HELLO and INTRODUCTION to theTRANSPORTER project

Hello, welcome to our blog for the Transporter Project!

We hope we can provide an interesting read for those of you who wish to follow us on our adventure - due to start officially in 2 weeks time when we'll be flying off to Peru! See below for more info.... and if you would like to see more images of our research an artwork then please follow us on flickr too

Background:

As artists having grown up during the introduction of the world wide web, the digital age and globalisation, we feel it is just as important to value and utilise the local, handmade, personal side to creativity. We know that the desire for the original and bespoke is a growing market as people begin to understand the impact mass production is having on the environment and local business. It is this interest in getting back to basics, valuing tradition, learned artforms, skilled crafts and working with the environment around us, that has led to the development of 'Transporter'. We want to look, learn and develop new work that goes back to the artist as maker and collaborate with others to raise the profile of local traditions that make an area, place, and country unique.

Overview of project:

The project will allow Suzanne Hutton and Sam Taylor to be artists in residence at Sachaqa Art Centre (SAC) in Peru and deliver an engagement programme. We will conduct research, create new work and explore sustainability; looking at customs, traditional arts practices and skills and their relationship to the environment. We will spend time with SAC's founders, their resident artists and the local communities sharing skills, knowledge and inspirations in order to develop our own arts practises. From this research and dialogue we will create new collaborative art works whilst working on a variety of other projects in Peru.

On our return to the UK we will evaluate our time, continue to develop work in the studio, curate an exhibition and related talk and deliver a number of creative sessions and presentations to artists and students at The Shed Gateshead, Gateshead College, Newcastle University and International Centre for Cultural and Heritage Studies (The En-compass Project) in order to pass on knowledge and gain feedback on what we have learnt. The idea is that this is the 1st Phase in an ongoing research project to collate information about traditional crafts, skills across the world and compare creativity within cultures, whilst highlighting issues around sustainibility and the environment. There is also a FlickR page set up called 'TRANSPORTERproject' which will hopefully act as an online sketchbook where others can comment on our finds.

Main aims of TRANSPORTER project:

• To develop our artistic practise through collaboration with artists (in residence, local artisans and community members), developing new skills in local indigenous artforms and crafts

• Develop links between young people and artists from different countries

• Share and transport knowledge between artists/communities and countries

• Learning new ways of seeing and doing through cultural exchange, researching intangible cultural heritage

• Assisting with development of eco village as a way to research and create new work

• Highlight and raise the profile of sustainable arts practise and people’s relationship to their environment.

• Experiment and promote collaboration across cultures and art form.

• Produce a publication and exhibition as a legacy

• Promote further development exploring the idea of sustainable arts practise and learning from traditions.

• Develop rednile’s international links and Factory Nights programme

This project has been funded by Arts Council England with additional support from rednile projects, Sachaqa Arts Centre Peru, VARC and Newcastle University.