New Slack Space exhibition

From Barsham to Albion

7 March – 24 March

Open Wed – Sat 11am – 6pm

Colchester Slack Space, the pioneering empty shops artists collective, is thrilled to have secured the entire archive of the seminal and pioneering East Anglian Albion Fair movement of the 70’s and 80's for an exhibition at Slack Spaces’ new premises in Victoria Place, Eld Lane from 7th March to 24th March.

The exhibition, which is of national importance, is a retrospective and joyful celebration of the legendary Albion Fairs . It is collection of beautiful and iconic posters, photographs, films and assorted memorabilia from the fairs, including the ultimate monthly newspaper of alternative East Anglia, the Waveney Clarion. It will evoke memories for those who were there and will explain the magic and significance of the fairs to those who missed them. Their spirit of creativity, play and environmentalism was ahead of its time and has left a legacy today, not least in the Glastonbury and Latitude festivals. which were directly inspired by the Moon Fair, the Earth , Fire and Rainbow Fairs at East Bergholt, and of course the Rougham Tree Fairs.

Comfort was far from the norm (ask anyone who attended an Albion Fair about the infamous “long drop” toilets!), the music was sometimes dodgy, there were often far more naked people than one really wanted to encounter at the water standpipes in the morning, but the real ale and the vegan food was always plentiful and in an era when Mrs Thatcher was teaching us all to think of “me, me, me” and where riots had become a common occurrence in the major cities, there was something quite special in being part of several thousand people gathering together in our little corner of rural England to live for a weekend in peace, love and harmony …… yeah man!

Sadly, the festival movement was a mirror of the times. The relative tolerance of a "free festival culture " by government in the late seventies and very early eighties had given way to a far more repressive regime . The “Peace Convoys” -which were anything but peaceful - , had became very prevalent, with their hard drug acid-punk culture, and antisocial behavior, culminating in the notorious “Battle of The Beanfields” near Stonehenge. Free festivals could no longer flourish due to the new public order acts which banned gatherings on public land, and The Albion Fairs were no more.

THE EXHIBITION RUNS From the 7th March to 24th March. It is open from Wednesdays to Saturdays from 11.00-6.00 pm at Slack Space, Victoria Place, Eld Lane, Colchester.

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Snippets of Open 5

Transforming spaces – Arts use of empty shops and other disused spaces

Saturday 17 March 2012 9.30am – 5.15pm @ firstsite, Colchester

Lewis Gardens, High Street, Colchester, Essex CO1 1JH

£32.40 incl. VAT, lunch and two refreshment breaks. 50 free places available! (email us for a booking form and further details)

A Regional conference hosted by UK premier Empty Shop organisation Slack Space Colchester, in partnership with firstsite. The event will look at working in empty shops and other disused spaces and will combine an interactive focus on case studies and success stories with practical advice and contextual understanding.

This event is suitable for:

Artists

Community groups

Arts and regeneration professionals

Landlords and developers

Outline of day:

9.30 Arrivals. Refreshments available to purchase at firstsite restaurant

10.00 Abigail Cheverst (Slack Space) ‘Working in empty shops – possibilities, challenges and opportunities’

10.30 Michaela Freeman (Artside) ‘Artside - curating in the public space’

11.00 Amy McKenny (Tap) ‘TAP – running an artist led studio / gallery space’

11.30 Refreshments (provided)

11.50 Breakouts

12.15 Kayte Judge (We are Bedford) ‘We are Bedford’ – case study’

12.45 Chris Clarke (Slack Space) ‘Slack Space – case study’

1.15 Lunch (provided) with performance from popular folk band The Medlars

2.00 The coalface slots – a series of short presentations from working artists on what empty shops activity has meant for them

2.30 Eddie Bridgeman (Meanwhile Space) ‘New spaces, new ways of working - the meanwhile lease, development trusts and other solutions’

3.00 Dan Thompson (Empty Shops Network) ‘The big picture – presenting the results of a National research and evidence gathering project on disused space activity in the UK’

3.30 Refreshments (provided)

3.50 Breakouts

4.15 3Space presentation

4.30 Plenary / panel discussion – ‘Empty shops, disused spaces – the potential, the pitfalls and where we go next.’ The results of this plenary will be fed into the Empty shops Network National conference taking place later in the year

5.15 Close

Refreshments available to purchase at firstsite restaurant

Tour of Slack Space Colchester (optional)

All delegates will receive a copy of the Slack Space Manual and the Empty Shops Toolkit

Partner profile:

Slack Space is one of the premier ‘empty shop’ organisations in the UK and has been successfully putting art and performance into empty shops for over two and a half years

firstsite is a contemporary visual arts organisation based in Colchester with a mission to make contemporary art relevant to everyone.

Artside is a CoExist project featuring two weeks of art and interventions in Southend High Street with artists working directly with venues to create site-led work.

TAP is housed within a converted water works. Currently it houses CoExist Galleries and Studios,The White Bus, MEET, Solug and Open Arts.

We are Bedford is a community collective. The group put on the Castle Quay Weekender in March 2011, an arts festival in 7 empty shops, and run various other successful community events.

Meanwhile Space is led by the Development Trusts Association as part of the Advancing Assets programme, with support from the Dept. of Communities and Local Government.

Empty Shops Network is the National Network for organisations and individuals working in empty shops and other disused spaces.

3Space offer a brokerage service between landlords / developers with empty space and charities or other organisations wishing to use that space.

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