6 days to go and a great visit from one half of brook and black who drove up with 2 massive prints of some work they did about flooding. This is the first time it has been shown in a flooded venue and it looks fantastic, Tiffany and John were great guests too and I was able to point them to Sylvia Plaths grave and the very good Brass Festival on the Sunday. The work really sits well with the stuff Lakhbir has made and the place is starting to look very credible.

5 days to go and our neighbour Danny has helped us hand some of the work as frankly you don’t want to rely on my drilling for anything bigger than a matchbox. Lak has got her work in place more or less and the place is starting to look like a proper gallery. I keep having these intrusive thoughts about wouldn’t it be great to use our cellar for this sort of thing more often but I’m trying to ignore them.

4 days to go and the kids have broken my laptop with a lot of stuff we need for handouts on it. I am slightly stressed and am going to try and see if that Cloud backup account I opened works. The sound piece is ready to go and I’ve included some clips that a mate Pete worked on of my daughters story of the flood as it is so charming it seems a shame not to. Am beginning to remember that I wanted to see a load of stuff and wondering where I am going to find the time to finish of the handmade parade costumes for the kids as well,.

9 days to go and Lakhbir has fired the last of her scale models of our house, this one in terracotta and the one before that was in silt recovered from the corners of our cellar and the river bed. This new one has been painted up using north Indian village patterns and looks lovely. I’ve been listening to the sound installation by Katie English on rotation and it is lovely. There seems like loads to do before the 22nd June but really looking forward to it.

8 days to go and brook and black are coming up from London on Saturday to hand deliver their work and then make a weekend of it by heading off into the hills for some camping. I really like their work and we are showing it in the hallway as people come in. Hard to describe it really, very dramatic photo collage but that doesn’t do it justice as it looks more like a painting. On the subject of painting, some decorating work I’ve been putting off for 4 months suddenly looks urgent when you know loads of people are coming through your house so I’ve been getting on with that as well.

7 days to go and I am also doing my small bit by thinking about how to frame a couple of comics which were all I was able to salvage from a really extensive collection of 70s and early 80s Marvel comics I had in the cellar. The only thing I was able to pull out was a signed copy of Alan Moore’s Killing Joke so i am going to have that in the show. As we were clearing out the cellar last week I found another that had been washed up into the rafters of the cellar and dried out over time. I’m going to show them together as there is an interesting connection between the subjects in both of them that fits nicely into the show.

In last summers floods Andrew and Lakhbir’s house, Nutclough House, was flooded when water cascaded through Nutclough Woods after a cloud burst. The majority of Lakhi’s work was in their cellar which was completely submerged in water, this summers multi media exhibition is a response to this, a few words from Andrew about the process….

’14 days to go and some inevitable nervousness. We are counting on quite a few different artists to make the show work, some are friends, some we hardly know. Lak is working on an impossible looking piece made from flood damaged Christmas baubles.

12 days to go until the opening and Lakhbir is putting the finishing touches to her latest sculpture made from damaged Christmas tree baubles salvaged from the flood. They look great considering they were under water for a day and have been suspended from the ceiling in a way that looks like it wouldn’t work. Very exited as Katie English’s sound installation arriving any day now.

11 days to go and Steve Dilworth’s sculpture has arrived. He is a fantastic sculptor and championed by Ian Sinclair amongst others and there is a fair bit of psychogeographical thinking in his work. He is an old friend of Lakhbir’s and has made a wonderful carving that makes me think about the flow of water over the rocks in Nutclough woods.’

Winston popped up at our Wunderwear workshops in the town hall to join a team of lingerie decorators and underwear embellishers all having great fun recycling anything from baby grows to nighties into bizarre bunting ready to brighten up our festival streets. He read his light-hearted bespoke poem, Wunderwear and with a little help pimped up a pair of his own plain long johns, which now feature some the poems words on each leg!

Wunderwear

When it comes down to underwear
I don’t like to wear anything fancy.
Plain, practical and down to earth.
I’m an M & S girl really.

My favourite pair have a little embellishment.
Not that you’d easily notice.

They are decorated with a few sequins.
Actually, enough for me to be considered a Pearly Queen (by some).

They are of a particular shade of lilac,
accurately colour matched
to fabric shown in the dome of the Sistine Chapel.

They are held by elastic stretchier than the genetically modified fibres of the body of Reed Richards of the Fantastic 4.

They are made of silk softer than the down lining of feathers
in the nest of the last remaining breeding pair
of golden birds of paradise.
With a sheen more lustrous than that on the petals
of the rarest variety of tulip known to mankind.

They are embroidered with the text of a poem
comprising the twenty most beautiful words from the lost languages of the ancient world
which only becomes visible under the light of a harvest moon.

