Photo:  Alice Withers courtesy Compass Live Art

“ Excuse me I’m looking for directions..

Actually I am looking for the Heart of Lancaster…. I mean something that you love about this place ..you know, maybe where you feel most at home…

…or perhaps a place that represents something special or wondrous about Lancaster…

..It doesn’t have to be massive like a castle or a church. It could be something that other people might not have noticed .. something that is just a personal connection for you.

..the Heart does not have to be at the centre, it might be off centre…but central to your version of this place..

..Where is the Heart of Lancaster? “

On 14th February 2019, Roving Valentines, Etheridge & Persighetti, go in search of the Heart of Lancaster. Wearing maps of the city and carrying a heart “radar”, they will engage people in conversations about THIS PLACE as they walk to find the city’s heart.

9am till dusk, various locations

THIS PLACE is a project by Lancaster Arts.

Launch: 16th November, Crowd of Favours, Leeds

For Compass Festival 2018, artists Etheridge & Persighetti are making a new participatory artwork and performance of place in the oldest part of the city, Kirkgate. In 2016 they created Personal Shopper in Kirkgate Market, working with shoppers and traders to create their own “mis-guided” tours of the market. Public House is a project that continues and develops Katie and Simon’s concern with the fragile ecologies of different kinds of ‘public’ spaces.

Through the beer glass lens of the Public House, Etheridge & Persighetti explore visions of future social landscapes by focusing on the enduring role of pubs as important places of social gathering, intergenerational exchange, entertainment, (hi)story telling, and activism.

In the same way that Personal Shopper was a witness to the daily acts of kindness, care and inclusion embedded in the culture of Kirkgate’s traders, Public House is inspired by the many pubs across the UK that provide a key point of social contact for their customers. In 2016 CAMRA commissioned research from Oxford University that found that people who regularly use a local pub “feel more engaged with their wider community”. [http://www.camra.org.uk/pubs-wellbeing ]

Etheridge & Persighetti re-visited Leeds last year to meet people who hold a key interest in the enduring social role of pubs. They visited Katie Marriott’s brewery Nomadic Beers, landlords and owners of well loved Leeds pubs old and new (The Jolly Templar, Wapentake), talked to pub customers in the city, as well as CAMRA members, beer bloggers and those active in supporting and saving pubs.

The artists are now publishing a special edition of beer glasses designed to act as conversation starters about the relationship between beer, people and place. Diagrams, maps, and invitations to explore the rich landscape of Leeds pubs, have been printed onto pint glasses. From a micro play that is designed to be read while you are drinking your pint, to a beer glass that takes you on a journey through Kirkgates pubs past and present, each design represents a collaboration with different people or groups in Leeds.

During Compass Festival, 16-25 November 2018 the glasses are being distributed to a selection of pubs in Kirkgate, and launched with a free live performance by Etheridge & Persighetti. After the show the artists will be joined by special guests including local brewers, publicans, and real ale drinkers who will initiate the first conversations inspired by the inscriptions on the pint glasses.

The project is supported by Leeds Civic Trust, Compass Live Art, and Leeds Brewery

For more information see www.compassliveart.org.uk

Applications are open for Katie Etheridge & Simon Persighetti’s DIY 15 project, DIY Twin Town. Part of Live Art Development Agency’s brilliant programme of unusual professional development opportunities by artists, for artists, DIY Twin Town is a weekender for regional artists from across the UK and beyond, to connect, celebrate and create a Live Art Twinning Ceremony!

6pm Friday 3 – 6pm Sunday 5 Aug 2018
Penryn, Cornwall

Deadline for applications: 5pm, Mon 18 June   Apply here

DIY Twin Town is a gathering specifically for regionally based artists to explore the notion of exchange and collaboration embedded in the ethos of Town Twinning. Sharing models for regional working outside of the large cities, we will look at ways in which the local can provide a portal to national and international contexts.

“How can the town you live in resource and challenge your arts practice?”

Whilst Devoran Arts concept that “the town is the venue” frames their work in Huntly, in Penryn we have come to live the idea that “the town is the studio”. Local pubs, markets, shops and streets have become the places in which our work is developed and tested. This ongoing conversation can be both exposing and stimulating and has led to a rich network of practices, ideas, networks, connections, supporters and resources, many of which lie outside of what might be recognised as arts infrastructure.

Welcoming participants to Penryn, Cornwall, DIY Twin Town will include cultural exchanges, conviviality, connecting with local civic and arts organisations, and creating a new Live Art Twinning Ceremony. The weekend will afford opportunities for new collaborations, conversations, friendships, and twinnings.

Who is it for?

Applications are invited from artists whose lives are based regionally and outside of the large cities. You may be making work locally, nationally or internationally. You might be “the only artist in the village” or part of a thriving arts community in a small town.

