Our 2011 – 2012 art project for the Inside Out Art Group is called “Art Works/Artists at Work”. The project aims to create closer links between artists and businesses in Oswestry and the surrounding area through a series of informal artist residencies. The project will culminate in Spring/Summer 2012 with a series of exhibitions and an art-trail through Oswestry.

The project hopes to push links between local businesses and local artists beyond simple exhibitions in shops and workplaces, and create dynamic partnerships where artists and businesses can learn from differing perspectives. The exact shape and form of each collaboration will depend entirely on the approach of the business and the artist involved. So far, only a month after first talking through the project with the group, we already we have some great ideas emerging:

  • weekly illustration panels showing the daily activity in a tattoo studio (John Swogger/Fine Line Tattoos)
  • installations exploring material culture and wealth (Diana Baur + Jenny Brown/Charity shops + Banks)
  • art exploring patterns and production in brewmaking (Paul Stocking/Stonehouse Breweries)
  • views, visualisations and sense-of-place (Rob Baur + Chrissie Smith/Kinnerley Caravan Park)
  • observations on communality and consumption (Maddie Vale/The Walls Restaurant)
  • the process of repair, correction and fixing (Rosie Davies/Richard Pryce Repairs + Drinnan Opticians)

We’ve also had interest from other local businesses keen to work with artists – New Saints FC, PetWorld, Rowanthorn; and more emails keep coming in every week.

On October 5th, we went along to a meeting with the Oswestry Chamber of Commerce to introduce the project to chamber members. In February we will return to update the Chamber and let them know how the project is taking shape.

If you’re an artist or a business and are interested in taking part, please get in touch. Post a comment anywhere on the blog and we’ll get in contact – or come along to any of our Inside Out Notebook Meetings, held on the first Wednesday of every month, at 2pm in The Willow Art Gallery, Willow Street, Oswestry. Not only is it a great chance to meet local professional and practising artists and art students, network and share current work, but we’ll be discussing Art Works at every meeting, giving everyone taking part a chance to say how they’ve been getting on. And keep checking back on this blog – we’ll be updating throughout the year with news on how the project is progressing.

We hope that Art Works will help celebrate and promote local businesses, and be another way to demonstrate Oswestry’s unique business and cultural environment.