They are interlaced with a string of flashing lights
which flash in every colour of the visible spectrum
recreating the aurora borealis on the bedroom ceiling.
(Or the disco scene from Saturday Night Fever at the flick of a discrete switch).

They are stitched to a tolerance of microns with a silver needle forged by the Elven Lords using thread plaited from three strands of hair from the Greek, Roman and Egyptian goddesses of love.

As I said… When it comes down to underwear
I don’t like to wear anything fancy.

Visit Winston Plowes’ website

Families and young people are right at the heart of the Hebden Arts festival’s 2013 programme including an appearance by a pair of mysterious time traveling magicians.

Victorian magicians Morgan and West were a massive hit at the Edinburgh Festival as they travel through time offering a magical extravaganza packed with amazing deceptions that will entertain all the family.  The Time Travelling Magicians play two afternoon shows at the Trades Club on Sunday 23 June and the Scotman’s critic said of them:  ‘I can’t recall the last time my awe was so thoroughly struck.

That same afternoon one of the UK’s leading young poets Andrew McMillan will be leading a free poetry workshop for young people aged 12 plus giving a platform to some of our most talented local young verse smiths.

Under 5s can join in the Lubellue Theatre’s Just a Bit of Paper taking young culture vultures on an extraordinary journey into a world of paper in Riverside School on Saturday 29 June.

“This year we’ve worked really hard to increase the number of events for families,and particularly for teenagers who often feel excluded from our community’s activities,” says Festival Director Helen Meller.  “Our job is to showcase the talent local young people have and we want families to come along to be amazed by some of the best entertainers in the country.”

There is also plenty of free family-orientated entertainment during the Street Sundae days on Sunday 23rd and Sunday 30th, from 12pm til 4, where some of the UK’s best street performers, including Uncle Tacko’s Flea Circus, Stilted Elvis and the amazing Astronauts’ Caravan will be putting on shows in the town centre

The festival’s diary kicks off with the Handmade Parade on June 22, which includes virtually every child in town, and that afternoon the Uncanny Valley team are running a free animation workshop in the Town Hall suitable for budding Walt Disney’s aged seven and above.

A key element of the festival is bringing in the very best authors in the UK and on Wednesday 26 June best-selling children’s writer Cathryn Constable pops into Book Case on Market Street to read from her novel Wolf Princess.

That night the best local rappers will be descending on the Trades Club to take on walking soundsystem Reeps One who has won the UK Beatbox Championships twice.  Locals will remember  his show-stopping performance when Africa Express dropped into town during their national tour.

The week’s events culminate in a free Gamesfest event in the Town Hall on Saturday 29 June where children of all ages can play with giant board games or explore their artistic side on the craft tables. Later that day budding performance poets can pick up some tips from critically acclaimed performer Rosie Garland at a free workshop in the Birchcliffe Centre,

For details of all events and how to book go to www.hebdenbridgeartsfestival.co.uk or pop into the festival box office in the foyer of the Town hall.

Visual Artists wanted for the Festival’s miniature instant portrait studio!Hebden Bridge Arts Festival is looking for artists, illustrators, cartoonists, doodle-makers and pensmiths who can create live, instant-ish portraits from within our photo booth turned miniature artist’s studio.

Lavender and crinolines,
playground games and garden swings.
Row row row your boat
to timeless French cafés.
That’s what music means to me.

Sitars, organs, stylophones
and Mrs Heap’s piano.
The Warbling of God Save the Queen
in a faltering falsetto.
And that’s what music means to me.

Grandma sipping from a china cup,
the ticking of the grandfather clock.
The Clangers and the Playschool theme
and a magical cloth cat.
That’s what music means to me.

Mobile phones or a mountain pass
Les Dawson or an ambulance.
Opening of a birthday card
to a pinball melody.
That’s what music means to me

And there’s Royd’s Ice cream van
singing its heart out in street.
Right Now…
That’s the music that means most to me.

Forty attendees at Sunday’s launch at the Town Hall took part in a poetry experiment conducted by our Pop Up Poet Winston Plowes. They were asked to listen to a tune played on his electronic musical tie and respond with whatever words or memories came to mind. These words were then arranged in Winston’s poem Royd’s. He would like to thank everyone who took part so enthusiastically.

List of contributors – Sally Martin, Jerry Smith, Rose MacDonald, Len Horsey, San Murray, Neil Farmer, John Clarke, Moira Quinn, Maggie Holborow, Alicia Sargent, Anna Turner, Ruby Hudson, Grace Hudson, Winston Plowes, Dulcie Moonlight Lloyd, Lex Campbell, Sarah Campbell, Taylor Campbell, Sally Greenwood & Delilah, Lou Crosby, Lesley Lishman, Kate Rhodes, Kate Kershaw, Angus Barclay, David Burnop, Penny Hampson, Maria Hall, Perri Webster, Kaysha Dolton, Ian Alderson, Frances Earnshaw, Mala Yorke, Emily Yorke, Rebecca Yorke, Suzi Garlick, Evie Manning, Marc Collett, Bardy McNair, Lucy Ordway, Caroline Kindy.

