BV studios: BV OPEN STUDIOS 2014

Friday 30th May - 6pm till late, and Saturday 31st May & Sunday 1st June from 11am to 6pm.

We are delighted to announce our fourth OPEN STUDIOS WEEKEND, celebrating the work of over 140 artists and creative businesses in the building.

You are invited to come to the Private View from 6pm till 9pm on Friday 30th May. The festivities will continue till late with music etc

Saturday and Sunday provides a more leisurely opportunity to enjoy the exciting artwork of each artist, from recent graduates to artists with more established and growing reputations.

You can expect to see work across all forms of fine art, illustration and design, including drawing, painting, sculpture, ceramics, photography, installation, film & video, sound art and performance. There will be fresh new work from both long term residents and artists who have arrived in the intervening months since the last Open in 2013.

Your journey around the building begins with an exhibition of original postcards presented anonymously in the BV Gallery. Made by both BV artists and invited guest artists. They will cost £15 each… the proceeds will go towards funding and maintaining the exhibition space at BV.

So come along, have a drink and a chat to the artists, and prepare to be delighted, astonished, amazed and challenged.

BV Open Studios 2014

Gallery

Founded in 2009 by artist Penny Jones, Motorcade/FlashParade was an artist-led project space in Bristol. It provided a platform for emerging artists, particularly from the South West region, and hosted an annual programme of exhibitions and events.
S
adly, practical considerations forced the closure of Motorcade/FlashParade at the end of 2013.

Motorcade set out to excite. We offered a tantalising vacuum to fill, an empty space ready for exploration, experimentation and adventure; where boundaries could be pushed, ambitions exceeded and where both artists and audience could be challenged.
Our full programme of solo and group exhibitions included a competition for curators - Blueprint, and the hugely popular INCUBE8 - a series of competitions offering artists their first major solo show. We also ran an annual Summer Residency, a mini-residency and exhibition for our team of volunteers, and our annual National Open Competition. We also hosted a range of other important activities to support contemporary practice, foster peer learning and invite participation from a wider audience.
Artist Ruth Piper added her organisational skills in November 2010, joined by Gordon Bonn. Julie McCalden joined in April 2011 and thus began Motorcade's strongest period. Our busiest year was in 2012... Arts Council funding enabled a glorious expansion to our programme and we showed some sensational work. Julie was integral to this intense year and when she left at the end of December 2012, she was very much missed.
Throughout the four years of its existence, Motorcade was supported by hosts of volunteers, always willing to give of their time and energies. In particular Garry Edison Cook, who time after time produced remarkable posters for our exhibitions. He also designed our brilliant logo and, not least, provided chilled DJ-ing at most of our Private Views.
Big thanks also go to Elizabeth Dismorr, Poppy Pitt (who established MotorMouth - regular peer critiques) and Charlie Cousins, who curated the last show, also Will Kendrick and Tom Johnson for their consistent technical support. Core volunteers included the redoubtable James Mark Whittet, Heather Wallace, Alex Hardy, Gareth Pitt, Lisa Friedberg, Joe Deighan, Charli Clark and Zara Bird-Wood, artists all. Gratitude and admiration extended also to Steve Norton, whose photographs of many of our PVs form part of his unique and invaluable archive of artist-led projects connected to the University of the West of England.

PENNY JONES