We Found Art

Those of you who are fans of We Found Art will have noticed a serious shortage of we-found-artness both on and offline over the last few months. I am entirely to blame as my life unintentionally became consumed by a piece of research which only left time for sleeping and eating!!! I am pleased to say that it is all done now and I am well and truly back in the room (or should I say caravan?)

At the weekend, somewhere between Cardiff Bay and Grangetown, I spotted this lonely beer glass on a window sill and was instantly drawn to photograph it. I felt intrigued and curious about the tiny faces who peered out from within and wondered why they had been left to languish in lager.

Although We Found Art is no longer accepting postal submissions I would love to continue to celebrate new finds like this urban snow globe. Knowing that the ‘Submit’ function over here can sometimes be frustrating, I have created a We Found Art Flickr group and would like to invite you to upload your photographs of street treasures, pavement gems and found appreciation.

www.flickr.com/groups/wefoundart/

Katie Smith (Project Curator)

On Friday 3^rd February 2012, I was thrilled to have the opportunity to combine my two great loves, Caravans and Ice Road Truckers, as I took my Moveable Museum of Found Objects on a very chilly adventure.

The destination was The Myle Cross Centre in Lincoln; the event was ‘Innovate and Inspire,’ the Lincolnshire Art and Design conference for KS1-KS5 Teachers. After waking up to snow, I braced myself for some extreme caravanning. I collected my co-pilot, we hooked up the museum and headed off with nervous anticipation.

My avid viewing of Ice Road Truckers: Worlds Most Deadliest Roads was put to good use once we reached Lincoln where the perils of snow were replaced by steep gradients, badly parked cars and speed bumps. I made the assent to the top of the city in second gear and with nerves of steel and a carefully controlled clutch. The final pre-conference challenge was a car park slalom where I negotiated a series of gates and manoeuvred the museum into place with the help of my ‘spotter.’

The Moveable Museum was open for tours of We Found Art’s crowd sourced collection and a new photographic exhibition documenting our trip to The Bathing Beauties Festival in Mablethorpe. The day also included a talk and a ‘Found Art’ workshop.

Grateful thanks go to We Found Art supporter Colin Smith who was Co-Pilot, Museum Assistant and Photographer for the day.

What will be the next adventure for the Moveable Museum?

Katie Smith, Project Curator

When I set up We Found Art online, it was my vision to exhibit its collection off-line in an unconventional space. I also liked the idea of engaging with an audience that might not choose to use their leisure time as cultural tourists. With this in mind I drew up a list of places that my family and friends enjoyed spending their free time. Shopping centres, car-boot sales, markets, campsites and the seaside all featured highly. It became apparent that to realise my vision these were the places I should be and to visit them I would need to be mobile!

As a caravan obsessive, the answer seemed obvious; create a Moveable Museum of Found Objects in my 1988 Avondale Perle Olympus touring caravan and take We Found Art on the road! (Of course, the idea’s not new and Jan and Chris at the Caravan Gallery have been doing it for years). A hectic summer of caravan curation ensued.

Last weekend, the Moveable Museum pitched up for its first public engagement at the Bathing Beauties Festival in Mablethorpe. Although it was a baptism of fire in terms of extreme caravan manoeuvring and required nerves of steel to get it on and off the seaside promenade, I’m pleased to report it was a huge success.

Myself and Nigel Blackamore, Curator of the Brecknock Museum welcomed over 200 visitors into the 5 birth space over the course of the weekend who explored the crowd sourced collection with awe and wonder, curiosity and intrigue. We were overwhelmed by the generosity of these visitors who shared their stories of finding and collecting and even brought us treasured objects. I have tried to capture the essence of the festival and have created the ‘Virtual Book of Mablethorpe’, a visual diary of our Bathing Beauty experience, which can be found over on Flickr.

My main observations from the museum’s first outing are that we have be able to maintain the community focus of We Found Art  and that it has encouraged the same imaginative creative exchanges between people offline as it does on. The use of the unexpected (but familiar) space of the caravan encouraged visitors to enter the museum and feel comfortable to engage with us and with the collection. By directing visitors to the project online (through print or QR codes) we have been able to enhance their understanding of it also providing opportunities for participation. The latter is something that I hope to develop more.

The Moveable Museum of Found Objects is set to tour from Spring 2012 and We Found Art welcomes bookings. For more information, please contact me by email: wefoundart@gmail.com

Katie Smith, project curator.

Spotted outside the David Wilson Library at the University of Leicester. Been there for months and months. Nice to know that the porters appreciate a bit of guerilla knitting!

(I actually know who’s responsible for this but I shan’t blow her cover!)

Posted by Dr Amy Jane Barnes

Katie fed my ghost sign obsession by directing me to this sign in Grantham! ‘Reliable footwear and repairing sundries.’

Posted by Dr Amy Jane Barnes