Working at the Humber Street Gallery in Hull during its City of Culture year has been a time of marvellous meetings, both aesthetic and physical, of collaborations across the art-forms with established artists and young people at the beginning of their engagement with the arts. But most of all I cherish the experience of extraordinary things happening in the spaces in front of and between the wonderful exhibitions hosted by the Humber Street Gallery during 2017.
And it’s been joyous.
Moved by Art and Humber Street Gallery organised groundbreaking work with a growing cohort of young people around exhibitions by Sarah Lucas, ‘Somewhere Beyond the Sea’,. ‘The House of Kings and Queens’ and the ‘Portrait of a City’ exhibition with photographs by Martin Parr and Olivia Arthur. Each exhibition was the focus of a creative workshop with a variety of artists Hayley Youell musician and composer, David Cleary artist, and Ruby Deverill photographer. Watching our participants write poetry, compose, make art and take photographs of their city has been utterly inspiring.
This project demonstrated very powerfully how creative vitality can be generated by engaging with an audience in art spaces, and how a multi-disciplinary approach can open up art to everyone, and give them the chance to develop their own talents.
