NEW FIELDS - Art and agriculture research seminars // Leeds City Art Gallery: 21 - 22 July 05
'Wheatfield - A confrontation', pioneering Art & Agriculture project by Agnes Denes, New York, 1982.
NEW FIELDS: Art and Agriculture
New perspectives on the arts and rural regeneration 21 - 22 July, Leeds City Art Gallery, the Headrow, Leeds LS1 3AA
Introduction to new rural arts and art and agriculture projects as drivers for rural regeneration and agricultural reform; Artfarms and arts-led rural tourism, rural cultural diversity, rural social documentary, and farm diversification initiatives. Proposals for a European Region of Rural Cultures and Farmer Creativity, and an associated Art and Agriculture Biennale for Yorkshire, in 2007.
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Seminar 1 Thursday 21 July, 9.30 - 5.00pm
9.30 - 10.00 Welcome and introduction: Nigel Walsh, Head of Exhibitions, Leeds City Art Gallery
10 - 10.45 Arts and Rural Regeneration - a New Rural Arts Strategy;
Update on Arts Council England funded research (2001 - 2003): a national Creative Rural Industries conference and art and rural regeneration initiative for the NW; Grains of Truth - the New Rural Documentary Photography/Digital media tradition, conference East Midlands; and NEW FIELDS - an arts and cultural strategy in support of agricultural communities and farm diversification, Yorkshire 2007. Dr Ian Hunter, LITTORAL Arts
11.00 - 11.30 Promoting Rural Cultural Diversity;
creative approaches to tackling rural racism, and exciting new urban rural cultural partnerships. Presentation by Mama Toro Adeniran Kane, Chair of AWAD (African Women Art and Development)
12 00 - 12.30pm Cultivating metaphors - art, agriculture and sustainability;
New research on Ecological Art and landfill as art projects, and a commentary on the work of Agnes Denes, by Dr Alberto Duman
12.30 - 1.00 Open forum and panel discussion led by invited rural leaders and curators.
1.00 - 2.00pm lunch
2.00 - 5.00pm Creative strategies for agricultural diversification and rural sustainability
Artists, farmers and scientists propose creative solutions to rural environmental and economic problems. New creative interfaces connecting agriculture, science and art.
2.00 - 2.45 Artists' research partnerships with agricultural scientists and DEFRA non food crops research centres:
Dr Helen Ougham, on IGER's (Institute for Grassland Research, Aberystwyth) NESTA funded collaborations with artists. Artist Debby Akam, and Helen Huxtable, Scientific Officer, Agriculture and Rural Strategy, DEFRA proposed art and agri-science collaborations at the DEFRA Central Science Laboratories, York .
3.00 - 4.00 Livestock Cultures; understanding the economic, social and cultural impact of FMD and rural change
Documenting Livestock farming traditions and the future of family farming in Britain: Mike Keeble, Yorkshire farmer and chair of the Livestock Foundation, and artist/film maker Nick May: preview of the photographic essay 'till the cows come home' and one of a series of films made with livestock farmers in Cumbria during and after FMD (Foot and Mouth).
4.30 - 5.00pm Open forum discussion. Chair Simon Thackray, Director the SHED Malton
7.30pm Evening Seminar and talk:
'Art for the Third Millennium - Creating a New World View'
Evening public talk by pioneering international environmental artist Agnes Denes, at Leeds City Art Gallery (admission free - but please book in advance)
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Seminar 2 Friday 22nd July, 9.30am - 4.30pm
New creative partnerships for rural regeneration
New creative partnerships for the countryside, agriculture, and rural regeneration; rural leaders and artists discussa new role for the arts in rural communities, and outline possible future arts and rural partnership projects in Yorkshire.
9.30 - 10.15am Cattle marts as new urban rural cultural interfaces:
The changing role of cattle auction marts - as arts centres and art galleries; Ann Walker , proposal for a wool research, craft training and arts centre at Hawes Auction mart, in dialogue with Maurice Hall, manager of Hawes Auction Mart.
10.15 - 11.am Artfarms - curating public art projects in farm communities:
the Oakpig project, Insa Winkler, artist/curator Germany, reconnecting traditional pig farming, slow food and oak forest restoration initiatives in Europe; and Ground-Up an innovative rural/public art project in Country Clare. Fiona Woods artist, and Arts Officer with Clare County Council, Ireland.
11.15 - 11.45am Minotaurs and Labyrinths; Metaphors for rural sustainability
Revisiting mythology in the context of agriculture and art; new perspective on farmer designed corn mazes, field art, art in abattoirs & stockyards. Cereal farmer Tom Pearcy's York Maze project, and Keith Wilson a sculptor working with agricultural engineering, farm livestock fences, and cattle management systems.
12.30 - 1.30pm Lunch
1.30 - 2.00pm On the Edge - working with hill farming and marginal rural communities;
documenting FMD and the impact of social and economic change in the uplands. Richard Betton NFU/Hill farming representative (tbc) in conversation with Richard Grassick, a photographer working on hill farming and rural issues in Northumberland
2.15 - 3.15pm Farmers as curators - an international Rural Biennale for 2007
Farmers, artists and rural leaders propose new arts and cultural strategies for rural regeneration in Yorkshire and a propoal to stage the first farmer-led Biennale in Yorkshier in 2007; promoting new urban rural cultural re-connections, renewable farm energy, and sustainable farm diversification, rural tourism and food marketing initiatives.
3.30 - 4.30pm European Region of Rural Cultures and Farmer Creativity
Staging the Rural Biennale as an integral part of a European Region of Rural Cultures and Farmer Creativity celebration, proposed for Yorkshire in 2007. Guest speaker Prof. Renato Troncon (University of Turin).
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Registration: £35 per day (full rate) Artist/concessions: £15 Please book in advance with:
LITTORAL Arts Trust 42 Lodge Mill Lane, Turn Village, nr. Ramsbottom, Lancashire, BL0 0RW Tel. 01706 827 961 e-mail: littoral@btopenworld.com website: www.littoral.org.uk
Organised by LITTORAL Arts Trust in association with the Rural Cultural Forum, and RAMP - Rural Arts and Media Practitioners research network.
