XMASSY Stuff!

We have been up to lots of Xmassy fun things over the last few weeks. Combining art and upcycling workshops with local kids, we bring attention to litter issues and also show kids how easy it is to get creative with waste materials. Why spend money on cheap tinsel from the pound shop? When you can have fun making these! PS. Also for a great sustainable way to add the lovely glitter to your craft workshops, which are not a mess…(they are made from a plastic metal mix, so best to try and avoid these…) We are trying salt and food colouring. Check here: Still have to experiment to get it as shiny as the real deal, so let us know how you get on!

On Saturday, 5 December we will be at the Cafe’ on Seamills Square who will be unveiling a GIANT TEA COSY covering the building! Many local residents have been knitting away over the last few months getting blankets ready which have been sown together to create a Giant Teacosy. After the event these will be dismantled and given to charities supporting homeless people, including One25, and Crisis Centre Ministries. This lovely project has brought the community together with young and old having cups of tea and knitting away at the Cafe’. They will also have a Craft Market during the late morning on the 5th December.

When we started enquiring about places for XMAS lights to go up in the local areas, as part of our Avonmouth and Kingweston Green Capital Funded Project, we were directed to the Cafe’ on the Square by Ash from the Shirehampton Community Forum. As I made my way there I was met by the enthusiastic Heidi, one of the managers at the Cafe’. She told me about the ambitious Teacosy project and that she was just thinking that morning about getting some lights up for the building too. Well there you go, it was written in the stars…

So we combined forces with Young Bristol and The Seamills Boys and Girls Club in partnership with funding received form the BYCA funding pot for youth activities over the holidays, we created some exciting XMAS light decorations over the Half Term.

We will also be working with Avon Primary to decorate the Avonmouth Community Centre, as well as Oasis Academy Brightstowe to decorate the Community building of the Guinness Trust. We will post the results of these light sculptures after they are up!

Another fun project has been a partnership with United Communities and the Easton Energy Group as well as the Bristol Energy Co-Op, creating Xmas decorations for Treefest at St. Mary’s Radcliffe Church. We made decorations during community events with the groups involved. Be sure to go and have a look at all the trees in the beautiful building between the 8th – 13th December. We will be renting a tree from Co-Exist as Hamilton House. They will deliver for free in Bristol and after the Xmassy season you take the tree back and yes, it gets planted back in the forest.

Then we have coming up another XMAS TREE project in Lockleaze in partnership with United Communities and LPW as part of the final Green Capital 2015 events. We have been creating Xmas decorations with different groups in the neighbourhood and on the 12th December, there will be workshops taking place in Gainsborough Square from 11am, and then the Xmas tree will be lit up in the evening in the square. Do come and make more decorations and help us to decorate if you happen to be around!

Good luck with all your Xmas preparations!

LitterARTI – Under the Plastic Ocean at the Harbour Festival – 18-19 July

This coming weekend LitterARTI will be at the Harbour Festival – joining Cirque Bijou in the Kids area together with performance group – Bocadalupa and the Cardboard Club.

Over five trillion pieces of plastic are floating in our seas. Imagine a world where the sea-creatures adapted to this new awry environment. Come and join us for creative workshops and fun under this weirdly wonderful plastic ocean.

We will be making instruments and sculptures and explore ways to reduce our use of plastics and look at ways collectively to save our oceans.

We will be making instruments and sculptures and explore ways to reduce our use of plastics and look at ways collectively to save our oceans. We will also be displaying artworks created by the Bannerman Road Primary School in Easton together with Artist, Amy Peck, as well as a sculpture co-created with kids in Lawrence Weston with LitterARTI and Artist Pete Margerum supported by BYCA and Bristol City Council. We will also be displaying wonderful artworks created by Bridget Ely, Fiona Hobson,Tracy Graham, Joel Mark Calvert and Eduardo Allen, and Phipholle.

The Friday eve also sees the launch of the life size Blue Whale by Codsteaks and Ape Project supported by Bristol Green Capital and the Arts Council in Millenium Square which will be on display during the Summer. This is also to bring awareness to the problem of plastics floating in our oceans.

See the pictures below form our previous event at the Backwell Festival the past weekend. We had so much fun with all the families and the kids were so creative!

Litterarti workshops at the Backwell Festival 2015.

LitterARTI workshops at the Backwell Festival 2015

LitterARTI Tackling Chewing Gum issues with Broadmead Bid and Gumdrop

Bin your gum! Bristol Shopping Quarter tackles the sticky issue of chewing gum.

The Broadmead BID team is launching a new campaign to educate and inspire the people of Bristol to dispose of their gum responsibly through recycling.

Partnering with Gumdrop, an organisation which specialises in recycling used chewing gum to make many amazing products from rulers to guitar picks, americano mugs and even wellington boots! and LitterARTI, a Bristol based Arts Collective, famed for producing works of art from litter, the BID team hopes to address this issue with an innovative campaign which will be launched on 9th April at The Podium in Broadmead, between 11am – 3pm, and continue until the end of July. The project is supported by Bristol City Council and Bristol European Green Capital 2015.

