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Thank You

The Golden Thread Gallery is now a WorldHost recognised businesses in Northern Ireland. 

 http://www.worldhostni.com/en-us/recognitionprogramme/worldhostrecognisedbusinesses.aspx

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b01rjkzt

21^st – 28^th March 2013

Participation & Practice of Rights

The Participation & Practice of Rights organisation are launching a Right to Work / Right to Welfare project as part of Respect Week in collaboration with the Golden Thread Gallery.

You are all very welcome to attend one or all the events that we are putting on to profile the work that has been done.  These will all be held in the Golden Thread Gallery.

Thursday 21st March 2013, 12 noon: a sneak preview of the exhibition and a Q&A discussion with contributions from Bertie Atkinson (member of the group, Seán Brady (PPR) and Agnes Frazer (Tar Isteach) 

Monday 25th March 2013, 12 noon: Campaign Launch – Lunch will be provided RSVP by 15th March to Fiona Joyce at PPR on 02890313315 or fiona@pprproject.org (not many places left but ring PPR if you are interested)

Thursday 28th March 2013 – 6pm – 8pm - celebration of the work done by the group and a chance to relax!

Since the summer of 2012 over 200 out-of-work people in Belfast have taken part in human rights workshops and creative artwork in partnership with Participation and the Practice of Rights (PPR) and the Golden Thread Gallery.

Official government statistics cite North and West Belfast as having among the highest rates of unemployment across the UK. Against this backdrop, the ‘Right to Work: Right to Welfare’ group have used the art gallery to collect concrete evidence on the ground of unemployment, training/back to work programmes, and the benefits system.

All of the research was conducted at the golden thread gallery facing the north Belfast Social Security office across the street.

It lays bare the true impact of the NI Executive’s job creation strategy and welfare cuts programme.

The ‘Right to Work: Right to Welfare’ human rights indicators have been launched alongside this unique art exhibition which captures the experience of those directly affected by the issues. It is made up of four parts. 

1.   The ‘Dole’: This mock up was made as a copy of the dole office across the street – why not walk over and see for yourself? The videos are the thoughts of unemployed people who are usually in the booths listening to DHSS workers talk to them. They are broken into 4 themes in relation to unemployment and the benefit system:

• The Problems
• The Impact
• Wasted Opportunities
• Solutions

2.   Messages: The collection of messages from unemployed people was collated over the course of the last ten months as the group developed. Everyone who took part was asked a trigger question and then wrote their message down. Why not add your message in the message book?

3.   Group in action: The photo diary illustrates the work of the group since the summer

4.   Hydro – Graffiti. The group have used hydro graffiti to clean the wall of the dole office and leave their message whilst also asking the DHSS and government to clean up their act.

In line with the government’s obligations, the ‘Right to Work: Right to Welfare’ group will measure whether things improve on the ground over the next year. This will be done using PPR’s human rights based approach, recently cited by the United Nations as a best practice example of claiming rights. 

Participation and the Practice of Rights (PPR)2nd Floor, 133 Royal Avenue, Belfast BT1 1FG

Tel: (0)2890 313315 Fax: (0)2890 245847  www.pprproject.org 

http://takeittothebr.wordpress.com/2013/03/09/imagined-communities-a-shared-future/

Flax Art Studios International Resident Talk

Justyna Gruszczyk – Torin, Poland

Wednesday 13^th March, 1.00pm,

Justyna Gruszczyk has been International Artist in Residence at Flax Art Studios since January 2013.  On Wednesday 13^th March, 1.00pm at the Golden Thread Gallery she will lead a talk about her previous work and the work she has completed during her time in residence.

Gruszczyk is interested in art, which does not produce visual artifacts, but which is concentrated on providing spectators an experience of perceiving art.  Gruszczyk completed her Phd Fine Art studies in 2011 at Nicolaus Copernicus University, Torin, Poland.  Her recent solo exhibitions include Merging, project for Culture Night, Centre of Creative Practices, Dublin (September, 2011), Permeating, Contemporary Center of Art Laznia, Gdansk (June, 2010).   She was awarded a scholarship of the city of Torun in 2012 and a scholarship of the Marshall of the Silesian Voivodenship, 2012.  In Cracow, 2011 she was awarded a prize for the project The Bodies of the Books at the 4P: Penman/Poetry/Prose/Public Place Festival.  Her works are held in collections in Italy and Poland.

Admission Free.  Tea/Coffee provided.

We would like to send our Gallery Manager Sarah McAvera & husband Chris Downey, our best wishes from all the staff and board of directors at the Golden Thread Gallery on the birth of a baby girl. We look forward to meeting her soon. Take care . Coen must be over the moon to be a big brother!

Sarah will be off on maternity leave until the end of July. There is no one person covering her position, so while she is off so please contact the following:
Lisa Malone for administrative/ financial queries
Deirdre McKenna/ Ben Crothers for Exhibitions queries
Peter Richards/ Ruth Graham for funding or core queries

Booth C03

6 th – 10 March 2013

The Golden Thread Gallery, with the support of the Arts Council of Northern Ireland, will be presenting Hidden in Plain Sight at the internationally renowned SCOPE 2013 art fair this coming March, as the art world congregates in New York.

The Golden Thread Gallery continues its unique support and profiling of the regions most exciting emerging visual artists, creating opportunities to showcase their excellence and innovation on the world stage. The presentation at SCOPE 2013, New York titled Hidden in Plain Sight, brings together selected works by Martin Boyle, Sinéad Breathnach-Cashell, Ursula Burke, Shiro Masuyama and Brendan O’Neill in a distinctly Belfast way; beautiful, complex, humorous, layered and unpredictable.

The Golden Thread Gallery began its non-for-profit artists’ representation programme back in 2005 when its launched its unique Artist Support and Profiling programme. The initiative is focussed on investing in creating opportunities for local artists to gain national and international exposure and to kick start markets for the regions Contemporary Visual Art. To date the Golden Thread Gallery has presented work by over fifty artists working in Northern Ireland at celebrated Art Fairs in London, Berlin and New York. This project has been generously supported from The Arts Council of Northern Ireland, whose mission is to “place the arts at the heart of our social, economic and creative life”.

SCOPE NY is renowned worldwide for presenting the most innovative galleries, artists and curators. SCOPE’s extensive reach enables an unrivalled opportunity for networking with art patrons, creative professionals alongside the general public. http://www.scope-art.com/index.php/artshow/newyork-2013/press

Golden Thread Gallery http://goldenthreadgallery.co.uk/sales/

Arts Council of Northern Ireland http://www.artscouncil-ni.org/default.asp 

For John Keats it was simple “Truth is beauty, beauty is truth. That is all you know and all you need to know”. Hidden in Plain Sight asks us to balance up the merits of accepting beauty without questioning its core.

Hidden in Plain Sight will be on view at Scope New York between the 6^th and 10^th March 2013.

This Saturday the Gallery will be closed due to heavy snow and snow forecast.

So keep your eyes out for the weather if planning a visit.

You could always stay home and make a snow cat!