Animate

The Birth of Cartoons for British Television, featuring the artwork of Bob Godfrey and Peter Firmin. Sidney Cooper Gallery, 1 November - 13 December Open Tuesday - Saturdays 11am - 5.30pm

This exhibition explores the development of British animation for Children through the work of Bob Godfrey (Roobarb, Henrys Cat, Noah and Nelly, Bunbury Tales) and Peter Firmin (Smallfilms). Historically their work intersects in 1974 with the broadcasting of Roobarb and Bagpuss on the BBC.

Both programmes had a fundamental effect on British children and a subsequent generation, reflected in the growing nostalgia for these programmes. Equally these programmes brought a new fresh view for children which offered a magical world of colour and narratives that were often driven by narrators.

In an age of market driven production, over stylised character design was informed and inflicted by product development. In contrast early children's television was innovative and experimental enabling risk taking and a willingness to acknowledge that a programme can promote imagination. With limited budgets both Godfrey and Peter Firmin produced exciting animation. The exhibition celebrates the range of work produced by the two studios highlighting the different materials and processes used. With a do-it-yourself approach to equipment and studio set ups, from a studio in a barn to a studio in the basement of a house.

The exhibition will also include animations made from Anifest's 2007 Home Grown Talent workshops where five secondary schools from across the Canterbury District were invited to work with Dan Richards, former Animator in Residence at Canterbury Christ Church University and recent graduate Charlotte Linton. Students from Community College Whitstable, Chaucer Technology School, Canterbury High School, Herne Bay High School and St. Anselm's Catholic School were all given the opportunity learn about the animation process and the art of filmmaking as well as the importance of team working and communication through an art form. Each film, uniquely constructed by the young people, explored a range of issues including, global warming, and domestic violence and gun crime. Canterbury Anifest is a Canterbury City Council initiative.

Photograph copyright Peter Firmin

Journeys

13 September - 25 October

With a huge diversity of engineering, imagination, use of material and techniques. ‘Journeys’ is both an engaging and informative selection of sculptural works, drawings and photographs. This exhibition celebrates experience, concept and physical encounter within the works of Diane Maclean, Jeff Lowe and Hamish Black.

Sidney Cooper Gallery Artists talks Saturday 18th October
Diane Maclean 11.30am -12.30pm Jeff Lowe 1.30pm - 2.30pm Hamish Black 3pm - 4pm All the artists talks are free but places are limited and booking is essential, please contact the gallery for further details.

Lecture:
An Introduction to British Sculpture from 1930 to present day 8th October 6-7pm Tickets £6 concessions £4 Booking essential

This talk will contextualise the contemporary sculpture in the 'Journeys' Exhibition by giving an introductory overview of British sculpture from the foundation of Unit One and the artists colony of St Ives to the present day. It will highlight the influence of European modernism on British artists in the 20th century and the emergence of a uniquely British aesthetic in the 1980s and 90s from the disparate strands of Minimalism and Pop.

Biog:
James Frost studied Art and Religious Studies at Chichester Institute of Higher Education followed by an MA at University of Kent at Canterbury.

Having formerly run evening classes in life drawing and teaching art history on the Foundation Course at University College for the Creative Arts, James now lectures on the history and theory of art for Canterbury Christ Church University. James is also a practicing artist, puppetmaker and street performer with his company The Theatre of the Small. James is active in his local community in Sandwich holding the posts of Chair of Small Beginnings, the community art group, Chair of Bringing Alive Sandwich Heritage, the community heritage group, and Treasurer of STARR, the regeneration initiative.

The Greater Journey

John Pack and Peter Abbs

13 September - 25 October Grapevine Gallery The international photographer John Pack who lives on the island of Paros in Greece will be exhibiting his photos linked with the poetry of Professor Peter Abbs. Their show is entitled the Greater Journey and a special limited edition book of their combined work will be on sale.

Please view details of our past exhibitions to see what we have exhibited in the past.

 

Fine Art MA exhibition 23 August - 3 September

This exhibition profiles the work completed by Canterbury Christ Church University's art students for the Fine Art Ma programme.This years graduating artists are:

Antonia Gould
Roy Mathew
Alif Ahmed
Tina Atchison-Thomas

First year student's from the part time MA in Fine Art course will also be exhibiting their work. Private view open to the public Friday 22nd August 6 - 8pm

 

Ghosts and Grotesques

Bryan Hawkins and Tim Long 19th -31st July 

    

The exhibition investigates the significance of the fantastic and the forgotten, the ghostly and the grotesque, as images and as thoughts. Bryan Hawkins and Tim Long employ a range of primitive, contemporary, invented and neglected technologies, ranging from the shadow to interactive drawing machines.

