Congratulations to Moss Side artist Ekua Bayunu

2018 marks the centenary of women’s right to the vote. Today, Alexandra Arts’ Pankhurst in the Park, is proud to honour this historically significant moment by announcing that the position of Artist in Residence for Pankhurst in the Park, 2018, has been awarded to local artist Ekua Bayunu, who will be taking up residence at Alexandra Park between the 14th April and the 9th June.

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April 14th, 2018, will mark the launch of the 8-week interdisciplinary, community-oriented project “Women Hold up Half the Sky”, led by Ekua Bayunu, this year’s Artist in Residence (AIR) for Alexandra Arts’ “Pankhurst in the Park”. An introductory artist-led talk will be held with Bayuna, who will be speaking at the Alexandra Park Pavilion at 2pm. Followed by a women's artists space session, organised in association with the Global Arts Manchester, a group co-founded by Bayunu to ‘encourage people to participate in the visual arts and learn more about diversity.’

The 8-week project will incorporate elements of sculpture and film, and will include the participation of a diverse range of members of the local community; who can get involved with workshops held at Alexandra Park’s Chorlton Lodge and Depot. Dates will be listed shortly.

On June 9th, 2018, to celebrate the close of Ekua Bayunu’s 8-week AIR project, “Women Hold up Half the Sky”, you are invited to participate in a day of events presenting and reflecting on the work. The celebration will host happenings all around the park, all culminating in a closing party at the Pavilion café.

The project draws from a central theme of the Pankhurst in the Park project, the legacy of the suffrage movement and the special significance of Alexandra Park in this history. Emmeline Pankhurst lived just on the borders of the park and 2018 marks not only the centenary of the right of women (over 30) to vote. It will also be a hundred and ten years since thousands of suffragettes marched in Alexandra Park.

Bayuna’s work will expand beyond local concerns to build on the themes of global women’s leadership and consider culture, the arts and creativity as tools for active citizenship of central significance.

Already with significant experience as an artist, Bayunu moved to Manchester in 1993 and has since then produced several high-profile works around the city (“Sensory Garden” in Hulme Park, “Anansi Mosaics” at Royce Primary School), worked in outreach support at Manchester’s Contact Theatre between 2001 and 2006, worked from her studio at Artwork Atelier in Salford, and organised exhibitions celebrating Black History Month in collaboration with Global Arts Manchester in 2017. Ekua started 2018 with her solo exhibition titled “Re:Birth” at Manchester’s Chuck Gallery. She has lived and worked as an artist and tutor with a keen sense of community participation for several decades.

 Follow Ekua @ekuabay & @globalartsmcr #WomenHoldUpHalfTheSky

Image credit - Rod Leon

Arts Award

Pankhurst in the Park Arts Award 2016-17

It took us a whole year to complete our Pankhurst in the Park Arts Award pilot, with students from year 4-6 at St Mary’s Primary school in Moss Side. Although It took much longer then anticipated, It’s been so worth it tho, because of our young student artist. Who designed and made some really funny, cool and poignant t-shirts. We also found time to laugh, dance and write poetry. 

“If the mind is a key,
to all of creation.
It can destroy or heat,
by input of information.
What control do we have?
Plotting our life’s direction...
It is a simple changing,
Our belief and intention.”

— Poem by Manal, year 6

On the day, they left school for summer holidays, we had the Arts Award certificate ceremony. We are so proud of their creative achievements and wish them all the best. 

What We Are Doing - Bunny Collective

After a two month residency at Alexandra Park for Pankhurst in the Park 2016, during which time they worked with school children, artists, youth groups, and many others, Bunny Collective will reveal their final exhibition titled 'What We Are Doing'. Set in Alexandra Park's woodland, the Bunnies will lead guided tours around their exhibition, before interviewing Sarah Gavron, Director of the award-winning 2015 film, Suffragette, as part of the ‪#‎PankhurstinthePark‬ Spring Showdown with Bunny Collective & Suffragette Director, Sarah Gavron. We can't wait!

Join us and them, this Saturday (7 May), from 2pm onwards. All events are free. However, booking is required for the talk with Sarah Gavron (register via EventBrite) and only a few tickets remain.

Exhibiting Artists: Aoife O Dwyer, Camilla Frankl-Slater, Charlotte Cullen, Eleanor Cully, Hannah Le Feuvre, Riika Enne, Sasha Cresdee, Saffa Khan and Samantha Conlon

What We Are Doing - text by Kathryn O'Regan

Taking the title from a quote by Hannah Arendt – "What I propose, therefore, is very simple: it is nothing more than to think what we are doing" – the exhibition, which will be located in the park’s fairy-tale woodland setting, invites the participating artists to consider what it means to emphasise aspects of the human condition that frequently go unobserved, or those acts which are discounted, intangible, insubstantial or fleeting. In particular, What we are doing will hope to explore Arendt’s distinction between labour and work.

For Arendt, labour encompasses the elements of human existence that are characterised by their ephemerality and that which are not physically quantifiable. In Arendt’s view, life depends on these humble acts of labour which do not leave behind a material trace, yet are wholly necessary for human survival. On the other hand, for Arendt, work involves the physical production of consumable things. Work is characterised by its permanence, artificiality, durability and reliance on manmade tools for production.