At the launch event and at two further events, on Saturday 9th May and Saturday 20th June shoppers who use chewing gum will be offered a ‘Gumdrop’ – a small pink key ring container, made with recycled chewing gum, in which they will be asked to place their used gum. Once full – each Gumdrop takes up to 25 pieces of gum – they will be asked to deposit their Gumdrop into one of four specially-branded chewing gum recycling points at The Podium, in the centre of Broadmead.

The Gumdrops will be collected throughout the campaign and will be entered into a free prize draw, with the lucky winner receiving a £500 shopping voucher to spend in Bristol Shopping Quarter. The winner will be announced at the final event on Saturday 25th July.

Broadmead retailers have shown their backing for the initiative by agreeing to hold stocks of the Gumdrops in their stores. Replacement Gumdrops can be collected from: Berghaus, Bo-Concept, Co-Lab, Game, Lush, Runners Need & Cycle Surgery, Specsavers, Thomas Cook, Times Past Vintage Sweet Shoppe and The Fragrance Shop.

In order to measure the impact of the campaign, the BID cleansing team has agreed to monitor the number of pieces of chewing gum they remove for a control period before the project launches and then throughout the four month campaign period.

Jo Hawkins, Broadmead BID manager said: “Retailers within the Broadmead BID area pay a levy, part of which goes towards enhanced cleansing including the removal of chewing gum and it is hoped that this project will result in cleaner streets in Broadmead and will save money which can be spent on other things which will benefit all BID businesses. This a great project to be undertaking in the year Bristol is European Green Capital.

While a serious issue is being tackled, the campaign aims to promote the problems associated with the incorrect disposal of chewing gum in a fun, educational way. LitterARTI is curating events which bring together a collaboration of performing and visual artists, who will confront this unsightly issue with the shoppers in Broadmead, through public engagement art.

Annali Grimes from LitterARTI said ” We are delighted to be part of this ground-breaking project, using the arts to address community issues and encourage civic participation. This project with the Broadmead BID is central to our city-wide litter awareness events to take place during 2015. Our partnerships with Bristol European Green Capital 2015 and Bristol City Council allow us to create new contexts for the arts, to educate about the effects of rubbish and promote recycling.”

Anna Bullus from Gumdrop added “We are very excited to be working with the Broadmead BID and LitterARTI to bring this exciting new initiative to Bristol. We hope that the campaign will help inspire chewers to recycle their chewing gum and in turn create a cleaner greener Bristol.”

The campaign will be promoted strongly via social media using the hashtag #bristolgumdrop, through work which LitterARTI carry out with young people, on posters and on a specially created webpage at www.gumdropltd.com/bristolgumdrop

For more information about the Bin Your Gum initiative, or to arrange to attend the launch on 9th April, please contact jo.hawkins@destinationbristol.co.uk

For more information about Gumdrop, contact friends@gumdropltd.com or visit www.gumdropltd.com

For more information about LitterARTI, contact info@litterarti.com or visit: www.litterarti.com

For information about Bristol European Green Capital, visit www.bristol2015.co.uk

For information about The Broadmead BID, visit www.broadmeadbristolbid.co.uk or email jo.hawkins@destinationbristol.co.uk

Pop-Up Exhibition at Small is…Festival 13/14 September

We had the opportunity to put together an imprompto pop-up exhibition during the Small is… Festival in Bristol, St, George’s Hall over the weekend.

What we learned is how quickly we can put something like this together, and the potential it holds for public spaces, including shopfronts, office spaces and universities for educational or awareness days, talks and conferences on sustainability, waste and recycling.

What art brings to the table in finding solutions towards sustainability is that is inspires curiosity, and then to be curious about something, makes you want to learn more about it, thus opens up a space for education and conversations about waste materials.

Get in touch if you have events coming up, we are happy to come and set up an exhibition to supplement your sustainability message.

Artwork created by: Object…, Fiona Hobson, Thomas Dowdeswell, Fred Plumley, Sadie Few, and Joel Calvert.

LitterARTI at Small is… Festival in St. George’s Hall this weekend, Bristol

a WASTE of SPACE: 25 Artists. 9 Willing Volunteers. Eco-Educators. A Film-Maker.

A WASTEofSPACE is the brainchild of Pete Margerum and Annali Alletha with the vision of having a dedicated space, where traditional “waste” materials can be creatively explored. Where dedicated workshops and education take place within this dedicated environment.

Painting on cardboard by Thomas Dowdeswell

Through this exhibition, we explore this concept as a reality. By working with artists, all exploring “waste-materials” in their work, we question the process of when waste becomes valuable or turns into resources. As can be seen also in the work of exhibiting artist Thomas Dowdeswell, an established painter, whom clearly illustrates how the impulse to create, does not care about the surfaces it gets exposed to. It is the ultimate illustration of adding value to seemingly worthless objects, when necessity calls for it. These works were created when he could not afford a canvas, but does it detract from the value of the art work? From the purity of expression?