The exhibition forms part of a Research Informed Teaching project sponsored by Canterbury Christ Church University

Images: Bryan Hawkins & Tim Long

 

In the Making

26th June - 9th July 

This exhibition showcases the work of trainee PGCE 14 - 19 and 11-18 Art and Design Technology teachers together with the work of their pupils at the close of their year training course at Canterbury Christ Church University. In this unique show, the work of teacher and pupil hang side by side offering a stimulating discourse of styles and media.

Private view open to the public Wednesday 25th June 6-8pm

Image, Pete Webster

 

BA Degree Exhibition

Part one: 24th May - 31st of May

This is an exhibition in two parts. Part one profiles the work of graduating Painting and Printmaking students in the Sidney Cooper Gallery, Ceramics in the Powell building and Sculpture at the Augustine Art Centre.

Part two 5th -12th June Part two brings together a selection from each of the four disciplines into the Sidney Cooper Gallery. Admission is free

Colin Taylor A short Walk in a Big Landscape

22nd April - 6th May

Thomas West published 'A Guide to the Lakes of Cumberland, Westmoreland and Lancashire' in 1778, many now consider this to be the first ever tourist guide. In it he described in detail, the twenty-one 'stations' or viewpoints from where he considered the 'most advantageous observation' of the principal lakes can be found.

Colin Taylor who is both artist and mountaineer combines both disciplines in a series of dramatic drawings and paintings. They re-interpret West's stations and are presented along with works from his wider travels to some of the world's most spectacular and harsh locations.

 

 

Clare Cox Domestic Landscapes

22nd April - 6th May

 

Matt Wright Transference (51.16 North / 1.04 East)

14-19th April

Composer Matt Wright takes the sound of Canterbury and its people and creates a week long installation, a musical composition that is constantly developing and absorbing new sounds.

The audience will have the opportunity to interact with the piece as it slowly transforms itself from a composition and installation into a website that can be 'played' like a musical instrument. Come and hear Canterbury in a new way!

Free event

 

Beverly Garrett River Series

4th March - 20th March

A series of prints by an former Canterbury Christ Church MA student

The Grapevine gallery hosts an exhibition of etchings by former student Beverly Garrett. Using the source and flow of a river in southern France, Garrett produces stunning prints centred on the idea of time passing, reflective light and colour. The etching plates are bitten very deeply and are worked on in successive layers over time. Then transparent, pure colours are layered onto the plate, which are pressed into the paper leaving a coloured relief effect.

In the River Series the striations of the plate and the layers of colour are used to give a sense of geological time and a feeling of moving water.

These works are not editioned as each pressing is unique.

 

Of the Earth

1st March - 20th March

A celebration of ceramic artists who make works that directly relate to the earth, whether it be the topographical or geological aspect of their environment.

The works are diverse and inspirational showing us how earthy compounds can be shaped by the artist and transformed by fire.

Picture: Carolyn Genders

 

Boyd and Evans Photography

2nd Feb - 16th Feb

Fionnuala Boyd and Les Evans began collaborating in 1968 after studying in Leeds. Recent solo exhibitions have included:

Looking Differently, Flowers East 2007

Color in Black & White, Flowers, New York 2006

Landmarks, Milton Keynes 2005

Boyd and Evans photographic work is a reflection of their extended travels exploring the American West between 1998 and 2006, having been first drawn to the US in 1977.

Taking on aspects of their earlier work Boyd and Evans have manipulated photographic images, whilst retaining the surreal beauty of their paintings. Photographs have always been an integral part of their practice, capturing ephemeral moments through the camera, assembling paintings with elements from various pictures. However, unlike the artists' paintings, Boyd and Evans' recent photographic series include few people, showing instead expansive landscapes that subtly record evidence of man's activity.

In these pictures the wilderness is an all-powerful character, serenely mocking and indifferent to man's attempts to adapt to it.

In association with Flowers

Picture: Ash Springs

Artists of Tomorrow III

12th January - 26th January

Secondary School's exhibition

This year's talented exhibitors showcase a range of imagination, skill and creative investigation that's happening in the school's around us.

This year's featured schools are:

Astor College for the Arts

Axton Chase School

Barton Court Grammar School

Greenacre School

Herne Bay High School

The Canterbury High School

Simon Langton Girls Grammar School

Opening times: Tuesday-Saturday 11am-5.30pm Free admission