Visit Win’s website

Are you a young person aged between 14-23 and would like to be involved in this year’s arts festival as a producer or a performer? Maybe your bag is blogging, social media, publicity, design. Whatever your interest or expertise then HBAF 2013 would like to hear from you by 30 May. Contact helen@hbaf.co.uk

We need you to help us festoon the town with bunting made from customised underwear! Drop your donations at the Town Hall and drop in to our next workshop – Saturday 25 May 10-1 also at the Town Hall.

Festival exhibition, Town Hall, 22-30 June (Mon-Sun 10am-5pm), Free

Shining a light in dark places, artists Blaffert/Wamhof photograph ex-British army bases in Germany whilst David Gledhill paints a family to life from a found photograph album. Curated by Len Horsey.

11am-5pm

Art, Fashion, Dance, Drama, Music in a Youth Culture fest in Calder Holmes park.

12 pm Parade – 1pm Finale in the Park

Handmade Parade website

Organic House, 22 June to early September, Free, 22 June 7pm discussion and reading.

Artwork by Zoe Benbow with poems by Sylvia Plath, Alice Oswald, Sarah Corbett and Jo Shapcott.
In conjunction with the Poetry Society.

Nutclough House Hotel Cellars, 22,23,25 & 27 June 10am-5pm,  Free

This mixed media show is a response to the 2012 floods. Artists include: brook & black, Keiko Kanda, Wanda Bernadino and Andrew Beck. Sound installations from Hibernate Records and Frame Missing and live soundtrack for flooded piano. Read more about the work on show in Andrew’s blog counting down the days to the exhibition days 14 – 11 and days 9 – 7

22 and 23 June, Animation workshop, Town Hall 2pm-5pm (7+) (20 places) £3

Delivered by artists Vincent James & Sam McLoughlin, this zoetrope workshop explores the roots of animation with a practical hands-on session.

About Uncanny Valley.

in conversation – Upstairs @ The Birchcliffe Centre, Doors 7.30pm, £10

Tracey Thorn has been described as ‘the Alan Bennett of pop Memoirists’. Bedsit Disco Queen chronicles Thorn’s rise from indie singer to international superstar in Everything but the Girl.

Trades Club, Doors 9pm, £10 SOLD OUT

The band of the moment fuse public information films, archive footage and propaganda material with motorik soundscapes & stunning visuals. Dress WW2.

Broadcasting to the public

J. Wildgoose and Wrigglesworth’s innovative live shows sample vintage public information films spliced  with archive footage propaganda films and banjos which they claim ‘teach the lessons of the past through the music of the future.’

They made their name with the Radio 6 favourite ‘The War Room EP’, which featured  A Waltz For George with Willgoose playing a banjolele which was owned by his Uncle, George Willgoose, who died aged only 26 as British forces were evacuated from Dunkirk.

“One of the main aims of The Arts Festival is to showcase new talent and Public Service Broadcasting are certainly that as they area band earning rave reviews whatever they do and wherever they go,” says Festival Producer Mal Campbell. ”The War Room is a brilliant record so we want everyone to dig out  some vintage clobber and join in the World War 2 dress code on the night that will fit in with their amazing projections .”

Their debut album ‘Inform – Educate – Entertain’ has just been released with great reviews including this 4* one from The Guardian. They’ll be playing the Trades Club on the festival’s opening night Saturday 23 June.

Just as fascinating was their download single Everest that uses words from the Oscar nominated documentary ‘The Conquest of Everest’ that described Sir Edmund Hilary and Shepra Tenzing ‘carving steps into the roof of the world’.

But on stage is where they do their best work using their exclusive digs into the archives of the British Film Institute to produce work that is trailblazing and hugely entertaining.

COME RAIN OR SHINE, St George’s Square, wavy duck steps, marina, Town Hall courtyard and Market Street, 12 – 4pm, Free

Download PDF of Street Sundae programme

A feast of entertainment from some of the UK’s best street acts topped off with a dollop of local talent too. Uncle Tacko’s Flea Circus, Maynard Flip Flap, the Spurting Man and the return of the Grannies! Harpists, violinists, choirs, hot flamenco and lots more.

Town Hall Foyer, 12-4pm, 23 and 30 June, Pay what you like

In association with Cornerhouse, sit for an instant portrait inside the artist’s booth!