Current exhibition

A group exhibition capturing the spirit and sights of Essex and Suffolk and featuring work from:

James Dodds

Matt Keeling

Chris Northall

Jen Pritchard

Verity Mansfield

Jane Ostler

Katarina Hiresova

Perry Houldtich

Ilona Northall

Current Exhibition

PAPER EXPLOSION 10th - 21st FEB

Colchester artist, Lee Thomas, has been completely filling the gallery

space with a paper explosion of 100's of photographs, illustrations,
sketches, prints and drawings taken from his work over the last 15
years. He has based himself within the space to continue to add to and
change this work during the course of the exhibition and is

inviting the public to contribute to the piece by asking them to help
develop the narratives that form various elements of the work. He will
also be running family workshops on Sunday 14th and Saturday 20th
February, both at 1pm, to add new work to the walls

Current Exhibition

27 January – 7 February:
Group exhibition from locally based female photographers. Featuring
work from Jenny Primrose, Isabel Johnson, Ollin Pintado, Hazel
Pritchard, Alice Patient, Christine Strong, Teresa Stewart, Gwyn
Bilby, Elizabeth Curry, Jill Vicary, Vron Francis, Mariya Ustymenko,
Sophie Booth and Jean Akam

Slack Space 10,000th visitor

A special celebration was held to mark the occasion of Slack Space’s 10,000th visitor in just 7 months! Bob Russell MP for Colchester and Abigail Cheverst Slack Space Coordinator presented Mr Stephen Lilley of Wivenhoe with an original work of art donated by prominent local Slack Space artist Tracey Johnson

Bob Russell said ‘I was delighted to be invited to be part of this special occasion. Slack Space brings vibrancy and the world of art to an otherwise empty shop and helps to enliven the retail street scene in an imaginative way. I’d like to congratulate those who involved in this activity and all those who made it possible’

Cllr Paul Smith, cabinet member for Culture and Diversity, Colchester
Borough Council, commented ‘For Slack Space to have achieved so many
visitors to the town so quickly shows the vision and enterprise of the
volunteers involved in this venue. It demonstrates what the Community
can do, even in these challenging times, to enhance the lives of those
living, working or visiting our town’

Forthcoming Events

February Mini Fest
Please do come along to the Slack Space February mini festival which
runs from 10 – 14 February. All events are guest list only. E mail
colchesterslackers (at) googlemail.com for inclusion

Wed 10 February Doors 7pm:
Twelfth Night rehearsed reading, Guerrilla Shakespeare Company
(rescheduled from Twelfth Night)
Shakespeare's funniest play was written purely as a piece of fun -
there are no royal intrigues, no murders, no vast sweeps of history,
just the story of a brother and sister cast up on a hostile shore each
believing the other to be dead; a love story of mistaken identity
Suitable for adults and children over eight
The performance is presented informally, with a mix of professional
and amateur actors, and directed by Dorian Kelly

Thur 11 February Doors 7.30pm:
Matt Simpkins (10pm) + Ensembell (9pm) + Connor Sturges (8pm) + Poetry
and compere: Mark Brayley
A musical feast with some of Colchester’s best and most interesting up
and coming and established talent, interspersed with poetry and
stories from Slack Space favourite Mark Brayley.

Fri 12 February Doors 7pm:
Moot Point, an evening of creative kaos and electronic music
Music from Ascetic, The Broken Drummers, The Fez! and Phuq
Art, photography & visuals
Bad Sekta info stall - Bring your flyers & join the networks
Free shop - Books, clothes, CDs, DVDs, stuff – bring your
contributions, if you’re feeling generous

Sat 13 February Afternoon 1 – 5pm:
The Slack-Space Tea Dance
All-time dance-hall favourites provided by your genial, palimpsestuous
(well, that's what he'd like to think anyway) host Martin Northcote
Reed
With additional entertainment (audience participation encouraged) from
the ladies of the Akula ATS Belly Dancing School. Belly dancing
workshop approx 4.30pm. Tea will not be supplied!

