Please scroll the gallery below for selected images from some of Art Pop-Up’s projects (with further details below):
1: Being British exhibition & community engagement programme
2: Once Upon a Time residency, exhibition & education programme
3: Arts Festival
4: Fresh Take at Burghley residency, exhibition & engagement programme
5: Concept exhibition & engagement programme
6: Red Lion Sq Paint Jam – street art festival
7: Art Trail & engagement programme
8-9: Orchard walkshops, education, outreach & cultural heritage programme
- Being British: A free art exhibition and community engagement programme alongside outreach workshops with 6 schools that explored what it meant to be ‘British’, considering notions of identity and cultural heritage and its iconography. The exhibition showcased contemporary and conceptual artworks including portraits of Ricky Gervais as Charlie Chaplin by internationally renowned photographer Jay Brooks, alongside works from 12 other selected artists.
IMAGE: In Gest by Fi Burke
- Once Upon a Time: A residency and art exhibition with a schools education and engagement programme that explored the repurposing of fairytale conventions, siting these morality tales in contemporary contexts, to consider shifting perceptions of good and evil, such as how environmental concerns are revising some views on consumption and mass production. The free programme was supported by the Woodland Trust, Natural England and The Ernest Cook Trust and featured 6 artists including the internationally acclaimed Estonian film maker Anu-Laura Tuttelberg.
IMAGE: Tree of Contrition (detail) by Sam Roddan
- The Stamford Arts Festival, part of the BBC’s creativity initiative, funded by Arts Council England, took over the town centre at 9 free ‘Performance Spots’, encompassing street theatre, live music, performance poetry and a new contemporary dance work. Produced with the aim of broadening the very traditional local cultural offer, it opened up experiences to new audiences through high quality performances in community spaces. 2 new public artworks were commissioned which are now sited on Stamford High Street and in the hospital on permanent loan.
IMAGE: Performer Darren Rawnsley
- Fresh Take at Burghley: The arts residency at Burghley House stately home featured 6 selected local artists with a broad range of practices – from street art to sugarcraft. The artistic responses to the House’s interior and its history juxtaposed the traditions of Burghley with current contexts. The collaborative research and development phase assisted by an advisory panel allowed the artists to eschew traditional approaches creating works that were innovative in medium and concept, providing a sympathetic but challenging complement to Burghley House’s exceptional collection of historic paintings and artworks. The final works were exhibited in the House’s State Rooms across the summer with a free engagement programme.
IMAGE: Memento Mori by Jason Duckmanton
- Concept: the free exhibition of conceptual artworks showcased a broad range of selected innovative contemporary artworks. Brought together as a strange and fascinating collection, each artwork concocts a story, engenders enquiry and deliberation as its premise, (rather than a simple, fundamental appreciation of beauty). The concept conveyed is the basis of the artwork itself, depicted in intriguing details and unusual materials.
IMAGE: Emmonsail’s Heath by Sam Roddan
- Red Lion Sq Paint Jam: the annual one day street art festival 2021-2024, was a free live art event with renowned artists painting murals throughout the day in the town square engaging with a wide variety of thought- provoking subjects including diversity and racism, the societal impact of online gaming, local heritage, conflict and war, feminism, biodiversity and sustainability, mental health and food poverty.
IMAGE: Works in progress by NYCES & Rose Croft
- Art Trail: The free pop-up art trail exhibited 60 digitised artworks, in an outdoor trail with accompanying education and family engagement programme. Art Pop-Up commissioned interactive Augmented Reality as part of the trail, including a piece by the internationally acclaimed Metageist. The works are now on permanent display at Bluecoat and St Augustine’s Primary schools (areas of high deprivation).
IMAGE: Paul Kneen
- Orchard: Free WALKshops, education, outreach & cultural heritage programme. Artists in residence, Emily Bowers and Kathryn Parsons shared research and inspiration from the community orchard and surrounding area. Kathryn and botanist Sarah Lambert devised 3 urban WALKshops – walking workshops – for participants to understand how an artist ‘looks’ and interprets the natural world, learning more about the local environment. The programme also included a series of events/performances sharing the cultural heritage around orchards.
IMAGE: Storyteller Mark Fraser