Cheeseburn Open Weekend

As the Spring and Summer months are upon us, we have the Cheeseburn open weekends to look forward to. The programme changes over the course of the 5 months, so there are plenty of reasons to visit repeatedly over the year.

Gillian Dickinson North East Young Sculptor of the Year Prize 2019

For the May open weekends, visitors were invited to explore the proposals in the Stables Gallery by 10 young artists who have been shortlisted to become the 2019 Gillian Dickinson North East Young Sculptor of the Year.

Each artist is supported and mentored by Cheeseburn Curator Matthew Jarratt and the winning artist will receive £6500 to realise their idea at Cheeseburn in spring 2020.

The award is in its 4th year and was conceived by Joanna Riddell at Cheeseburn in 2015 and The Gillian Dickinson Trust has recently renewed their funding support for Cheeseburn to deliver this important opportunity for young artists for another 3 years.

Clare Townley, the 2018 winner of the Gillian Dickinson North East Young Sculptor of the Year Prize exhibited her new installation and dancer Simona Yovcheva was performing in response to her artwork.

The chapel was the site for an impressive collection of glass ships in glass bottles as part of a project by Dr Ayako Tani. "Vessels of Memory  aims to document the skills and experience of glassworkers."

There were also numerous new sculptures exhibited around the grounds.

Gillian Dickinson North East Young Sculptor Award 2017 - winner announced for installation at Cheeseburn Sculpture

I recently exhibited at Cheeseburn Sculpture at the same time that the shortlist of artists for the Gillian Dickinson North East Young Sculptor Award 2017 were exhibiting their submissions. Visitors were invited to vote on their favourite, and the winner has just been announced as Northumberland-born artist Peter Hanmer. He receives £6,500 to develop develop his proposal, The Cave, into an installation which will be unveiled in spring 2018.

The work will feature sculpture and sound, filling the Potting Shed at Cheeseburn Sculpture Gardens in Stamfordham, Northumberland with over 50 miniature figures. Hanmer’s previous work has involved the creation of figurative models inhabited by miniature animal bone characters.

Hanmer, who is currently studying for his Masters in Fine Art at Newcastle University, said: “I am delighted to have been chosen as winner of this prestigious award out of some really stiff competition. I can’t wait to get to work building my piece.”

Matthew Jarratt, curator at Cheeseburn Sculpture, added: “We are really excited to commission Peter’s installation within the Walled Garden Potting Shed at Cheeseburn. His ideas of creating a ‘sculptural world’ of miniature figures amongst the flowerpots and lawnmowers fascinated the judges.”

In addition to financial support in creating the work, Hanmer will also receive mentoring and support in the run up to his exhibition next year.

The selection panel for the award were Joseph Hillier, artist; Joanna Riddell, founder and owner of Cheeseburn Sculpture; Matthew Jarratt, curator at Cheeseburn Sculpture; and Alexander Dickinson, trustee for The Gillian Dickinson Trust and Partner at Bond Dickinson LLP.

Over 30 artists aged 18-25 applied from across the north east region. The final shortlist of 12 included a number of representatives from the area’s universities, including Newcastle University, Sunderland University and Northumbria University.

The judges also took into account votes from visitors to the gallery and online votes through Facebook.

Started by Riddell in 2015, the first recipient of the award was Sunderland University graduate Dan Gough last summer. His installation Scurry is currently on view at Cheeseburn Sculpture on designated opening weekends. The work features 2,000 red and grey ceramic squirrels sited within the Victorian Walled Garden at Cheeseburn.

For more information visit www.cheeseburn.com

https://www.a-n.co.uk/news/gillian-dickinson-north-east-young-sculptor-award-2017-installation-miniature-figures-takes-top-prize

Everything Will Be Alright in the Stables at Cheeseburn

Thank you to all who visited the Cheeseburn Open Weekends in May and saw my audio installation 'Everything Will Be Alright' in the Stables.

As well as setting up and closing down my installation, I spent both weekends assisting the small team involved in making the event happen. My duties included greeting visitors, giving directions to all the different places to explore within the grounds, providing information about the artworks and artists, handing out maps, offering marbles to visitors to use to vote for the artist they wanted to win the The Gillian Dickinson North East Young Sculptor of The Year award, and generally facilitating the visitor experience. 

We had a remarkable number of people through the gates, and the record for the highest visitor number to Cheeseburn per day was exceeded by a significant amount. Arguably more important was the incredibly positive feedback that we received. 

Visitors commented that the friendly and informative welcome that we offered contributed greatly to their experience of Cheeseburn, and this personal approach echoed Joanna's generosity in permitting the public into her living quarters.

I had some great interactions with people who thoroughly enjoyed my installation. Some had experienced it when it was previously exhibited in Newcastle University as part of my MFA Summer exhibition, and for others it was their first encounter with the work. For me, as well as for others, the work changed with its new surroundings of the Stables. Some found it more relaxing because it was no longer in a black space, but others thought the metal dividers in the stables that cast the shadows on the wall added to the unsettling nature of the work. I was concerned that the situation may detract from the audio and confuse the audience, but this was not the case.

There will be a different sound installation "Lost Voices" happening in the stable yard on the next two open weekends on July 1st/2nd and 8th/9th. There will also be a different exhibition in the gallery. It is well worth a visit.