Newhampton Arts Centre will hold the first Wolverhampton Print Fest event. Its a call for entries now with the event in November. We chat to the organiser to find out more.
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00:00So we're here with Newhampton Arts Centre and Jackie I know that face from Fizzogs
00:04fame. So you're also an artist? I am an artist I've got a studio at Newhampton
00:12Arts Centre which is here obviously and I'm a printmaker as well so I do a lot
00:17of printmaking workshops in the community for people. When did you get
00:21into your art then? Is it something that's been through all your life? So I've
00:24always been interested in art but then come kind of about 2014 I knew I'd been
00:31with the Fizzogs for a while but I just wanted to explore a different part of
00:34the art so I went to Stowbridge College and did a foundation and then
00:40that kind of led naturally on to me doing a degree at Wolverhampton and the
00:45two things I didn't want to do was photography and printmaking and they're
00:48the two things that I did. That you ended up doing? Yeah and I'm passionate about it now so yeah it's great I love it.
00:54And you've done workshops with all kinds of people schools different community
00:58groups? Yeah so we've been doing workshops for about the last eight years
01:01we do a lot of children's workshops we do workshops for all members of the
01:07community there's no one trust me there's no one that can't access an art
01:13workshop anybody can do it. Well we've got a special event coming up but before
01:19we talk about that I'm just going to ask you what is it about printmaking then
01:22that's that's kind of turned you on to it what is it? So for me it's just the
01:26process I mean when I was at uni I started looking for ideas to do
01:30printmaking and it's a bit philosophical but I always used to think that you know
01:37sort of what you expect your memories really from the things that you
01:41remember from your childhood are completely different to the things when
01:44you go back and you look at things and you think well I remembered it and it
01:48was a lot bigger but now it's a lot smaller but and printmaking the process
01:52is pretty similar I used to think that you know you'd have a matrix you'd have
01:56a plate and you think oh that's going to look exactly like that and then you
01:59print it off and it could look completely different so it kind of
02:02reminded me of that you know sort of kind of like childhood memories. That's
02:06interesting. And then I just fell in love with the process there's so many
02:09variables you never is sometimes you can be really disappointed sometimes you can
02:14be and you can be really pleasantly surprised but you never know what you're
02:19gonna get so I love it. So like you say you're based at the new
02:23Hampton Arts Centre now this is just an untapped gem isn't it it's there's so
02:26much going on here you know we've got this whole music the theatre side of it
02:30there's there's quite a number of artists that are based here as well
02:33aren't they? Yeah so I share the studio this studio with Lindsay Pritchard we do
02:37completely different things she's an oil painter I'm a printmaker a mixed
02:41media artist but we do get together to do all the workshops most of the
02:46workshops I do are with Lindsay but it is the most I can't even tell you it's
02:51the most amazing place the studio I'll you take some photos of the studio Steve
02:56it's the most beautiful place and everybody that walks into it it's just
03:00got this energy and it's not like some people think well it's just a studio but
03:05it's part of the fabric of what you do because you just love to be here the
03:10the energy of the place is amazing and it draws people in so people come in and
03:16they'll sit and I'll have a cup of tea I run a Sunday group and they're just
03:22people I charge seven pounds just for tea coffee that pays for your biscuits
03:27and we only get the best quality biscuits yeah and it's not nothing's
03:31taught they're just coming with a piece of work that they're working on and
03:35they just sit with like-minded people and I get returners all the time people
03:40come back all the time and it's just such a lovely atmosphere and people are
03:44quite generous when they want to share their own their own practice and and
03:51sometimes you get inspired by other people's and we'll yeah we just sit and
03:55talk about nothing and everything yeah it's great so what's this event that's
03:59coming up we're putting a call out for people for entries aren't we really for
04:03a special event go on this is the first time because this is kind of the
04:09reopening of Newhampton after all the problems with the boilers and everything
04:13but it's all opened and we you know Newhampton has got the most amazing
04:17gallery and it should be there should be something in that gallery every single
04:21month so first I want to plug the space because the space is amazing if you've
04:25got an exhibition that you want to put on then Newhampton is the place to be
04:29but so we're doing a printmaking exhibition and that when I say
04:34printmaking you don't have to have an etching press you can do printmaking a
04:38lot of people work on a what they call like a gelatin plate and they do
04:42monoprints or if you paint on something and then you put a piece of paper over
04:46the top and pull a print that's a print so so it can be it can be etching it can
04:52be it can be dry point it can be relief printmaking like lino printmaking it can
04:59be screen print so any kind of print as long as it's a hand-pulled print then
05:04you're eligible for the exhibition it's it's we're only charging 10 pound for a
05:10hanging fee 15 pound a three and over and that's just literally to pay for the
05:15hall but then you there's no Commission on sales you can either have a stand
05:21which is 50 pound for the stand or you can just be part of like a single piece
05:26part of an exhibition yeah yeah and the entries need to be in by 30th they do
05:32need to be in by the 30th of September so the end of this month if you're
05:38running a little bit late just get in touch with us and we can give you a bit
05:41of breathing space but and that'll be to a gift to an exhibition November so it's
05:47November the 8th 9th and 10th the opening night is the Friday night on the
05:518th and then the 9th and 10th you'll have artists here who are running
05:56workshops we've got Jenny Gunning who I bought my press off yeah he's got a
06:00fabulous exhibition at Ironbridge Framers at the moment and and she she's
06:07going to be here demonstrating and and sort of showing everybody there the
06:12Gunnings presses and also yeah we've got other people doing other workshops or
06:17other printmaking workshops and they've it's free to come along so so if
06:23people want to get involved yeah how do they get in touch with you or get their
06:27entries in yeah so they can get they can go to
06:32Printfest Wolverhampton www.printfestwolverhampton.co.uk
06:39or you can get in touch with me at Jackie.fellows that's j-a-c-k-y
06:46j-f-f-e-l-l-o-w-s at gmail.com awesome thanks ever so much Jackie