DIY: 2009 – Caitlin Newton-Broad & Howard Matthew Live Art for Children

A weekend workshop that explores the imaginary realm of the parent/child relationship for live/visual/performance artists and their children (with childcare included!).

Led by Caitlin Newton-Broad and Howard Matthew

Saturday 8 & Sunday 9 August
10am – 3pm each day
Manor House Library
SE13 5SY
(Blackheath or HitherGreen Overground + 10 min walk)

Project summary:
This workshop welcomes the widest definition of parents, including artists who are closely involved in a child’s well being, Grandparents, step-parents, etc.. Two parallel rooms will be set up for participants to play, make and think about how our parent/child relationship challenges and fuels our creative work. In the imaginary realm of the parent/child bond are embedded some deep myths and rich personal experiences we find hard to name. Questions, memories and images will be explored practically, making 3-4 short works using artists’ preferred mediums.

The children don’t need to respond to the weekend’s work unless they would like to collaborate on one of the scratch projects. There will be one childcare worker running a playroom and also access to a Library and big Victorian park for supervised play. Picnic lunch each day in grounds.

Application Procedure:
We hope to work with 6 artists at all different stages in their working life and are keen to work with some artists who have addressed this area before. We can enroll up to 8 children in the project. DEADLINE 17 July, FINAL GROUP NOTIFIED 25 July.

Please prepare a short expression of interest that answers these questions and email it to:[email protected]. (no more than 1 page total)

– Why would you like to take part?
– What is your working history, with particular reference to work you have made with/about your children.
– Who are other artist’s work you admire working in this area.
– Tell us something about your child/ren – age, name, special needs etc (also, do they need constant supervision?).
– Will you work directly with your child/ren or are they coming simply to play?
– What are your preferred materials to work with (video, text, body work, drawing etc.)?

We ask participating artists to supply their primary materials/equipment and bring along succinct examples of relevant work to share. We ask all participants to contribute something delicious to lunch each day.

About the artists:
Caitlin Newton-Broad is a collaborative artist making work grounded in place, community and the moving image. She trained as a theatre director at The Victorian College of the Arts, Australia and has worked as director, dramaturg, tertiary teacher, project manager, producer and writer in Australia and internationally. She conducted a DIY last year with UK artist Sheila Ghelani called the Living Room Project, based on a long time conversation between three women artists (Ghelani & Wolukau-Wanambwa). Other work includes touring and performing with Blast Theory as project manager for two years and Artistic Director of the community arts company, PACT, a centre for contemporary arts for young people in Sydney, Australia. She was Associate Director of Performance Space Sydney prior to giving birth to her first child, Olive in September 2008.

Howard Matthew is a London based artist who works with performance, film and video. His work has been supported by the Arts Council of England, National Lottery funding and has been endorsed through a number of fellowships and bursaries. He completed a postgraduate programme, Masters in Art in Architecture at the University of East London with financial assistance from The Arts & Humanities Research Board in 2005, and his work has shown in galleries and festivals throughout Europe. He has a highly flexible approach to his practice and his work currently involves working as an artist on outreach community and schools programs, and in his personal projects, working closely with unofficial histories of city communities. He has taught in a broad range of contexts, from primary education, tertiary programs to adults with learning disabilities.

Contact:
Caitlin Newton-Broad
[email protected]

Howard Matthew
[email protected]