‘’ The imagination is an essential tool of the mind, a fundamental way of thinking, an indispensable means of becoming and remaining human. ”

Ursula K. Le Guin Author

Imagination and play are critical elements of creativity. How often as artists with defined practices do we stop to play, to try something new or to have fun? This year, our OPEN HOUSE series of masterclasses offers the opportunity for artist play and experimentation.

Ryan Boultbee

Wednesday 15 January, 5:30pm – Humber Street Gallery

Ryan Boultbee is a visual artist, freelance curator/producer, and Director of No Jobs in the Arts, working from Nottingham, UK. He tries to think in materials and surfaces, working between art and architecture. His creative practice is obsessed with time and play. The artworks he makes look to capture the future and its alternatives, and he aims to create experiences that make you inhabit the world differently.

For his OPEN House workshop, Ryan invites you to create assemblages using found and borrowed materials only. Through art making, we will discuss what is made and how it relates to engagement with the everyday, play, and environmental responsibility.

Book here (Sold out)

The Herd

Wednesday 26 February, 5:30pm – Humber Street Gallery

The Herd bring children and families together in playful spaces to share exceptional arts experiences. They play alongside children to create shows, installations, workshops and events that celebrate, interrogate and nurture the joy of childhood.

For OPEN House, The Herd will explore play in the everyday through the lens of drama and play-work thinking about how we might be more playful within artistic practice.

Book here (Sold out)

Roy Claire Potter

Thursday 6 March, 5:30pm – Humber Street Gallery

Influenced by linguistics and performance theory, Roy Claire Potter is an artist and writer who publishes, performs and exhibits, and they often collaborate with musicians and sound artists to make audio for music festivals and radio.

Across the wide range of their practice, Roy tells stories built from fragmented, intense images that depict moving bodies or domestic scenes and architectural settings. Roy’s interest in subtext and narrative sequencing is felt in the way they use fast-paced talking or reading speeds, and restricted or partial views of space. Complicated social or group dynamics, and the aftermath of violent events are common themes in Roy’s work and are usually treated with a dark, sometimes wilful humour.

Roy has recently presented work internationally with Book Works, Serpentine, Bergen Centre of Electronic Art, Cafe OTO, Counterflows, and BBC Radio 3.

Roy is a Senior Lecturer of Fine Art at Liverpool John Moores University where they programme MA Fine Art. They have been a mentor for artists through CCA Derry-Londonderry, Tate Liverpool, Spike Island and DYCP, and are a tutor at the Arvon Foundation.

Roy is represented by A plus A, Venice.

Book here (Sold out)

Charlotte Dawson

Thursday 27 March, 5:30pm – Humber Street Gallery

Charlotte Dawson is an artist working across object-based practice and installation. Her practice is concerned with the implementation of commonplace objects as vessels for memory, including concepts of souvenir-hood, collections, and the utilisation of objects in the formation of social histories and the building of self.

For this OPEN House workshop, participants are asked to bring materials, tools or objects that feature in their practice or help inspire -these could be studio trinkets, tokens or natural materials such as shells. Using our objects and a simple casting process, we will each create a tile that will act as a material souvenir of our creative practices.

Book here

The Aimless Archive

Thursday 3 April, 5:30pm – Humber Street Gallery

The Aimless Archive works across text – conversation – performance – collecting.  It questions what we keep and what we get rid of by generating starting points for new and collaborative work, building archives as places for reflection and evaluation, and presenting unfinished and ongoing work.  Repeatedly working at the point where artists and audiences meet, outcomes often take the form of (a book – a box – a by-product) or (a workshop – a scanned doc – a re-drafted piece of writing).

For OPEN House, The Aimless Archive will lead a walking tour that takes us away from gallery spaces. We will attempt to bind together emerging OPEN HOUSE themes and the things we have collected – contained – evaluated. Whether you join us having been to previous sessions or join us afresh – we can all reflect on the small things we discover together.

Book here