Artists at all stages of their careers may apply. Areas of practice include: live art, performance, writing, visual performance, music, relational and socially engaged practice, sound art, producing etc

The Artists

Seasoned DIY lead artists Katie and Simon have previously run DIY 11: Atmospheric Pressure (Performance vs Weather) hosted by Folkestone Fringe, University of DIY (DIY 12) hosted by Contact, Manchester, and DIY 13: Bowie, Stargazing and Performance Writing, hosted by Colchester Arts Centre.

This DIY is supported by Lancaster Arts

I’m really excited to have been awarded a place on Lloyds Bank Social Entrepreneurs programme, provided by the School for Social Entrepreneurs.

Over the next 12 months I’ll be learning how to harness the full potential of one of my most popular projects, Faceback, whilst developing it into a fully fledged social enterprise that can offer more communities, organisations, and businesses a fun, intelligent, and accessible way of connecting diverse constituents.

Visit the Faceback website  for further information

To find out about The School for Social Entrepreneurs click here

          

 

Porous Harbour photos now on Porous City tumblr! View here

POROUS HARBOUR

Folkestone Harbour Arm

16 September 12:00 – 17:00

In 2014 I spent 3 days on Folkestone Harbour with Simon Persighetti and other artists, as we attempted to collaborate with the weather [DIY 12 Atmospheric Pressure: Performance vs Weather, hosted by Folkestone Fringe]. Whilst some of our participants fell for the easterly wind, we fell for Folkestone and the force of nature that is Folkestone Fringe. We are delighted to be returning in 2017 with our Porous City project, reimagined for Folkestone Harbour Arm and part of the Folkestone Fringe EDGE: PUSH/PULL programme.

Explore Folkestone’s Harbour Arm through a unique ‘lens’, with a site-specific temporary tattoo from Etheridge & Persighetti’s seaside booth. The artists transfer textures, features and viewpoints of the place on to participants skin, to create a series of images and encounters that blur the edges between harbour and body, stone and skin.

“To wander through a diverse terrain is to feel the surroundings pass through one’s body as the body passes through the surroundings…”  

Robin, C. Moore, Childhood’s Domain

Through playful interaction, photography, and conversation, Porous Harbour explores how the places we spend time in become part of our own mental and physical architecture. Visitors are invited to become intimately familiar with part of the material fabric of the place they are passing through. Hands become canvas, recording and re-presenting captured images of the harbour-scape. Conversations invite reflection upon the porous push and pull of the places we live in and pass through.

Free.  No need to book. Come and find us on the Harbour Arm between 12:00 and 17:00, 16th September 2017

Katie Etheridge & Simon Persighetti are UK based artists who create participatory projects that explore the interrelationships between people and places. Operating at the intersection between architecture, community, landscape, and performance, their collaborative practice invites audiences to investigate their own relationships with the places in which they live, work and play.

Booking is now live for Etheridge & Persighetti’s Personal Shopper: Cornucopia at Compass Festival  11th- 19th November 2016.

Choose from a pick and mix selection of micro tours from our Market Mis-Guides. Shoppers, traders, market lovers, and artists, all have a fascinating story to tell as they walk, eat, work, and play their way through Leeds Kirkgate Market. For booking and details on individual tours click here

• 53° 47′ 49.8804” N / 1° 32′ 19.7916” W by Rommi Smith
• The Unwritten History of Kirkgate Market by the Old Market Boy
• The Pearl in the Oyster by Cliff & Michelle Hocken (Hayes Seafoods)
• Every Bean Tells a Story by The Teapot
• Dansette Days by Andy Wilcox
• Fill a Bag for a Pound with Dan
• Threads by Hayley Alessi
• Favourite Things Poetry Tour by Matthew Bellwood
• Meet and Eat the Streets by Kathryn Garnett
• WorkersLunchTime by WorkersLunchTime

 

Faster and friendlier than ever, Faceback is popping up in Plymouth this Saturday 11th June 2016, at Theatre Royal Plymouth’s Funky Llama festival. We had a hoot last year at this friendly funky uniquely inclusive Festival, when 100’s of people met new faces by playing Faceback – apparently some have even still got their badges! We’re looking forward to seeing some familiar faces when we return with the Faceback team on Saturday. Funky Llama 2016 Tickets and Info

In July, Faceback is appearing at New Directions Showcase 2016, organised by the National Rural Touring Forum and curated by China Plate. We’re really looking forward to helping to connect artists and companies with promotors and producers from all over the UK during this 3 day event that aims to introduce delegates to exciting new work, and to expand opportunities for companies to find new contexts for their work in rural touring. New Directions 2016 Booking and Info