[03
OCT 00] WARWICK ARTS CENTRE NEWS
Visions Of Utopia At Arts Centre
A
project allowing Hillfields residents to develop their dream for the
area reaches its culmination this week with the launch of an
exhibition at Warwick Arts Centre.
The
Utopias project was launched as way of introducing the internet to
people through encouraging themselves to express themselves
artistically.
Residents
involved in the project built up a vision of how the area could look.
Much
of “visionary” housing built after the war is now seen as an
eyesore, and people were given the opportunity to express what they
would like to see in its place.
They
were given help in developing their ideas by Jubilee Arts, and then
shown how to put their vision on the internet.
Project
co-ordinator Sue Webb said:
“It’s
the first outreach project that Warwick Arts Centre has undertaken.
From the results on the website it appears that all the participants
had a great time.
“Normally
people learn how to create web pages because they have a group they
to support.
“This
is about allowing people to use the web and create a website using
art as a medium.”
The
Utopias season, held to mark the millennium, is reaching a climax with
an exhibition at the Mead gallery featuring video work by six
internationally-known artists exploring the theme of “utopia”.
The
result of three year's work, it is a collection of images, sounds and
ideas which explore the ways in which cities and worlds are
constructed, and how people try to carry on their lives against this
vast background of land and history.
Utopias
features the work of six leading international video artists: Cornford
and Cross, Mariele Neudecker, Rodney Graham, Veli Granö and Matthias
Müller.
Sarah
Shalgosky, Curator of the Mead Gallery, said:
"Utopias
was developed as a project for the year 2000. The incredibly
beautiful and imaginative images in the gallery can make us think
about our own society and how we would like it to develop in the
twenty-first century.
“I'm
delighted that, within an exhibition that features work by
international artists, we have been able to include the voices of
people from Coventry and I hope that other local people will come
along to add their ideas and visions".
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