Carlisle’s Tullie House Museum is set to host a showcase for Cumbrian artists this week.
the event, on Thursday, will celebrate the SOURCE Cumbrian digital artist development programme and feature the seven commission-winning artists’ work.
SOURCE began in March 2020 led by a partnership of the Cumbria Museum Consortium and Signal Film & Media, offering a free opportunity for early-to-mid career artists to take their practice to the next level with a particular focus on technology and digital media.
Each artist was paired with one of four Cumbrian cultural organisations including Signal Film & Media, Tullie House Museum and Art Gallery, Windermere Jetty Museum, and Wordsworth Grasmere.
Work was created as part of the programme from animated photo albums, digital photography, short films, and even a customisable online game.
Kate Parry, Cumbria Museum Consortium manager, said: “It has been fascinating to see how the seven artists have responded to the different museum sites and collections across Cumbria and to watch the artworks emerge.
“As museum staff, we’ve learnt how varied, intriguing, and fun digital art can be. After so many conversations on Zoom, I’m really looking forward to seeing all the artists come together to showcase their work in person at Tullie House Museum.”
Loren Slater, co-director of Signal Film & Media, added: “SOURCE was such a positive part of 2020-21 where despite the pandemic, online sessions and mentoring continued, and each artist exhibited work in their host venue and online. Signal Film and Media are thrilled to see the artists and their work reunited at this event and their hard work and success celebrated.”
There will be the opportunity to hear from artists in a round-table discussion and ask questions about their work.
The event, from 2pm, will end with an exclusive showing of Jennifer McMillan’s Shadow Clock projected onto the historic spaces of Tullie House that inspired her work.
This is an excellent and rare opportunity to hear local artists discuss their work in-person.
Although the SOURCE project began well over a year ago, due to COVID-19 restrictions this event brings the artists together for the first time in public.
Project lead for Tullie House, Claire Sleightholm, said: “The team at Tullie House were delighted with the way that Ellie and Jennifer engaged with the collections and the project even during the testing times of lockdown.
“These works have now been added to Tullie House’s permanent collections and we’ll be able to share with the public the work of these amazing Cumbrian artists for years to come.”
The showcase event is free and open to the public, places can be booked via the Tullie House website. For those that are unable to make the event in person, Tullie House will be live streaming the artists’ presentations from its Instagram account.
