2nd Birthday Blog

The 2nd birthday Camera is filled, posted, and on it's way!
More of the event to come.

Birds and a Cage.

Beautiful Black Print

Fragmented Lives

Happy Face

Ribbon Wrapped 

Morning Star?

http://www.myspace.com/2ndbirthday

Has been updated!!!

Spread the word...

Weekend number 2 of the SideShow festival is just about here. If you've not already, why not use it to have peek at the amazing shop windows down at St Peter's Quarter, Bournemouth (under TK Maxx). Over 20 local and regional artists exhibiting their work. They're open 7 days a week through to the end of the month, so take a look.

 There's some very special beach hut installations lined up for this weekend too. Work includes 2 brilliant installations by the one and only Paul Hearn (that's right, Paul's first one went down so well we asked him to make another!), a hut by the 2nd Birthday team, 2 pledgee 2nd Birthday events from Bisi and Lorna, some fab digital photography by Mark and some treats from the Bournemouth Creatives. It just keeps on getting better!

And make sure you're saving the 21st and 22nd Aug for the big ones - Showroom (12-6pm) and Showroom LIVE (8 til late), both days.

 See you soon at the shops, on the beach or in the showroom - even better, all three!

July 2009. Googled Bournemouth Art Events and found 2nd Birthday.

6 July. Filled in the registration form, pledged an exhibition of 6 paintings and selected two suitable pieces for the picture library. The support of a worthwhile concept in this instance is more important than being concerned about the actual venue in which my paintings would be exhibited..... But that I needed to see anyway, before fully committing.

Checked out St Peter's Quarter, it was ok. Couldn't find the beach huts.
I was pleased to hear that there had been a selection process of artworks to be exhibited.

1 August 10.30 am. My first contact with the start-up team affirmed a project worth supporting. Rob (I believe there are two of them!) I met while we prepared the screens in the St Peter's Quarter's windows; Marianne on the same day while deciding which artworks would occupy which space.
Put up 4 x 2nd Birthday posters - not easy!

3 August. Sent an email to Neal Butterworth, Editor of Daily Echo hoping for editorial coverage in the newspaper for '2nd Birthday events'. Also invited him to the launch party. Hopeful of interest.

4 August 10.30am. Eleanor (Bournemouth Creative's) I met while cleaning the eight units shop windows inside and out, and Becca who was sorting out the beach huts. Checked out Bournemouth Creative's website... interesting.
Posted 16 Birthday cards into my neighbour's post-boxes.

8th August 6 - 8pm. Next was the launch party. Well supported by pledging artists whose work was now on show and looking good! The artists can be proud of their involvement of this project - the work is well exhibited. Many new faces and names were met and the quirky mix of delicious cupcakes and wine was different!

9 August. Found the beach huts and loved the 'Reflections' one. I would have liked to have seen more Art Works such as paintings, etchings, drawings, screen prints for example.... small purchasable sizes.  Amazed that the Council could produce such beautiful beach huts for the support of the 2nd Birthday Event. Very impressed.
Handed out 25 Birthday cards to strangers going down to the beach on this incredibly sunny day.

11 August. Wondering where to this week. Perhaps the Showroom exhibition needs help with setting up. I'm curious.

The day has come and SideShow goes live...

The lights of the empty Shop Windows at St Peter's Quarter get switched back on to reveal the fantastic work of over 20 artists from Bournemouth and beyond.

The Beach Huts go live today as well, bringing you a mix of installation, visual arts, performance and interactivity down on Bournemouth Seafront.

Then we have Showroom and Showroom LIVE getting set for the 21st and 22nd August. More on this to come... it's going to be a very special one.

August is going to be a great month for the arts in Bournemouth - make sure you're a part of it. And enjoy.

So the first few pieces of work are in and looking amazing. Ed Jones has made a stunning shop window video installation called 'Buskers', Inez Schrader and Krishula Aukland are up in their windows too with some beautiful and brutal photography, prints and paintings. Paul Hearn has completely transformed one of the Beach Huts but I won't give away his surprises!

 Oh, and I did a count up and over 60 artists are exhibiting, making or performing work for Side Show 09. Pretty amazing!

And the pledgees help is kicking in too for which we are enormously grateful. Inez Schrader gave us a hand prepping the shop windows,  Seb [just nipping off to hospital now] Pape and Dave [stepped in at the last minute] Walker have done a stunning job on the brochure design which will be out and about in the next few days. Dan [1/3 of a Baker Brother] Baker will be looking after all things sound for the Showroom LIVE events. Other pledgees are lined up to help over the next few weeks, but we could certainly still do with a hand. If you can help out, give us a shout...