The Clubhouse was a participatory resource and development project celebrating, investigating and supporting artist-led culture in Cornwall and beyond. A free, open-access workspace for artists, curators, writers and cultural explorers was held at The Exchange Gallery in Penzance from October 2015 – January 2016, which was developed out of a model from The Curators Room. Oscillating between artwork, performance, information point and library, curators’ Field Notes were on hand to chat informally, engage in debate and assist with artist-led ailments such as statements, proposals, funding bids and budgets. Each fortnight different artist-led groups took over a part of the space, showcasing their activity or testing out new ideas. Throughout December Field Notes hosted The Clubhouse AGM, a programme of talks, workshops and events.
Photo: Field NotesCONTEXT
The Clubhouse co-incided with a major retrospective of works by modern British painter Sir Terry Frost at Newlyn Art Gallery & The Exchange. The exhibition was organised by Newlyn in collaboration with Tate St Ives during the closure of their St Ives site for major building works. This meant that for the four months of the exhibition the Frost exhibition would be the only show at an arts institution in Cornwall, and that Tate audiences who might not otherwise have visited were being drawn to The Exchange gallery in Penzance. We therefore felt it was an important moment to make the often more transient or hidden proliferation of contemporary artist-led activity that takes place in Cornwall visible in the gallery.
At the time CAZ (Cornwall Autonomous Zone) an independent artist led project space/network founded and directed by Rebecca Weeks, Ian Whitford and Andy Whall, had a paper based archive of artist-led activity in Cornwall, in an private area of the gallery’s basement. This archive informed Field Notes’ research and an provided an impetus for the showcasing and mapping activities of the The Clubhouse.
At the time CAZ (Cornwall Autonomous Zone) an independent artist led project space/network founded and directed by Rebecca Weeks, Ian Whitford and Andy Whall, had a paper based archive of artist-led activity in Cornwall, in an private area of the gallery’s basement. This archive informed Field Notes’ research and an provided an impetus for the showcasing and mapping activities of the The Clubhouse.
SHOWCASE
Five artist led-organisations/projects took over the walls of the space for two-weeks each:
Back Lane West
Fish Factory
Medium Rare (Arts Publishing)
Goonhilly Village Green
W.A.N.K. (Women’s Art Network Kernow)
The space also featured an archive of books and materials from other artist-led projects and a map which anyone could contribute to in order to build up a fuller picture of activity across the county.
Artist Rosalie Schweiker kindly lent her work Silent Presentation for display.
Back Lane West
Fish Factory
Medium Rare (Arts Publishing)
Goonhilly Village Green
W.A.N.K. (Women’s Art Network Kernow)
The space also featured an archive of books and materials from other artist-led projects and a map which anyone could contribute to in order to build up a fuller picture of activity across the county.
Artist Rosalie Schweiker kindly lent her work Silent Presentation for display.
Fish Factory Arts using The Clubhouse during their showcase.
EVENTS
Throughout December Field Notes hosted The Clubhouse AGM, a programme of talks, workshops and events including screenings from the Creative Time Summit in New York, PechaKuchas presentations by artist-organisers based in Cornwall, a talk by Sam Thorne founder of Open School East, a Makers Market and the book launch of The Wanderers (commissioned by Field Notes and published by Medium Rare).
FUNDERS AND PARTNERS
The Clubhouse was held at Newlyn Gallery & The Exchange and delivered in partnership with Back Lane West, The Fish Factory, Medium Rare, Cornwall Morphology and Drawing Centre, Goonhilly Village Green and W.A.N.K.
GET IN TOUCH:
info@fieldnotes.org.ukThe development of this website was supported by Cultivator Cornwall