The goal of What we are doing will be to shine a light on that which may be deemed insignificant or disregarded within a contemporary society that privileges the commercial, the consumable, the physical and the permanent.

Like Bunny Collective’s previous exhibitions, notions of correspondence, connection and collaboration will be paramount. What we are doing asks the artists to consider what these concepts might mean in terms of Arendt’s labour and work divide; industry; history; heritage and political action.

Image © Samantha Conlon, Bunny Collective

Where to find us and how

Where and how to find us

‘Tea Hive’ Pavilion-  The nearest park entrance is on Demesne Road, where it meets Smalldale Avenue. Satnav postcode M16 8PJ https://goo.gl/maps/cJBaAURvkWk

The 85 bus stops along Alexandra Road South where it crosses Demesne Road. https://goo.gl/maps/7Ddhv3RDWxr Bus 101, 104, 015 and 109 stops by the Shell garage on Princess Parkway https://goo.gl/maps/vJDbJDHRsfF2

Woodland exhibition area – Nearest entrance to the woodland is on Alexandra Road South, opposite Range Road. Satnav postcode M16 8ER. https://goo.gl/maps/PNWvvQBRDJ82

Bus 85 does three stops along the parks boarder on Alexandra Road South, get off at the second of three. Coming from town or Chorlton. https://goo.gl/maps/omg1eNdJs3v

Chorlton Lodge – the Parks Lodge house is located on the corner of Smalldale Avenue and Claremont Road. Satnav postcode M16 7JH https://goo.gl/maps/9it2NDv2MAJ2   

Bus 101,104, 105 and 109 stops on Princess Road, where it meets Claremont Road https://goo.gl/maps/D8ZASZRkndE2

The official address for Alexandra Park is 180 Russell Street, M16 7JL Manchester https://goo.gl/maps/QN38NgZVvcn

 

Tea Hive Alexandra Park

Family Day at Tea Hive Alexandra Park

Following a series of successful pop ups for Pankhurst in the Park over the last year, we are very excited to announce Tea Hive have secured the tender to run the Alexandra Park cafe permanently!

To celebrate this join Alexandra Arts for a family open day on Saturday 6th June from 1-4pm featuring Tea Hive refreshments, kids activities, park heritage and wildlife activities and sports activities plus much more.  

Artist portrait #3 : Go! Push Pops

Artist portrait of Go! Push Pops, a radical queer performance art collective from New York City directed by American Katie Cercone and Chilean Elisa Garcia de la Huerta. The Go! Push Pops was Alexandra Arts first ever International Artist in Residency, during the 'Pankhurst in the Park' Autumn 2014 programming.

HOLY CREATRIXXX: Moss Side Residents, Architects and Artists celebrate feminism

On Friday 28th November at Alexandra Park Pavilion, Moss Side residents will join the radical, feminist art collective Go! Push Pops for a final live performance inspired by the legacy of the iconic, local suffragette, Emmeline Pankhurst.

The Go! Push Pops collective, directed by Katie Cercone and Elisa Garcia de la Huerta, was invited to Manchester in September to undertake the first-ever international Artist Residency at Alexandra Park, as part of Alexandra Arts’ Pankhurst in the Park programme. The collective’s forthcoming performance forms part of Pankhurst in the Park’s final Autumn event, which will be hosted by local comedienne, Kerry Leigh.

For two weeks leading up to the final event, Go! Push Pops have invited local residents to become part of an intentional community which will participate in the final live ritual performance, HOLY CREATRIXXX. In addition to the performance, there will be screening of the stop-motion animation film Illuminate with an introduction by Nataly Lebouleux. In collaboration with students from Manchester University's School of Architecture, Architect Julie Fitzpatrick will also be exhibiting her new installation at the Pavilion, and music will be provided by The Mighty Quinn.

Following this event, Curator of Pankhurst in the Park, Artist Lotte Karlsen, will join Go! Push Pops at SELECT Art Fair in Miami during Art Basel Miami. There they will support Milk and Night, a collective of guest artists and curators who explore the role of feminism in the art world.

Commenting on the programme, Lotte Karlsen said:
"We are thrilled that the Pankhurst in the Park has attracted such broad interest and involvement locally, and I am delighted to have been invited to SELECT Art Fair in Miami to share my work and the inspiration behind Pankhurst in the Park."

Commenting on the contributions from Moss Side, Coco Dolle, Founding Director of Milk and Night, said:

"Our booth at Select Fair comes forth as a unique project on the map of Miami Art Basel, the only commercial booth solely dedicated to feminist artists and its various conversations. We will stand as ambassadors of this feminine consciousness and activate its presence on the art market."

Since launching in September this year, hundreds of artists and local residents have visited Alexandra Park to take part in the Pankhurst in the Park programme, which aims to create a platform for female artists in the birthplace of Suffragette leader, Emmeline Pankhurst. The Autumn programme has featured woodland exhibitions, artist talks, and even hosted workshops as part of the international drawing festival, The Big Draw.

The final event is free to attend, however booking is essential. Bookings can be made online: https://www.facebook.com/events/369224939918691/ or Evenbrite Suitable for over 18s only.

Comments, photos, and interviews are available. Please contact Amy Clancy, email press@alexandra-arts.org.uk.