Sat 13 February Doors 7pm:
7.30 – 8.30pm Poetry from Mark Brayley and guests
8.30pm Terror the musical, Bad Terrorists
Featuring guitar, bass, drums, violin, trumpet, mandolin, and dancing
girls, Condoleezza Rice and lots of flags. This is a parody of a
musical and a reaction against the complacency surrounding the ‘War on
Terror’.
There will be a special collection for Veteran’s Aid

Sunday 14th February 1pm:
‘Paper Explosion’ Workshop
Colchester artist, Lee Thomas, will be completely filling the gallery
space with a paper explosion of 100's of photographs, illustrations,
sketches, prints and drawings taken from his work over the last 15
years. He will base himself within the space to continue to add to and
change this work during the course of the exhibition and will be
inviting the public to contribute to the piece by asking them to help
develop the narratives that form various elements of the work. He will
also be running family workshops on Sunday 14th and Saturday 20th
February, both at 1pm, to add new work to the walls



Paper explosion private view
There will be a Private View for the ‘Paper Explosion’ exhibition on
Fri 19th Feb from 6.30 – 8.30pm. The exhibition runs from 10 – 21st
February. This event is guest list only. Please e mail
colchesterslackers@googlemail.com for inclusion

Calls For Work

Call for work 1
Submissions are sought for an open call group exhibition in the Slack
Space gallery on the theme of local scenes (Essex and Suffolk.) Any
original 2D or 3D work may be submitted.

Submissions to colchesterslackers (at) googlemail.com (heading ‘Local
Scenes’) should include the following:
An electronic copy of the artwork or, where this is not possible, a
detailed description and illustrative examples
Name, address and email of the artist and any pseudonym
Up to 60 words of description and biographical details of the artist

Deadline: February 15th



Call for work 2

To all artists, photographers and poets in the Colchester area

You are invited to send in submissions as soon as possible for the first and second phases of the "Art at the Heat(beat)" Art Trail, a public art trail exhibition in shop windows throughout Colchester town centre. Work will be in place for one month and then changed for a second month. A catalogue will be produced.

During the months of march and April, we will be filling up as many shop windows, both empty shops and working shops with artworks. There will be a catalogue and a map to create a proper trail. The art will be displayed directly inside the shop windows on an A2 piece of foamboard, with the artist's name and 50 words of interpretation.

Subject matter is unlimited and any original 2D work may be submitted
including a painting in any medium, a print, illustration or graphic
work, textile work, photograph, poem or prose etc. We are looking for work which we can either use directly or scan and reproduce using fine printing techniques. The work should be no larger than A3 size, or would work well reduced or enlarged to that size in either portrait or landscape format. It might be a painting or a photograph, a poem, a haiku, or some words of wisdom, or you might surprise us with something new... Work will be mounted by Slack Space onto a standard sized and formatted board which will be either A2 or A3 in size. The board will also contain the artists details, title of work and details of Slack Space.

Selected work should be provided either as a finished piece of
artwork, preferred size A4 or A3, or electronically in tiff, jpeg or
PDF format at a minimum of 300 dpi. Original artworks should not be
framed, but may be provided loose or mounted in a matte. Poetry and
prose may be submitted as a graphic or word document . At our
discretion, we will either mount artworks onto our standard display
backing or scan and resize the work to be printed at as high a quality
as possible.

Please submit work and ideas to this address by email as a jpg, tiff or pdf or as a text document in the case of written word in the first instance, marked submission to” Art at the Heart”, or if that is not possible, email with a description and we will arrange a time for you to show it to us.

Submissions tocolchesterslackers (at) googlemail.com should include the following:
An electronic copy of the artwork or, where this is not possible, a
detailed description and illustrative examples
The title of the work as the artist wishes it to appear
Name, address and email of the artist and any pseudonym
Up to 60 words of description and biographical details of the artist

E mail for further details of the submission process and ‘technical tips’

There are two deadlines:
February 26th
March 27th

Upcoming Exhibitions

Paper Explosion!
10 February – 21 February
Artist Lee Thomas will be completely filling the gallery space with a
paper explosion of 100's of photographs, illustrations, sketches,
prints and drawings taken from his work over the last 15 years. He
will base himself within the space and continue to add to and change
this work during the course of the exhibition

Local Scenes: Views of Essex and Suffolk
24 February – 14 March
A group exhibition, based on open call, featuring the work of artists
capturing the spirit and sights of Essex and Suffolk

Changing Contexts
17 March – 4 April
A group exhibition from Colchester Minories MA students featuring
changing contexts and different viewpoints. Come and participate in
the unique experience which is Slack Space Colchester

Illustration
7 April – 25 April
A themed exhibition featuring a range of illustrative techniques and
interpretations from children’s illustration to modern representative
based approaches