Better Together showed a years work focused on Portraits and a wonderful film we hope to share sometime, of different groups engaging with The Tretyakov Galleries stunning art collection and then returning to their studio space to make art in many mediums. We were so impressed by the work and the people and do hope we can continue to share and work together ( and not let politics affect how we meet through Art and our common humanity).
Some behind the scenes photos on http://shallal-arts.blogspot.co.uk/2018/05/jonathan-and-star-held-stage-as-both.hshallal-arts.blogspot.co.uk/2018/05/jonathan-and-star-held-stage-as-both.html

I'm sitting here at nearly midnight trying to organise slides for final edit tomorrow ( which will rely heavily on Anna's patience and skills) and oh dear i wish i was an archivist or could do efficient filing! I do have files of old work but my dear old macbook might have finally given up in exhaustion as i 'mined' iphoto for images today.
I'm about to moan on but no-one needs to hear about my computer illiteracy so why am i sitting here trying to sort through 1000's of old photos.
Well, many years ago a Russian icon painter visiting London wanted to go to stay near the sea, and as we lived in Newlyn we had a phonecall asking for advice about a visit, we said we would be happy to have her to stay and from that a long and wonderful friendship evolved.
Olga has seen Shallal's work over the years and after her last visit said a friend of hers Alla who works at the Tretyakov Gallery Moscow in outreach programmes was interested in having Shallal visit. Time was too short to organise a group to go so i was invited to give a presentation.
The Tretyakov is a really major art gallery.... it has a very nice vision statement. https://www.tretyakovgallery.ru/en/about/mission/
Very pleased, very nervous of doing it well enough, but i love to share what we do and a trip to Moscow sounded fun, (in the light of current world events we pray for peace) and for art to continue to do that wonderful bridge building humanity inspiring, sharing role it can be.

So the title is: 
Shallal, an overview of an inclusive arts charity based in Cornwall UK.

My name is Sofia Petrikova-Agafonova and   I am head of Education Department of the Tretyakov Gallery.
At the current moment we are working on the program for ...... (autists and people with Down’s syndrome). We are planning to have your lecture in the framework of this project in April.
We are very much interested in the work of your Art Center, all aspects of its activities. Could you include in your lecture and presentation detailed information about its set up, administration, staff, programs, even equipment and furniture. It will set an example for us. We are thinking about organising a similar centre.
Please make a presentation for us about programs...... After your presentation we will have a discussion with you and a small group of my colleagues (art historians and art therapists).........
We are looking forward to seeing you in Moscow and working together.


Thank you for your email. It helps me to know what to speak about. Shallal became a charity in 2005, however we have no core funding and are always seeking financial support so we can continue.
We have no Art Centre as such although we are preparing to use a Studio in the next month or so and create a permanent base for visual art.
We are in Cornwall which is an area of outstanding natural beauty but also an area of rural poverty and so we work in church halls and community centres for our regular dance groups.
We have a relationship with the local university http://www.amata.org.uk/doorways and a small independent modern art studio http://www.backlanewest.org/index.php?/2017/shallal-studios-creation-space/ where we have had residencies/performances etc.
I hope sharing our experience will still be of interest to you, as we are not a centre in a city.

Title of presentation
Shallal, an overview of an inclusive arts charity based in Cornwall UK

Look forward to coming to Moscow and meeting you and learning about your program.


So heres hoping....if i had a functioning laptop i might not be so worried as could work on it on the journey but as it is i need it all on a memory stick before we go.
Hoping tomorrows session with Anna will boost me along.
Anna is coming too ( our 17yr old daughter) she has been in Shallal since 7 or younger so she is a real help having been in Open House, Shallal Dance Theatre, Shallal 2 and the Art residencies, and had to listen to me...i was also for some years infuriatingly not a mobile phone user so she was my unofficial PA while we drove to and from work, taking calls etc!
Any way back to the point.....

