JUNE NELSON REPORTING BACK FROM THE ENGAGE SUMMER SCHOOL IN NORT

Sussex-based artist, June Nelson, was selected to attend this year’s ENGAGE Summer School in Belfast, Northern Ireland (http://www.engage.org/SummerSchool2015) and generously offered to come and share her experiences of her visit to the summer school and to artist-run spaces in Londonderry.

(Image: June Nelson. Studio space in East Belfast)

The Summer School, on the subject of Artists & Education: The distinctive role of artists in arts education and participatory practice, brought together experienced visual artists, educators, curators and academics practising in the field of gallery and museum education from the UK and abroad, to review and develop their practice during a three-day residential course. It was hosted by Belfast School of Art, University of Ulster, during September 2015 and focused on the value, benefit, challenges and opportunities of artists working within education, learning and participatory practice.There were field trips to galleries, museums and art centres such as the MAC, Golden Thread Gallery, Belfast Exposed, the Ulster Museum, with an extra day to visit studios and artist-led project spaces in Derry/Londonderry.

June was keen to add the freelance artist's voice to the questions: Can artists be supported to work within education, learning and participatory practice? What can visual arts organisations learn from artists, artist-run spaces and alternative arts education systems? Can artists or grassroots community practice result in experimentation and risk-taking? In addition, as a former member of Maze studio group in Brighton which has co-operated with artist groups in Liverpool and northern France, June also hoped to make connections with the artist-run spaces and studio organisations of Derry.

June was born and brought up in Newport, South Wales. After a first degree in English, she worked as an editor in London, Glasgow and Edinburgh. While in Scotland, she pursued her art practice at the 369 Gallery, Edinburgh, where she was lucky enough to be tutored by such artists as Callum Innes, Rose Frain and Moyna Flannigan. She later studied painting at the University of Brighton, afterwards joining Maze and working as a Visiting Lecturer. She now works from a home studio, supporting her practice by working as a freelance Artist Educator and FoH at Towner and Fabrica. Despite using various media, from wax and graphite powder to plaster, paint and video, creating assemblages and installations, June is now re-focussing to concentrate on her neglected painting; reserving anything larger for collaborative projects only.

6pm – 8pm
At Towner, Devonshire Park, College Road, Eastbourne, BN21 4JJ
Artists - all welcome
FREE to Blue Monkey Network members; £5 non-members

For more information visit http://www.townereastbourne.org.uk/event/blue-monkey-network-event/