Showcase

A description of the project

art360 was finally offered the use of 3 city centre shop windows by a local  agent.  2 of the shops were in a run down state and art360  cleaned and painted the frontages. A  free public drawing event  was then held in the city centre. The resultant drawings were displayed in 2 of the shop windows as a demonstration of the people of Hereford taking something back from the faceless retail centre and making it distinctive, making it theirs.

A second drawing event as part of The Big Draw, was held for the third shop, which entailed staging a display of  art work in the  3rd shop, whiting out the window and getting participants to ‘draw out the window’ to reveal the art behind. This meant them literally drawing into the white-out and really encouraged teenage participants who saw it like creating graffiti.

Along the way art360 was approached by 3 local charities, and 1 primary school, who asked to display the art work made by their groups in the shop windows. This increased the numbers of people becoming aware of their work in the community and acted as an powerful confidence boost for the makers of the work.

An explanation of why it was created

art360 began as the initiative of a group of final year Fine Art students at Hereford College of Arts in January 2009.

It was felt that, considering the high number of empty retail premises in Hereford High Town (52 at the beginning of 2009) and the perceived separation between the excellent work being done in the art college and the people of Hereford, to unite the two would be of great benefit to all concerned. Herefordshire has a very high proportion of artists and makers, often struggling on very low incomes, but there was no evidence of their work in the city. We feel strongly that our retail centre should reflect regional distinctiveness and want Hereford and it’s inhabitants to benefit, financially but even more importantly, culturally, from it’s artistic heritage.

It was also felt that many groups, particularly working with disadvantaged members of the community, were not represented in the centre of the city. It was time to rethink the city centre as purely retail – it should reflect the cultural and educational side of the community as well.

The name – art360hereford was chosen to mean art for everyone – everywhere.        


A list of partners (individuals or organisations) that make it happen

Jan Trewin
Annabelle Elletson
Rose Elwell
Chris Hyslop
Jo Armstrong
Kat Webb
Archie Miles

Amelia Quinlan –Herefordshire Voluntary Action
Mark Hubbard – local city councillor
Cynthia Palmer – Hereford City manager
Dave Tristram – Hereford Council
Paul Hodgson – local estate agent
Richard Heatly – principal of Hereford College of Arts
Paul Keetch – Hereford MP
Peter Mayberry – Widemarsh Workshop
Jo Callaghan – Moreton Woods
Karen Hilliard – Dursley ‘On View’s scheme
The Green Eyed Monster Company

Please describe points where the project looked threatened, how was this overcome?

The most threatening point was at the very beginning, when it could have been so easy to believe it was all too difficult.
We were encouraged by a local councillor to approach the City Council for funding to try and transform our first shop;  We sent out dozens of letters explaining our vision; we prepared a presentation and were ready to meet their questions. When it came to it, we were seen last on the agenda, most of the people excused themselves, our presentation was cut very short, we didn’t get a chance to explain what we would do with the money and although we eventually did get an award it was for just £200.
At first, we were very crestfallen, but we decided to do what we could with this small amount and re-thought our initial method of development. It was here that we planned drawing events, to gain publicity, show we meant business and hopefully persuade the City Council we could achieve something really worthwhile.
We also ‘found’ some free materials, in skips, dumps, roadsides etc with which to create supports for work. We  borrowed necessary items from friends and generally spread the word, never turning any offers of materials or extra hands to help, down.

Another threat was holding our first drawing event with no actual promise of a shop to display the finished art work in! However, through a mixture of guile and persuasion we were given the go ahead with a just weeks display time allowed by the estate agent.
A further large problem was that we were very aware that the poor state of the outside of the shops, even with the art work installed, would do little to improve the look of the empty properties.  So, without permission, we repainted the 2 adjacent shop fronts we had been told we could use, the same colour to give them something of an art360 identity. We were very concerned that this act could threaten the whole venture if the agent disapproved but luckily he saw we were improving the likelihood of the shop being let by improving the exterior, he loved the art displayed and gave us an opened ended time frame to have the shops. This was a major breakthrough and he has continued to be very supportive.

What is the best story to come out of it (so far?)

Personally speaking – the best story for me which encapsulates what it’s all about was on the day of the 2nd drawing event (– the art work hidden behind the whited out windows and the public encouraged to draw into the white to reveal the work.)

The whole day was a triumph:
the mix of participants;
the sense of wonder from some quite bolshy teenagers amazed we were encouraging graffiti on the windows who then took part with gusto;
but mainly a small shy boy called Aaron. He stayed for quite a while, accompanied by his family. He drew a self-portrait in the window and we photographed him next to it and put it on our website We then received this message:

Thank you for letting Aaron and Caitlin join in today. Hereford needs more of these type of family events. Aaron was very excited to see his photo on your gallery pages and even more excited to see his drawing on the window was still there and had not been wiped clean. Thanks again -the photos made Grandad very proud and Nanny cry! I will keep an eye on the website for your next event  - best regards…..

The impacts of the project and how you have measured them (eg. how many people through the door and where they have come from)

Prior to beginning, we conducted a survey in Hereford, collecting over a hundred positive and only 6 negative comments when we suggested using empty shops to display art from local people and groups.

We were a little slow to count participants on the first drawing event and haven’t worked out how to number the actual views of the windows on people passing by but we have had plenty of positive responses on our website and on the Meanwhile page. We also collected a very positive sheet of comments at this event.

For one of our drawing events we had paper plates being decorated to hang as a backdrop for the art display and we got through 200 and used these as a very rough count  of participants.

For our third drawing event we limited each person to one label and they got through all 300, these later decorated our Christmas trees.

We have used art work from 12 Herefordshire based artists, provided exhibition space for 3 charities whose art work incorporated work from over 100 people and one primary school showed work in which over 40 children had been involved.

We have made an impact locally, so much so that the City Council Partnership recently contacted us to mount a drawing event to go alongside their celebrations for Valentines day in High Town, for which they are making a small contribution to art360. (taking place on February 13th)

A charity working with adults with learning disabilities contacted us through Mencap to provide a day-long drawing workshop for it’s participants, with the art work produced having pride of place in the city centre when it is completed. Mencap have given funding to art360 for this event (occurring on February 16th)

A budget/costs explanation

Our budget restraints have been massive, having so far only had an income of £200. However, as our plans for the future become clearer it will be easier to apply for project-led funding.

So far our costs consisted of:
Setting up a website
Insurance
Basic materials to make shopfronts good, i.e. paint.
Art materials we didn’t personally own for events - large rolls of paper, paper plates, labels.
In the future we are aiming to have an empty shop to open to the public, to display work and run workshops in as having to hold them outside, under borrowed gazebo has limitations.

Income details

art360 received £200 in 2009 from Hereford City Council.
In 2009 art360 spent £107 of this money.

On February 2nd art360 received £500 from Mencap.
We have so far spent £180 of this on insurance for the running of their event on February 16th, which also covers us for further events.
(For previous events we were covered by the City Council as we hadn’t then gained charitable status).