Watch this Space Skipton (2023)
Funded by Skipton's Heritage Action Zone, the 2022/2023 took place in the town of Skipton in the Craven district of North Yorkshire. As well as short-term residencies (Pocket Residencies), this WTS worked with local students to develop a place-based exhibition and with local events and festivals.
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Image credit: Juliet Klottrup
Pocket Residency: Bryony Simcox
Qworkery, Skipton
Bryony Simcox spent three days as a ‘Qworker’ creating a series of three collages based on the architecture and textures of Otley Street. Bryony immersed herself in the co-working space over her residency, even joining the weekly 5km jog. The Qworkers celebrated her artwork creation with a mini-launch on the street with cake and inviting the public into the hallway to see the works
Pocket Residency: Rob Young
Elsworth Kitchen
Elsworth Kitchen partnered up with Rob Young, a writer from Harrogate. Initially hesitant as to how having an artist in residence would work in their busy restaurant, Rebecca, Bruce and all the staff at Elsworth Kitchen welcomed Rob into their midst.
Working without materials, paints and pens, Rob isn’t immediately obvious as an artist, so he made himself known by chatting with the staff and regulars. Rob is fascinated by words and has been helping Elsworth Kitchen to tell their story through quirky graphics, Lego figures and playful language.
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Image credit: Juliet Klottrup
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Image credit: Juliet Klottrup
Pocket Residency: Louise Goult
On Trend Boutique
Louise Goult, a textile artist from Saltburn-by-the-sea took up her residency in On Trend Boutique. Keen to tell the story of this boutique, Louise responded to the shop through hand embroidery. Conversations, stories, patterns and observations have been recorded in stitch by Louise onto pattern pieces that she made into a toile garment and returned to be displayed in the shop.
Pocket Residency: Lucy Morrison
Steep & Filter
Lucy Morrison challenged herself to create a painting a day inspired by the comings and goings inside Steep and Filter, a coffee house and refill store on Otley Street. Located just inside the door she painted away for three solid days, mastering her challenge.
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Image credit: Juliet Klottrup
‘Humans of Skipton’ is a take on the Humans of New York portrait series. This part of the WTS project was run in partnership with Skipton College and students from Fine Art and Media Studies as part of their photography module.
The students decided they wanted to depict the different generations living and working in Skipton and that they wanted to take their photographs in black and white. The final exhibition took place in Skipton Library, using the impressive staircase as a backdrop to the dramatic photographs. All four students were involved in hanging the exhibition, choosing the placement of the images, the order and learning skills in how to hang an exhibition.
Humans of Skipton
with Skipton College
WTS Project Manager and Skipton College students. Image credit: Steph Carr
Yarndale
Community Workshops
WTS partnered with Yarndale as an established festival in the town of Skipton to provide support and advice for building engagement in the local communities. Yarndale’s Creative Producer, Kate Beard, is keen to convey the narrative of Yarndale and the strong local textile heritage of the town.
The community outreach sessions developed into drop-in sessions and so creating a structure that formally conveyed heritage messaging was challenging. The team adapted and gently started to introduce the topic as sessions built up.
Sessions were tailored to ability and interest, from finger knitting with some of the really young children at Selfa sessions, to teaching the basics of both knitting and crochet, pattern interpretation and encouraging people to bring their own projects and join us to make and mend at the Town Hall.
Craven Arts Intern
Jessica Aughton
Jessica Aughton, was selected to be the Craven Arts
Intern from four applicants. She was chosen based on
her creative practice and community organising oriented
goals.She worked as an intern at Craven Arts from February to
October 2022.
Main elements of internship:
• Successfully worked on social media and helped Craven
Arts gain more followers.
• Developed the members' monthly newsletter, which is
continuing to be developed by the team.
• Collaborated with member artist (Peter Wilkin) to make a
"Zine" together and Jess helped him to set up an exhibition.
• Designed posters and social media posts to promote to the
Grand Opening of Craven Arts House.
Place-based Theatre
with Clemintine Bogg-Hargroves
Initially considered as part of the pocket-residencies,
turning unlikely spots into theatre venues was an
aspiration of this WTS programme.
Various locations were explored but the project ran into difficulty getting somewhere confirmed. Planning meetings went ahead with local theatre practitioner Clementine Bogg-Hargroves with budget available for a theatre/film element and potential new locations were explored.
In June 2023 this element was still in planning stages, with a
tentative autumn date for production. To date Clem has
explored various locations and themes around the town,
including Skipton Woods and filming is planned for October 2023.
