Live Tours – NEWINGTON GREEN MEETING HOUSE

Newington Green Meeting House is now open to the public after extensive restorative build work. They are inviting the public to explore the elegantly renovated building and learn about the fascinating people and events that shaped its revolutionary history.

Richard Price

This also means there are opportunities to see our exhibition VINDICATION as a                        “live” installation! 

 

by Caterina Belo

Tours are approximately 30 minutes long and then you are free to explore the space, exhibitions and audio guide yourselves. The building is fully wheelchair accessible.

Please help them cater the tour towards your interest and needs of the group by answering all the questions when booking.

Live Tour Slots

Show Us The Genius of Shakespeare! ELIZABETH MONTAGU STUDY –

For those of you researching Elizabeth Montagu during lockdown why not make a film of a Shakespeare excerpt!

Elizabeth Montagu (1718-1800) was famous in her lifetime as a Shakespeare critic, salon hostess and champion of women’s writing. She is largely attributed for contributing to the veneration of Shakespeare and his subsequent honouring as our National Bard.

Christened “Queen of the Bluestockings” by Samuel Johnson, Montagu attracted the leading writers, politicians and artists of her day to her sparkling London assemblies, where she placed a new emphasis on conversation as a pleasurable and enlightened pursuit.

In response to reading An Essay On The Writings And Genius Of Shakespear

• Intro yourself and add “This is a contribution to the Unity Arts Project – BLUE CIRCLE OF DISSENT”
• Select your favourite quote from the  Montagu essay and open with that
• Follow with a recitation of your favourite Shakespeare piece. (2 mins).
• If you have the tech include this logo in your credits
• 
• Send us via a vimeo or you tube link in the form below and we will put on our website and youtube channel!
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  Here is the link to my Shakespeare favourite and I give my permission for its use as part of The Blue Circle Of Dissent project

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For additional background research you can also read her letters  here at Elizabeth Montagu Letters

Looking forward to hearing and seeing you!

DR GILDA WILLIAMS Writing For Exhibitions

On 29 June 130 – 430  

Old Diorama Arts Centre

201 Drummond Street, London NW1 3FE 

Unity Arts will be launching a series of Summer activities with a workshop led by Dr Gilda Williams.

We will be exploring how you WRITE for EXHIBITIONS.

Here she is in  Interview about the role of the Art Critic

Practical components in the workshop will include  How To Write an Artist’s Statement, How to Label Art Pieces, What do You Put in the Booklet?

Gilda Williams has taught at Goldsmiths since 2008. She was Editor and Commissioning Editor (from 1997) for Contemporary Art at Phaidon Press 1994-2005, where she commissioned the ‘Contemporary Artists’ monographs, ‘Themes and Movements’ series of anthologies, and other books including Salon to Biennale: Exhibitions that Made Art History (2008).

She is a London correspondent for Artforum, and has written for Art Monthly, The Guardian, Sight & Sound, Burlington, frieze and many more.

This workshop is FREE and supported by The National Heritage Lottery Fund.

Register attendance here WRITING FOR EXHIBITIONS

 

 

SPOKEN WORD AT DR JOHNSON’S HOUSE 1ST JUNE!

We are having a week of activities and workshops at Hoxton Hall including workshops led by Joelle Taylor, called HACKNEY DISSENT. The week will produce responses from participants of all ages and backgrounds about the legacy of DISSENT.

One of our outcomes is an evening of SPOKEN WORD!

COME AND JOIN US on 1 JUNE at

Dr Johnson’s House

A charming 300-year-old townhouse, nestled amongst a maze of courts and alleys in the historic City of London. Samuel Johnson, the writer and wit, lived and worked here in the middle of the eighteenth century, compiling his great Dictionary of the English Language in the Garret and a supporter of two of heritage research subjects, Mary Wollstonecraft and Elizabeth Montagu.

Brand new works from those versed in as well as new to Spoken Word as a performance art and a political and debating tool.

Doors will open at 645pm and the Performance will start at 7pm. 

You will get free entry and a free glass of wine and we will also have info about the whole project THE BLUE CIRCLE OF DISSENT.

Register for FREE tickets here

HACKNEY DISSENT at DR JOHNSON’S

A lovely evening made possible by a grant from the National Lottery Heritage Fund.

 

 

 

JOELLE TAYLOR TO LEAD POETRY WORKSHOPS

Unity Arts  are offering FREE evening workshops (with extra daytime activities an option) for Over 18s  with renowned SLAM POET Joelle Taylor.

These sessions are part of a workshop week HACKNEY DISSENT (which will also run workshops for 7-10s and 11-18s)  at Hoxton Hall and other East London venues.

These various activities will take place in sessions over the week  of 27 May – 1 June  with performances at

Hoxton Hall and Dr Johnson’s House

We have invited Joelle Taylor to lead workshops for Over 18s in order to support creating spoken and written poetry of dissent.

Joelle Taylor is an award-winning poet, playwright, author and editor. She has performed across the UK as well as internationally, both for the British Council (Zimbabwe, Brazil, Botswana, Australia and Singapore) and on solo projects across Europe.

A former UK slam champion, she founded the national youth slam championships SLAMbassadors in 2001 for the Poetry Society and was its Artistic Director and National Coach until 2018.

As an educator she has lead workshops and residencies in schools, prisons, youth centres, refugee groups, and other settings for organisations including the        Poetry Society, the British Council, Arvon Foundation and English PEN.

