We are going to Living North LIVE!

During the last weekend of March you’ll be able to catch some of our studio holders at the Living North LIVE fair held at Newcastle Racecourse. The fair, which focuses on interiors, homes, gardens, lifestyle and food, takes place over Friday 26, Saturday 27 and Sunday 28th March. As well a variety of regional exhibitors there’ll be demonstrations and talks, one of which features our very own Nick James, Sarah Blood, Michael Armstrong (AFID Design) and Bettina Nissen.

Here's some information about the artists, if you didn't know already...... Nick James is situated in Studio 1 in the Mushroom Works and is a designer maker of high quality, unique and creative furniture. Also sharing Studio 1, Michael Armstrong runs of AFID Design provides a commissioned based service producing beautiful, modern, hand-made furniture. Next door in Studio 2 you can find Sarah Blood, a visual artist whose primary medium is light, explored through neon and mixed media. The final artist taking part in this event is Bettina Nissen, a product designer who specializes in witty, thoughtful and very desirable designs!

The Mushroom Works artists can be found at stands S45 & S46 in the Tattersall Hall of the Home & Gardens section, so keep an eye out if you're popping along, and make sure you say hello!

Speaking of keeping an eye out, we have new faces in and around the Mushroom Works these days! Graeme, who started just today is Mushroom Works very own caretaker, making sure the place looks spik and span and Justin, who started with us on Monday will be helping us with a few new workspace developments (more on this later!) .

Have a little nose around ...

Ever wondered what our studio holders are up to as they beaver away … take a peak at their blogs, updating you on their latest works and ponderings here is a few snippets that might help you get clicking …

Illustrator, Bethan Laker is excited about her new project for Tyneside Cinema, working with writer Rob Walton.  You can follow her latest sketches as her project develops.

Joanne Wishart lets us know about her brilliant time at the NEC Birmingham Spring Fair, where her gorgeous new coastal card designs went down a storm.

On a more peculiar note Jim Edwards gives us the background story of his latest contribution to our ‘Home Sweet Home’ exhibition, read about the tricky elements Jim came across when painting portraits on snail shells!

Sarah Blood, herself one of the featured snail portraits, chats about her thoughts of Baltic Centre For Contemporary Art’s exhibition of Jenny Holzer as well as the reopening of the Kitch-en gallery.

Nick James and Lucinda Kelly will update you on their latest work, Lucinda previews her drawings whereas Nick documents his wooden wonders.

Lee Turner, of Hole Editions updates us on his latest demonstrations of Photolithography at Northern Print giving you the chance to learn a little and maybe give printing ago.

 

Welcome Michaela!

Mushroom Works welcomed a new volunteer last week! Fresh from the studios of Newcastle University's Architecture Department Michaela, is a 3rd year undergraduate looking to get some experience within the Artist/Gallery/Exhibition world. Originally from sunny old Kent, Michaela is a bit of a northern convert planning to stay in Newcastle after her degree. One of the things keeping her up here is the wide range of exciting art exhibitions shown across the city including those held by the Mushroom Works.

 

She'll currently be helping Lara on a weekly basis, doing a range of jobs from the fun, yet messy exhibition re-paint to essential admin jobs helping to keep everything ticking over.

We 'felt' we just had to

This show's only been up a week and we're already wanting to blog about the next one... we're THAT excited about it! During April we welcome to the gallery Jane Smallcombe, a local designer/maker who creates beautiful and unique handmade accessories. Although Jane has previously exhibited with Mushroom Works, during our Perfect Presents show, Applique will be Jane's first solo show.

As many of our blog followers will know, Jane makes really gorgeous one off felt brooches, scarves and hair accessories. Labelled a 'creative whizz with a needle and thread', Jane has designed and made a few new pieces for the show, expanding her ranges to include cushions and framed artwork. We are really looking forward to working with her.

If you can't wait until April to see Jane's latest creations you can always check out her blog, which she regularly updates.

Something's not quite right!?

Last week we posted a few images form the exhibition but for some reason they weren't showing up properly this week. After a little playing around to 'make it better', they disappeared completely so I am reposting them (because they were nice images!) They're from the show Home, Sweet home, which is on now. (T-B Sarah Blood, Castle in the Sky, Eva Bauer, Nostaglia, Jim Edwards, Snails)

Looking for a venue to hire?

We might have just the thing!



Lately we've been hosting quite a few events for folks in the cultural sector as (thanks to a grant from Arts Council Engalnd, North East last year) we have now a great little flexible space for hire.

The space works really well for education workshops, seminars, meetings, courses, you name it - it can pretty much fit the bill! Last week we held Adobe Illustrator workshops (via Cleveland College of Art & Design) for mac users, a couple of months ago we held GLEAM workshops for creative businesses, we've used it for children's workshops and soon for we'll be hiring it to Women Into the Network for a series of seminars.

If you'd like to find out more, like how many people can we accommodate, what kind of set up we can offer, what kind of IT support we have on hand and how much are our rates you can check out our venue hire page or give us a ring on 0191 2244011.