Breakfast Club: Artist Food/Studio Exchange & Camera Obscura

     

The project is based around the ideal notion of a humane exchange and through personal and humane exchanges that we build more wholesome and genuine communities. Conni would like to document her time with anyone who wishes to participate through photography, writing and possibly recordings, but is also happy to negotiate how this is done. Please contact Conni by email if you would like to get involved.

We also met Jacqueline Mellor who told us about an exciting project setting up in the Minories garden today. We dropped in to take this snap. Jacqueline is setting up a camera obscura. We won’t say more than that for now but can confirm it works. It’s a truly magical experience.

If you would like more information please contact Jacqueline by email.

Don’t forget our Breakfast Club will be the first Thursday next month. Come along to meet our members, find out more about the project and enjoy breakfast with us.

Grab a brush and pour some ink

Friday 27 January
7pm til late
15 Queen Street, CO1 2PH

The Sumi Ink Club is back!

Illustrator Roblockness held a open illustration drawing event on Dec 7 2011 inviting people to fifteen Queen Street to get creative. View pictures from the previous event here.

Sumi is a Japanese type of ink. Clubs are held around the world inviting artists to come collabortively illustrate using just this ink on paper. There are many different rules depending on the club. They normally state to not take too long, fill the space, and even paint over other peoples work. Just have fun and enjoy.

This time we will be painting a large piece of paper covering the whole wall in the meeting room. Come get stuck in and make a collaborative illustration!

We will provide you with the brushes, ink and a little bit of music. Plus it’s free!

Also a big shout out to our fantastic sponsors The Colchester School of Art at Colchester Institute who have provided the paper. We dip our brush to you.

If you need more information please contact Roblockness.

RSVP on our meetup page Creative in Colchester.

Think Quarterly

We were blown away by the making-of video for the book covers for Think Quarterly’s “People” issue. It has a real similarity to the Sumi Ink Club. We’re very inspired by large collaborative works like these. Watch this space.

National Novel Writing Month

Throughout November
Thursday 3,  10,  17
7.30 - 9.30pm
15 Queen Street, Colchester CO1 2PH 

Novel writing fever will soon be upon us. Symptoms include flashes of brilliance, questionable plotlines, and blatant use of mixed metaphors.

Our latest flexi member Emma Kittle is a reading recovery teacher and has joined fifteen Queen Street to host National Novel Writing Month (or NaNoWriMo) here throughout November.

From midnight on November 1, armed only with their wits, the vague outline of a story, and a ridiculous deadline, more than 250,000 people around the world will set out to become novelists.

NaNoWriMo is the world’s largest writing challenge and nonprofit literary crusade. Participants pledge to write 50,000 words in a month, starting from scratch and reaching “The End” by November 30. There are no judges, no prizes, and entries are deleted from the server before anyone even reads them.

The 50,000-word challenge has a wonderful way of opening up your imagination and unleashing creativity

NaNoWriMo Founder and Executive Director (12-time NaNoWriMo winner)

More than 650 regional volunteers in more than 60 countries will hold write-ins, hosting in coffee shops, bookstores, and libraries. Write-ins offer a supportive environment and surprisingly effective peer pressure, turning the usually solitary act of writing into a community experience. 

Writing a novel in a month inspires incredible confidence in seasoned and first-time novelists alike. Completing a draft of the novel they’ve been contemplating for ages gives participants a tremendous sense of accomplishment and leaves them wondering what else they’re capable of.

NaNoWriMo Program Director Lindsey Grant

So grab your pad and pen. We’ll provide the coffee, tea, and a biccy or two and lets get that novel that has been hiding inside you out! The idea is to join us every Thursday to bounce ideas off each other, discuss character, concepts, or just enjoy the company of others while you write.

If you need more info email us or call 01206 562888. You can RSVP via our meetup page here.

Colchester 24

Friday 21st October noon - Saturday 22nd noon
All around Colchester 

We met up with Andy Brooke who let us in on a fantastic project that is happening in Colchester this month.

It’s a large scale community photography event where everyone can be involved. The project was originally set up in 1986 using only analogue cameras, but now running in 2011 means you can use any camera you like, from digital SLR to a phone camera.

The idea of the project is to invite everyone to take a photograph on the 21st October and to capture 24 hours of Colchester. The photographs will then become a long standing archive available for people to access in years to come. There were two reasons behind the project - to create a social archive of Colchester and to hopefully produce a touring exhibition of the photographs.

An exciting, easy and accessible project.

To participate just get snapping on the 21st and upload your work online here.

We look forward to seeing what you capture!

(Photos from the Colchester 24 website)

Good for Nothing

We thought we would fill you in on a stunning project - Good for Nothing, part of the Pipeline Project’s social mission.

There is no commercial agenda here, we give time, money and energy to do stuff to support people trying to make positive impact and change happen.

Pipeline Project orginally started with Thomas & Thomas (or ‘TomTom’) and Dan. Not only do they work with one syllable named people but they look for ‘Connectors’  - people who create unusual combinations that spark innovative hybrids. People who think and do.

So far they have worked in and around a wide range of organisations from big and small to global and local. From the supertankers to early stage web start-ups, charities and record labels.

Good for Nothing is a project they run in two ways.

Drop in sessions that they are currently piloting with Bethnal Green Ventures. Offering innovation, brand and communication support for social enterprise start-ups.

And creative, collaboration events. These bring together large diverse groups of talented people to work with grassroot cause led social innovators. It’s a playful, competitive and experiential event that lasts for 24 to 48 hrs.

A think/hack/do/creative collaboration challenge event thing.

Good for Nothing is founded on 3 core principles:

1. Doing not talking

2. Collaborate and experiment

3. Support the true innovators

Good for Nothing is also about connecting with different people and having fun, the hope is to create a friendly network of talented folk all over the place on all sorts of missions of creative good. Something we can all aim for. Read more about this fantastic project here.

Good for Nothing is a social project that we have been following and wanted to share. We aim to take on the same core principles and improve what we do. We want to make sure we connect with different people and have fun along the way too. Don’t forget you can always pop in, meet us and see what we do. We’re open to hearing what you think and how we can do more of what you want.

Carlos strikes again!

We introduced the new work by Carlos Cruz Diez to appear at Essex University on Tuesday. Read more about that here.

Yesterday we discovered another piece of the geometric coloured zebra crossing at Colchester Bus Station. We are very pleased to continue to find more street art in Colchester. Especially a brightly coloured piece like this!

If you know of a location with a interesting picture, stencil, graffiti or artwork why not add it to our collaborative google maps here. We are slowing documenting all the street art we find to create a map for everyone to use.