Oli's exhibition
​newlynartgallery.co.uk/activities/oliver-raymond-barker/

Shallal artist Zoe Wilton asked us to promote the John Daniel Centre collective exhibition, there are some wonderful artists at the centre so well worth a visit.
Lois Wild told su about the new free art group in Truro which also sounds well worth a visit. We hope to take the Shallal Sketchbooks along to it in the future.
Shallal Sketchbooks will be at Holifield Big Tent day Friday 16 June. 

Shallal Sketchbooks come to Redwing Gallery Penzance,
http://www.redwinggallery.co.uk/
a chance for Penwith supporters to engage with this exciting project, and for some to see their sketchbooks on display.
I am thrilled that Shallal Sketchbooks has taken off so well with Victoria's management, direction and inspiration and it is supported by Falmouth Art Gallery till Spring 2018.www.shallalstudios.com/shallal-sketchbooks.html
Victoria first saw the initial sketchbooks, from our 2ii's R&D 2013, at the Pop Up Show that Toby Bridge curated at Redwing Gallery 2016, so it is lovely to return.

In the history of Shallal many people have come at formative times, sometimes they stay and sometimes they leave - we are always grateful for their input. I was so impressed by an exhibition at Breadline, Penzance that Laura organised some years ago, we started talking, as we knew each other already, and then she generously started the original Shallal Studio initiative at it's first home, an outdoor room at The John Daniel Centre Penzance. Later on health and other commitments meant she had to move on but her legacy continued, and we often mention Roaming CIC which she developed and now she has an exhibition.
Do look at her website http://www.laurawild.com/
 and see the show if you can!

 Shallal Sketchbooks:

hand in of Sketchbooks by February 8th,

so they can be on show in Falmouth Art Gallery
www.falmouthartgallery.com/Gallery/Home 
during half term week 13 - 19 February.

They are a fun and wonderful thing to do and a fantastic look at diversity and inspiration in a few pages/books, you can linger on an image or flick through.

Anna's art tutor told her today that her photo was in the West Briton ( so we rushed out to buy one).
Congratulations to Anna and Annis their photo was chosen for the cover photo of the Whats On section, and our press release printed.
To have a photograph from the residency in a major Cornish weekly newspaper is a nice unexpected end to the short term residency outputs, Anna and Annis were the second artists in the studio. It's their third year at Back Lane West and you can see their progression, I am always impressed by their work and enjoy it! and look forward to where it will take them.
Annis is studying Art and Photography A'level ( and ? sorry i have forgotten) and Anna is on the Art and Design Diploma, they are both at Truro College. They were both in Shallal Dance Theatre for some years when they were home educated, and Anna was also in Shallal 2 before college.
​

The showing finished today and we are collecting in evaluations and audience feedback. ( I hope to share some soon).
This was our third residency at Back Lane West and it is now really clear how much all our work benefits, across the art forms and solos and collaborative work, from the time and focus the studio residency provides.
Here's hoping we can get a permanent studio to enable the artists to achieve even more!
​

Yesterday we managed to install our nice new monitor into the show, lovely widescreen showing Oli and Emily's photos with a few others, with background track by Darcy Hodgkinson- an exciting new composer - an unexpected outcome of the residency!
Allowing insights into the residency including the last day and half way through.
The monitor is a great new acquistion to show photographs, film etc
​
"It was really uplifting to see how, now in its third year, the Shallal Back Lane West residency is producing truely cross-art work.  There was an absolute sense of connection between movement, sound and visual art captured in the work, which is rare to find.  This is contemporary art of a very high standard which I hope Shallal can continue to develop and to celebrate far and wide."

more chat and some ideas included in
shallal-arts.blogspot.co.uk/2017/01/monitor.html

The Sketchbooks look great in the space and are going like hotcakes from Falmouth Art Gallery, so wonderful to see it taking off under Victoria's management and inspiration!

www.facebook.com/shallalsketchbooks/

you can see a photo of them in the space at 
www.instagram.com/shallalsketchbooks/?hl=en

Congratulations to all the artists involved. We were able to bring most artists to see the work and all meet to share, which we hadn't managed at Back Lane West final showing this year.
The space looked good with the range of art explored and then like a crucible was filled with the movement, sounds and words which brought it to life!
It proved once again the real value of the time one can give to developing ideas and exploration in a residency.
We are really grateful to the Arts Council for supporting this residency.
All the performance work will appear in in this years show etc.
more photos on www.facebook.com/ShallalDanceTheatreCompany/
​

 
Hope to see you there.

Looking forward to hanging the show tomorrow with Michael and Liz ( new to the museum) and to watching and listening to artists on Saturday at the Private View.
Jo Lumber has some working words to share and Star with Jamie and George will develop impromptu responses to the space and each other.

Meet some of the artists, have a chat and a drink, see the work in another space.... 6 - 8pm Saturday 7 January.
The variety of work created and played with over the month is always fascinaiting and this is our first time to take it outside Back Lane West.

Many thanks to all involved! to Lesley-ann for support at final hour, Michael for poster design, Emily whose photo we are using and Tracy who supported us to be there before moving on.

Last year we could trace back so many ideas and good new work to our previous residency and so this year ( Happy New year by the way ) we look forward to seeing all that grows from this one, already an unexpected plan is hatching...

Photographs by Oli Raymond Barker from the The Collective day at Footprints residency BLW...thank you Oli!
​http://oliverraymondbarker.co.uk/