The Mini Commissions are open to professional and amateur artists, curators and producers living in the Bedfordshire area who have a good idea that aligns with our artistic policy. Each season we award £500 to the applicant with the best idea and work with them to make it happen. The Winter Mini Commission was awarded
As part of the ‘The Big Draw’, the National Campaign for Drawing’s nationwide event, we commissioned Jo Roberts for The Excursionist project. Between October 15th and 22nd Jo and supporting artist Arabel Rosillo De Blas took groups of participants on ‘doodle walks’, mapping our local area through drawing, photography and communication. The project was a
Bedford Creative arts and First Light ran a Film School for budding young animators in September 2011. Using the venue of a community hall and an empty shop unit the films were inspired by the key Olympic values; Respect, Excellence, Friendship, Courage, Determination, Inspiration, Equality and Truce. The resultant films are currently on the film
Melanie Friend began work on Border Country in 2003. Since then, more than 25,000 individuals per year have been held for some period in immigration detention in the UK. Over this time, male detainees have comprised approximately 85% of the immigration detainee population in the UK and the vast majority of interviewees in Border Country
Here, the act of walking is a kind of performance in which many different situations converge, both the unexpected and those that are deliberately sought out. These different situations produce various ideas and images that contribute to our sense of place. Walking is a way of searching out new experiences, a way in which to
Steve Schofield is a photographer. His practice explores the fascination that the British public has with American popular culture and the sub-cultural world of fandom. In his growing photographic series Land of the Free, Schofield shows people in their own homes wearing costumes they would dress in to attend events and conventions with other like-minded
The title of Alex Pearl’s exhibition ‘Goodbye to most of the Daydreams’ quotes the words of Antarctic Explorer, Captain Scott, The exhibition explored an imaginary journey to the frozen, windswept continent of Antarctica. However, where Scott would have relished the opportunity to embark on such an adventure, it is likely that artist Alex Pearl would
Jane Edden investigates the interchanges between nature and culture; her work is concerned with the way we perceive nature, particularly birds and how we represent and reference them. During her time in residence at BCA she focused on the birds that she found close to the gallery, primarily pigeons and swans. Although her work is
Lorrice Douglas produces work as if researching for a film or a novel, using a range of media including archive, installation and photography to construct or present a scene. The scene being staged in ‘The Gatehouse’ references the attic room that Douglas occupied as BCA’s resident artist in 2007. This piece is typical of Douglas’s
In her new body of work ‘A Glimpse of the Familiar’ produced as part of a residency with BCA Gallery, Joanna Clark has focused her attentions on presenting the various fragments that make up her world. ‘A Glimpse of the Familiar’ includes over 100 quiet, yet evocative images, combining landscape with portraiture, colour and black