She featured on TEDx Talks and Outsider Lectures, and was recently awarded a Southbank Centre Change Maker prize, in recognition of her life-changing work on the national youth slams. She has a Fellowship of the Royal Society of the Arts and was longlisted for the 2017 Jerwood Compton Poetry Fellowship.

This is a wonderful opportunity to learn from a skilled and relevant poet and all work created will also be included in a book and all participants will receive a copy.

PLACES FOR JOELLE TAYLOR WORKSHOPS ARE LIMITED

Please complete the form for more details and an application pack!

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BLUE CIRCLE OF DISSENT – Launch 2 Feb

There will be an opportunity to find out more about the HLF funded BLUE CIRCLE OF DISSENT project and to sign up for research trips and training 2 February 2.30 pm – 4.00 pm at St. Mary’s Church (rooms at rear), Stoke Newington N16 9ES.

The project will be researching the lives and times of local heritage heroine Mary Wollstonecraft and leader of The Blue Stocking Society, Elizabeth Montagu.

There will be Refreshments and Start-Up Packs available and at 3.00pm a short talk about the context of the project, some music and some readings from The Vindication Of The Rights Of Women.

“Only that education deserves emphatically to be termed cultivation of the mind which teaches young people how to begin to think”.

Register for a FREE ticket here BLUE CIRCLE OF DISSENT – Launch

ALL WELCOME

HLF Fund Blue Circle Of Dissent!

TWO YEAR COMMUNITY RESEARCH PROJECT RECEIVES HLF SUPPORT!

Unity Arts have successfully bid for a National Lottery grant  from the Heritage Lottery Fund to support a two year project BLUE CIRCLE OF DISSENT. Made possible by money raised by National Lottery players.

The project will research the events, works and personalities that surrounded the lives and work of Mary Wollstonecraft and Blue Stockings Society leader, Elizabeth Montagu.

Elizabeth Montagu

Throughout the coming months Unity Arts will be platforming research, talks, training and events. Research visits will include, the National Portrait Gallery, Kenwood House and Strawberry Hill.

Strawberry Hill House

This project will create a series of free events. Events on 27 and 28 April 2019 (including an Outside Event on Newington Green) will be held to commemorate the birthday of radical Mary Wollstonecraft.

Events throughout the project will include an evening of literary presentations at Dr. Johnson’s House off Fleet Street. A community made event with specialist speaker in St Pancras.. An all-day installation at the Foundling Museum and a debate and installation at the Dissenters’ Gallery.

Please contact us for more information.

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REMEMBER EDITH CAVELL

Today is the anniversary of the execution in Belgium of WW1 nurse Edith Cavell.

Image created by Dave Roberts which was shown as part of the HLF exhibition at St Martin In The Fields October 2015

Our HLF project BRUSSELS AT DAWN investigated her contribution to nursing and how she ended up in Belgium running a hospital, teaching nursing and why she was arrested for espionage.

Edith Cavell Window at St Olave’s                                            Image by Michael Cheetham

We worked with the Cavell Nurses Trust, The Royal London Hospital, The Florence Nightingale Museum, Belgian Edith Cavell Commemorative Group and the Royal College of Nursing to research this extraordinary woman’s life and her contribution to nursing.

We created a puppet show, exhibitions and have a series of films (including interviews with her descendant Dr Emma Cavell and author Diana Souhami), papers and resources created by both experts and community participants.

Edith Cavell Resources

Every year someone from Unity Arts lays a rose on the Edith Cavell statue in Trafalgar Square on her birthday – 4th December.

We never want her forgotten.

TOWER OF LONDON Community Exhibition SUCCESS!!

On 12 February 2018, the anniversary of the death of Lady Jane Grey, Unity Arts delivered a community created installation in the New Armouries at the Tower Of London.

Image Michael Cheetham Costume Isabel Walters Model Nellie Noodle

This event was a culmination of all the research and responses of the various Unity Arts teams to the life and early demise of the Nine Day Queen.

Live Exhibitor Thom Jackson

The exhibition looked absolutely stunning and the work on display and in performance was of a high standard and created with care.

There was artwork, research, individual projects, costume, films, and Live Events from Dr Zoe Hudson, Dramatisation of Primary Sources including letter and poem extracts in Lady Jane Grey’s own words and programme from the Hackney based community choir, Silver Songbirds.

Dr Zoe Hudson

Also the Unity Arts Heritage Team’s booklets, essays and papers were available for distribution and over 400 copies left the room that day.

The room was absolutely packed with a completely mixed audience of children, teenagers, academics, educators, professional exhibitors, Tudor aficionados together with  performers and researchers from every part of Hackney’s rich and diverse community.

Silver Songbirds Hackney Community Choir

There was also an opportunity for attendees to visit the rest of the Tower Of London and specifically Beauchamp Tower (site of Dudley’s graffito said to be engraved when he was prisoner there) and Tower Green where Jane Grey was executed.

Feedback is still coming in but EVERYONE has said what a fantastic day they had!

SUTTON HOUSE SUCCESS

Sutton House were so impressed with our installation we were  exhibiting there for two weeks in addition to the Live Event on 8 September.

This exhibition was created and curated by our Young Research Team.

What a welcome from Sutton House who were such great heritage partners and such a fantastic response from the visitors to the installation. “Such a beautiful story, beautifully told”.

If you missed it this and all the other work we have been preparing will be on show at the New Armouries in the TOWER OF LONDON on 12 February 2018.