BV studios: April 2015

BV Studios announces its fifth annual Open Studios and you are warmly invited to the Private View and party at 6pm Friday 24th April. The studios will then be open over Saturday 25th and Sunday 26th April from 11am to 5pm.

There are 35 units to explore with over 140 artists and creatives resident in the building, everything from painters, sculptors, designers, photographers, video producers and performing arts! Open Studios is a wonderful opportunity to see behind the usual closed doors and to purchase or commission beautiful art by some of Bristol's finest creatives.

You will be astounded, confounded, stunned and staggered by the quality and variety of work to be seen and enjoyed.

Entry is FREE with a great selection of refreshments available in the foyer!

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

BV OPEN STUDIOS 2015