welcome proposals for a three-day international conference and festival of academic papers, presentations, performance, exhibitions & workshops.

The event is designed to generate action as well as debate, and to inspire, celebrate & challenge understandings of women, grassroots art & politics.

We ask: can feminist art change the world and, if so, how? and we invite responses from activists, artists and academics.

To get involved, send 300-word proposals for papers, panels, exhibitions, workshops and performances plus a 50-word biography to:
carnival@feminist-cultural-activism.net
or post to:
Carnival of feminist cultural activism
Centre for Women’s Studies
University of York
Heslington
YO10 5DD
UK

Deadline for proposals: 31 October 2010.

Please see website for further details.

FLIER