GOOD NEWS
Thank you to Lou Brett who has successfully fundraised for some new studio equipment, coming soon! and we have access to our new studio asap.
It is beautiful, a converted modern cow barn, tall and light and an inspiring space and place, on a clear day you can see the sea in 3 directions.
Planning residencies and summer studio days and events.
Lou will run 2 printmaking workshops beginning and end of summer holidays.

George asked us to take photos of installing the exhibition and so we did.....
Oli Raymond Barker was our technician ( & curator ) Anna was there as she chose the Steve Tanner photographs and helped hang the show, she also took the better photos in this batch!  
Thank you to Colin for sorting out the yellow wall! and mounting all the drawings, to Oli for his patience and expertise, and to Simon for helpful conversations and much needed end of the day cake.
We send much love to Victoria who was unable to be with us. 
It was nice to see Tim Shaw whose installation at The Exchange opens this  Thursday and to bump into friends in Penzance. We saw Bob Bourne's recent exhibition at Tremenheere Gallery and it was lovely to see Margaret ( his wife) and hear that at 86 he goes into his studio 3 times a week for a few hours!

So hope you can come to the Opening and Book launch
on Saturday 10 February 3-5pm.

I am off to try to loop films for the monitor! 

Sometimes its hard to know where to store images and information, so today i choose to celebrate Shallal Doorways exhibition here. 
Tea party and celebration on Saturday 13 January 2-4pm, music tbc

It shares the space with sister project from Shallal Studios, Shallal Sketchbooks which goes from strength to strength there are now 93 wonderful different and intriguing sketchbooks from across the community, a visual feast!
Along with a chance to see work made from both shows and sites of the Cornish Doorways Project now coming to its finale! with a performance of both shows on Friday and then indoor short shows in libraries and a final larger art exhibition and book launch at The Exchange Gallery Penzance, 10-24 February
I spent a lovely day with Victoria (Sketchbooks) and Belinda (Photographs) yesterday.
​Thank you Belinda for images:

 More short films from the Cross Boundaries R&D
links on this page:
​ www.shallalstudios.com/cross-boundaries-rd.htmll

and also a book of photographs coming soon by Anna and Annis.

We wanted to make them available but wasn't sure how, a book seemed the best way at present.

Hope you enjoy the films do give us your feedback the film camera is just used for recording the process.
I have another half day of editing CPD with Barbara Santi soon.

Also don't miss the exhibition by Shallal artists at the Exchange Gallery Penzance 10-22 February, with multi media work created for and about their Cornish Doorways project.

We were so pleased to get this support and are still ruminating on how best to take it forward after the residency i have 19 film sections from it, and still some to be done...

Creation Space: from a spark to a flameblog.hallforcornwall.org/arts-talent-development/creation-space-from-a-spark-to-a-flame
The development programmes that we have put in to place at Hall For Cornwall are a direct result of our extensive 1:1 conversations with practitioners across the sector. We work with artists ‘pre-emergence’ through to established mid-career artists and with high quality national partners. We are always working to an extent with unknowns, we don’t know whether work will be funded, we don’t know what will happen during the process of creation, we don’t know who will see it, or how it will be received. What we do know is that we are fortunate to be rich in creativity – I listen to people talking about their ideas day in day out. I am witness to the spark of new ideas that have the potential to grow in to exciting new work. It’s tremendously exciting and I am extremely privileged to be part of these conversations.
Through these 1:1 meetings we discovered that one of the significant practical hurdles within the creative process is how to explore that spark of an idea and to be paid to do that, after all that is the artists job! At Hall For Cornwall we invented Creation Space to kindle that flame within the creative process. An opportunity for artists to collaborate and innovate, we view Creation Space as an investment in professional development that can have an impact on an artists’ practice that reverberates for some time to come.
We use our Creation Space investment to hold space and time for artists to explore and experiment for a week, to invite others to participate in their process and to share their progress at the end of this period of time. The sharing is not intended to be performative necessarily – the process is the focus and if the outcome is that the work will not go forward in this form then that’s fine too. It would be rare for artists to share a space for a week and not to learn anything at all about their own practice that can impact their work going forward.
During the pilot year of Creation Space, we worked with our colleagues at other arts organisations in Cornwall to select six proposals from the field of applications that we felt met our criteria – they were innovative, collaborative and developmental, the combinations of artists and the ideas they wanted to explore throughout the process excited us.