The current trend of waste being a subject matter to many artists, and becoming increasingly popular as representations in gallery spaces, ie. the recent Installation of Phyllida Barlow in the Tate Gallery in London. I call it a trend, but I am a firm believer of artists being able to represent the unseen, hidden sub-conscious of culture. They say if you want to see what a culture is like, look at the art which gets produced. By bringing this art into the public, and involving and engaging people who do not normally go into galleries, we have the opportunity to alter perceptions around waste.

Phyllida Barlow, Tate Gallery London

Through this exhibition we also seek to bring the “unseen” to the surface. Waste has the quality of out of sight, out of mind. And a big problem with our inability to act on the amount of pollution in our cities, is because it gets tucked away out-of-sight in a landfill site. If we were exposed to the smells and horrors of a landfill site on our doorstep, we would think differently about our wasteful ways. Well, we’re not gonna create a landfill site and pretend it is art. But essentially what we seek to do with this exhibition is allow a space where the individual is confronted to question his / her own relationship with waste.

Fiona Campbell and Pete Margerum creating a tree from exhaust pipes for the litterARTI a WASTEofSPACE Exhibition 5- 9 August. Participants will complete the artwork during workshops which will take place on Wednesday, 5 August 2014.

As the week progresses, the “waste” within the space will accumulate through creative workshops. An ants’ nest of activities! And on the final day of the week, we will be able to see the collective footprint of visitors represented creatively and beautifully. All the workshops are run by established and up-coming artists. Artists from different disciplines are invited to collaborate and new relationships are formed. So often this wonderful work is created in isolation, so what this project also seeks is for collaboration and fresh new ideas to inform current work processes. All these artists are explorers of “new-materials” finding new ways to use and engage with materials in excess in our environments. Only through the sharing of techniques and ideas will this zeitgeist gain momentum. It can almost be likened to have the same excitement as the Industrial Revolution, with the Great Exhibition in Crystal Palace and the Eiffel Tower. But with an added challenge – pre-conceived prejudices about the already existing materials, which adds a psychological angle to it. Then the total devastation involved in the excess of these materials causing death in our oceans, and health hazards to humans with less access to public services, where the waste tends to accumulate.

Sadie Few exploring making creations out of cardboard for the workshop on Thursday, 7 August 2014

Jan Blake busy exploring ideas for the workshop on Thursday, 7 August 2014

During the week other activities include: fancy dress fun litter pick challenges, with outfits provided by Bristol Textile Recyclers. Fancy Dress costumes headed for India and Pakistan, intercepted by litterARTI to engage kids and make litter picking fun! Stencils provided by The Fly, will allow participants to make statements about litter. We need to start changing perceptions about litter-picking in our societies, that it is unacceptable behaviour to drop litter, but also to ignore litter. If we all take the 2 minute Beach Clean challenge in our own neighbourhoods, you will start to create a culture of litter picking champions. Also look at how LITTERATI seeks to encourage cleaning up the streets: By using Instagram, picturing the litter which you then discard in the correct ways. This way a global map is created where litter has been picked. Litter picking needs to become socially acceptable, and people need to start taking responsibility of their wasteful ways. Collectively. Encouraged within communities.

We are also working with Resource Futures during this exhibition, who provides us with the information necessary to educate and inform accurately about the waste materials we are exploring during the exhibition.

All artists involved in this project, are stakeholders of this project as well. Everyone has agreed to work for half their normal rate, which shows the dedication to the project. The artworks exhibited for sale during the exhibition, will allow for 20% of the profits to go towards the litterARTI – Artists – Collective. We are raising funds which will allow for all the workshop artists to get DBS Clearance Certificates, which will allow them to carry this work forward.

The Scraptors. Fiona Campbell. Pete Margerum. Jethro Brice. Tim Floyd. Thomas Dowdeswell. Lee Kirby. Alison Harper. Jan Blake. Louise Block. Bridget Ely. Sarah Jayne Edwards. Seila Fernandez Arconada. Jennifer Blackwood. Fred Plumley. Object… The Fly. Katryn LaMiette. Katharina Nyilas. Olivia Jones. Sadie Few. Fiona Hobson. Phipholle. Annali Alletha. Matt Harris. Ruth Worsley. Morwhenna Woolcock. Domenico Alecci. Aimee McCabe. Alexandra Rowson. Maxine Hughes. Megan Sutcliffe. Beverly Heath. Clare Wood. June Burrough. Joe Hoare.

LITTERARTI

Tackling Environmental and social issues through the arts and creativity!

art

XMASSY Stuff!

LitterARTI – Under the Plastic Ocean at the Harbour Festival – 18-19 July

LitterARTI Tackling Chewing Gum issues with Broadmead Bid and Gumdrop

Pop-Up Exhibition at Small is…Festival 13/14 September

a WASTE of SPACE: 25 Artists. 9 Willing Volunteers. Eco-Educators. A Film-Maker.