Sir Nicholas Serota speaks on Front Row prior to delivering his inaugural speech as the Chair of Arts Council England

As Sir Nicholas Serota delivered his inaugural speech as the new Chair of Arts Council England, the former director of the Tate art galleries spoke to Front Row about his vision for his new role, and to what extent he intends to change the focus of the London-based institution.


Some key points from the speech include:


The Arts and Culture are lagging behind organisations and industries such as the Banks when it comes to diversity within those who in positions of leadership


The pressure on Local Authority funding is the biggest challenge to the Arts


There is a need for the Arts Council to take the Arts to communities and places that currently do not encounter art


The Arts Council are investing in the future as well as the present


There is a need to provide opportunities and encourage young people to engage in the arts


The Arts Council needs to support the organisations that are making the arts inclusive


To listen to Sir Nicholas Serota talk to John Wilson on Front Row visit
http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b08k19rr

Launch of the Tyneside Sounds Society at Shipley Art Gallery

I attended the launch of the Tyneside Sounds Society at the Shipley Art Gallery. Michael McHugh has set up this group to establish if there is an interest in forming a network of individuals in Tyneside dedicated to Phonography, Field Recording and the aural environment of Tyneside and North East.

The network will have an emphasis on exploring both the current environment of Tyneside (also North East in general) and also its heritage (or ‘lost’ sounds).

The objective of group is to establish a grass roots network of individuals irrespective of age, gender, knowledge or experience who have an interest in this area and want to share knowledge, promote/organise events or activities and contribute recordings.



The evening included an introduction to the Tyneside Sounds Society by Michael McHugh, a presentation by John Kannenberg about The Museum of Portable Sound, and a performance by Mariam Rezaei.

John Kannenberg is a multimedia artist, curator, writer, researcher and composer. He investigates the sonic geography of museums and archives, the psychology of collection, the processes of making and observing art, and the human experience of time.

His work has included exhibitions for radio, online and physical venues including the Herskovits Library of African Studies in Chicago, the ZKM Medienmuseum, the Biennale of Electronic Arts in Perth, London's ResonanceFM art radio station, the Version Festival in Chicago, as well as a display of ancient Egyptian soundmaking objects for the Kelsey Museum of Archaeology in Ann Arbor.

John established The Museum of Portable Sound in 2015 when he visited London from the United States and discovered that his iphone did not function as a mobile phone in the United Kingdom. That is when he decided to turn his iphone into The Museum of Portable Sound. John aims to bring the culture of sound to the world, one listener at a time. He uses his iphone to record a vast array of sounds, which are then catalogued in the museum. As the museum's strapline states It's not an app, it's an experience. Rather than make the sounds available to download online, the museum only exists on John's mobile phone and visits have to be booked in advance on an individual basis (though group bookings can now be taken due to the museum acquiring headphone spilters). The museum has a guide book that can be downloaded as pdf and also, in keeping with the need for museums to generate income, a gift shop.

The launch of Tyneside Sounds Society coincided with the centenary of the Shipley Art Gallery. To mark this occasion, Mariam Rezaei was invited to perform using a gramophone recording of a speech made by King George V the from Tyne & Wear Museum Archives collections. The speech was delivered in the Shipley Art Gallery on 10th October 1928, part of a ceremonial address to mark the opening of the Tyne Bridge. The speech was recorded by Columbia Records and also includes an address of welcome by W. Swinburne, Town Clerk of Gateshead. It was subsequently published by Columbia as a souvenir of the event. The record was originally part of the collection of Gateshead's Local & Industrial Museum or Saltwell Park Museum.

Mariam used the original gramophone record and a digitisation of the recording to improvise, with turntables, a live cut-up of the speech to create - a form of erasure or sonicblackout as a reinterpretation of the 80 year old recording.

It was an interesting evening, and I'm keen to get involved and explore the museum's collection of sound recordings.

Moving on Up, Moving on Out comes to a close

Yesterday marked the end of an era, with the closing of the final exhibition to be held in the NewBridge Project Space.

It was the last time that Holly and I were working in the project space making wrapping paper for our 'Raise A Mug for NewBridge' artwork.

Here are some photos of the wrapping paper we produced yesterday.

This will be used to wrap mugs given to us by studio holders to transport to the new building. Once we have moved into the new building we are going to host a studio warming get-together at which studioholders will be reunited with their mug. We will have a drink to toast to the new phase in The NewBridge Project's history.