madblog – the roadshow
Newcastle Tour
June 4, 2012
This was for 5 shows – 2 in the Star and Shadow, one in Stanley, one in Sunderland Museum and Winter garden and one in Stannington Village Hall. This time it was a tight plan with our local producer Wunderbar. The four of us – Chris Daltry as tech director, Lewis Church as performer and ...
Recce in Newcastle
May 16, 2012
We learnt a lot from Alan Mclean in the Black Country about how to make local connections and form a loose sort of ‘arts and mental health network’. His idea was to use my shows, and my personal experience of art being a lifeline to better times, as an example and sparking point for local ...
Black Country
May 10, 2012
The following week, after a short but welcome day at home, I went back to the West Midlands to do 4 shows in 3 venues – Wolverhampton Wellbeing Centre, Walsall New Art Gallery and The Public, West Bromwich. In our new touring scheme there were 4 of us, Steve Wald as technical director, Louise Mothersole ...
Warwick
May 5, 2012
By the time we went to Warwick in February we had set up a much better touring system, including budgeting for an ASM to join the touring team . I’d also developed good relationships with partners across the Black Country region in a process led by clever and experienced Alan McLean. Ruth Harvey ...
Launch in Bath
April 26, 2012
Sian and I ran a ‘Creative Training day’ in the American Museum in Bath the weekend before the launch at ICIA. We had realised that a lot of work needs to go into developing meaningful partnerships – relationships – with local arts and mental health groups, artists and organisations working in similar fields. It requires ...
Previews
April 19, 2012
We decided to put on a preview show and host a celebratory event to mark our new formation as the independent company Daily Life Ltd in September, prior to the official launch at ICIA Bath in October, for invited ‘interested parties’. Our new office is in Bradbury Studios, the home of Graeae Theatre Company. It’s ...
Rehearsals
April 12, 2012
When the flight cases were all finished Charlie drove the whole set, packed on a trailer, to Kent University where Sian Stevenson (whose name is actually Jo Evans) had fixed up a smart and helpful deal for us to rehearse in the new School of Arts building. She also arranged for a ‘real audience’ to ...
Making The Show
April 5, 2012
It’s hard to explain this process. The logistical plotting, mapping scheduling and budgeting of it all went through many a stage. It’s tiring just to remember it, let alone write about it much. The problem hinged on moving – Charlie was moving from Norway to Brussels, I was moving – everything as it turned out ...
The Application
March 29, 2012
An excerpt from the application made to the Unlimited funding stream:- “During the 1970s, as a young artist, BB aspired to make work that was accessible to a very wide audience. In 1979, she was commissioned to make a piece for the Hayward Annual, Packed Lunch, placing her work on a national platform for ...
The Residency
March 22, 2012
The most important idea behind this show was that I wanted to work with my son Charlie Whittuck. We had worked together before – somehow I’ve made a habit of working with members of my family. He is a sculptor and very good at making things and coming up with unusual ideas. The trouble is, ...
The Initial Idea(s) 2005-2010
March 15, 2012
It’s always such a long windy road coming up with new ideas for artworks that are worth bothering with. Part of the reason, which hardly gets spoken about nor understood, is that I’m an artist and I made the decision early on in my career to try and make publicly funded art. It’s all good ...
What is a madblog?
March 8, 2012
If that’s your question then surely you have to consider – What is a Blog? And what is Madness? But how long have you got? I could rattle on about those questions for hours and we’d be none the wiser, probably. And I personally would be very bored. So the plan is to write this ...