Following on from the last post this is the next day!
I hope to put up films asap, one is done and is from the day after this ....
vimeo.com/240656671
​A few snap shots of the second group day!

Residencies are fantastic opportunities from solo work and focus to a great meeting place and as you know Shallal loves community so there is more mixing and yesterday artists from Shallal Studios, Shallal Dance Theatre and Friends and Dancing all met to explore our new idea - thanks to them all and to Creation Space and Back Lane West for making this possible
Fun photos from George below....
We have been quiet this year as we are focusing on film so it takes longer to share!
Reflection with Kirsty and co from HFC tomorrow so i'm busy collating film clips and looking forward to today with Colin and co!

,So pleased to be back in that lovely space, light, white and so neutral and inviting. So grateful to Jane and Patrick Lowry for their continued enthusiasm and support (and quietly the possibility of Shallal gaining our own studio space is increasing! so, more later on that one...)
First day in Jo L, Zoe O and Maybelle, what a team! and Maybelle's articulate and insightful responses to her work when viewing film captured, she is 7 now and has been in Shallal since she was 2-3 years old.
Then returning artist Jenn Green had 2 days and came back from the first day saying she 'now really understood the value of studio space/time', followed by Anna and Annis, it is always exciting to watch artists extend their themes, develop and progress and this year 'I love their work!'
Below are photos of their setting up ....more to come soon!

Then the lovely Bryant family ( first time in ) with Jo L came back in giggles on Sunday.
So: 
list of artists and dates so far:
October
12 'Out There' Liskeard group
13
14
15
16 Jo L and Luke Austen - new artist, Sam While?
17 Delpha Hudson - invitation to join her see below*
18 Jen Green
19
20
21
22
23 Eddie and Stuart
24 Bryant family
25 Colin and co, Star, George?
26 Colin and co
27 Colin and co and Jo, ( Zoe Wilton?) visit from Creation Space team ( Kirsty Coton, Helen Tiplady, trustees invited) and others to look at residency 11.30?
28 Anna and Annis
28
30
31

Big thank you to Creation Space, Hall for Cornwall for an R&D grant to further trial my idea.
My Creation Space research question is: Cross art form filmed collaborations
3 artists or more, 2 art forms or more and under 5 minute film from the collaboration.

* What am I like?
Clay and film project with Delpha Hudson at Back Lane West 10-2pm, Tuesday 17th October.
Come and explore movement through clay. You will be invited to make a figurine out of clay that represents you in some way, whilst talking about what you are like. You will be filmed whilst making and talking, exploring what you think you are like.
You will be able to take the clay figurine home and the film of the process of making and talking will be made available if you so wish.
Please bring a plastic bag to take home your clay figure.
More information about the process:
The curious thing about the soft plasticity of clay placed in the hand is that it immediately begs to be squeezed, pushed, pulled, manipulated and molded. These very actions seem to lull and relax the mind so no wonder it is used in therapy. Answering the question: ‘what are you like?’ means that without any prior preparation or thought people can talk about impressions of themselves, whilst impressing a figure, animal or object into the clay.
It is a wonderful way to capture a moment in time. The outcome is the video of the process, as much as the object made. These creations are clay as a metaphor of self, and the process of forming notions of selfhood, one that is personal, shared and purely of the moment. Our self-conception continually morphs, and changes.
What am I like? was a short project idea that I started at Newlyn Exchange a few years ago. Please go to link for an idea of the project:  https://vimeo.com/58316308

Nigel is an old friend and we cannot recommend his beautiful enigmatic colour saturated abstract photographs enough, do get to see it if you can!