Engage - Landing Place - The Local in the International

I will be blogging from Engage's conference this year - follow goings on here.

A small introduction:

This year’s Engage conference ‘Landing Place: The Local in the International’ will address the tensions, challenges, stimulations and successes between local and international gallery outreach and education projects and programmes from a range of outstanding creative speakers. A fascinating arena which is well worth the attention of the field, the next few days look set to be a critical, exciting and inspirational exchange of ideas and conversations. I will be blogging as we go and we will all be tweeting like mad (#engconf12), so feel free to comment and question and we will spark up some interesting debates of our own…


Eleanor Shipman

Fireside Chats with Appropriately Appropriated

Fireside Chats @ Spitalfields City Farm Last Wednesday from 6.30pm-8.30pm I hosted a fireside chat. The conversation invited attendees to discuss and explore the motivations, challenges and successes around community-based or socially-engaged art over a 'socially-engaged stew' shared with fellow artists, practitioners and others. 'You are invited to bring in or forage on the farm for ingredients for the stew, creating a collaborative meal which may or may not be ‘successful’ itself, reflecting the risk and surprise elements involved in a socially-engaged art practice. The discussion will use my own experiences as an artist in the field as a point of departure, and you are invited to contribute advice and challenges you have come across, whether as a participant, viewer, facilitator or other. You will be invited to swap tips amongst yourselves, and an archive of the conversation will be created with the originals, as well as soundbites and other documentation from the series.' -- A series of fortnightly evening talks around the fire pit at Spitalfields City Farm on Wednesday evenings that invites new groups and speakers to socialise and collaborate with existing farm networks around the themes of social space, appropriation, nature and community. To each fireside chat there would be a speaker invited to share their particular interest and cook a meal using produce from the Farm and our outdoor fire pit. -- www.appropriatelyappropriated.com

Eleanor Shipman

Art vs Rehab - Workshop and Critical Toolkit

I was invited by artist and researcher Hannah Hull to take part in Art vs Rehab, a project exploring the role of arts in mental health. I ran a workshop for one of the seven focus groups, resulting in a series of critical toolkits. 

'The Role of Art Practitioner's Own Art Practice' can be found here, my workshop is called 'Star Priorities' and aimed to encourage the members of the group to explore and reflect on the differences, similarities and cross overs between what they term their 'own' practice, compared to their 'outreach' practice. For me, they are one and the same.

Eleanor Shipman

'Re-imagine your Elephant' at 'Nursery Row Park goes Rural' Festival

'Re-imagine your Elephant' took place again last weekend (10.09.12) at Nursery Row Park for their 'Nursery Row Park goes Rural' Annual Festival. Again it went down well, despite the vegetables withering (along with everyone else) in the heat. 

Peppers became palaces, Elephant's 'castle' was made with a cabbage leave roof and carrot turrets, and cucumbers, cauliflowers and leeks were sculpted into an alternative South London skyline.

Eleanor Shipman

'Re-imagining our Elephant' with Home Live Art at The Elephant and the Nun Festival, Nursery Row Park

The Elephant and the Nun Festival took hold across Southwark today (2.09.12) for some end of summer shenanigans... Ida Barr aka Chris Green lead his Mash Up with Home Live Art in Nursery Row Park, while local dance groups took to the stage throughout the afternoon. 

Home Live Art invited me to run a workshop as part of the event which I ran as Re-imagine your Elephant. Asking participants to think about their local area, particularly the drastic changes being made through the multitude of regeneration schemes happening across the borough, and providing a platform with which to re-imagine and re-design the buildings of Elephant and Castle using fruit and vegetables from East Street market. 

The workshop went down very well with the local children, and was a busy day of cutting, chopping and sticking fruit and veg together to create some fantastical buildings. From tower blocks to UFOs, monsters to caverns, the brief was slightly veered from but with some brilliant results. With music blaring, dancers dancing the afternoon away and a lot of cake it turned out to be a great festival. 

Eleanor Shipman

6 month residency at Pembroke House coming to an end...

The last six months has been spent on a live-in residency at Pembroke House, a church and community centre in Southwark, South London. 


Here is my blog recording the progress (with some best bits photos below): www.playswap.blogspot.co.uk
and you can watch my short film produced with filmmaker Michael Radford here or below:

Eleanor Shipman