The Old Brick Workshop at Poole – once part of the historic brickworks – has been brought back to life to coincide with the opening of ‘Momentum’, Somerset Arts Weeks Festival this weekend.
Now fully operational as a gallery, 9 separate artists’ studios and a communal space, the venue is a new and welcome additional to the local creative arts environment. Artists working in paint, print-making, drawing, photography and mixed media are all displaying their work at the gallery during the Festival which runs until 18 October. The Old Brick Workshop is the only local venue displaying artists’ work this year although there are a number of locations involved in Taunton, Kingston St Mary and at Hestercombe House.
Artists James Marsden, Anna Newland Hooper, Diana Pilcher, Debbi Sutton, Jane Mowat, Teresa Wilson, Ashley Thomas, Jane Kelly, Natalie Parsley and Judith Crosher all have work on display in the gallery which includes a small viewing room for film and video installations.
Anna Newland Hooper explained the advantages of artists working together: “Communities like this mean that we’re not working in isolation. We can bounce ideas off one another as artists, discuss our work with others and the communal space is somewhere we can get together and give each other feed-back, feeding into one another’s work and minds. Sometimes you need to be isolated, shut the door, be in your own studio and focused; sometimes you need to come away, have a discussuion with someone who understands where you’re coming from – that’s what being here gives us.”
She added, “We also have a large workshop where we hope to run activities for the community – life-drawing, photography and printing for example.”
The Old Brick Workshop is open daily from 11am to 6pm and can be found on the Poole Industrial Estate.