The Red Hen Artists roots go a long way back to 1994 when founders of
the group, art school graduates Abi Macleod-Clark and Lou Partridge met as employees of CJ
Graphics, the long gone art supplies shop in Bond Street,
Brighton, UK. Abi and Lou started working on creative projects
together under the name of Red Hen. When
photographer Colin and Lou met as employees of the Theatre Royal in Brighton in 2000 a partnership was formed and they began hatching plans for the Red Hen Artists. Red Hen continued to accept commissions for display design, artwork/illustration and theatre design, adding photography to their portfolio. In 2004 they were offered a Churches Conservation Trust building
as a venue for the Brighton May Fringe Festival, and Abi & Lou
gathered their creative friends and formed the 'Red Hen Artists Collective',
under which name the group has exhibited for Brighton Festivals 2004,
2005, 2006 2007, 2008, 2009 & 2010 as well as various projects and exhibitions outside
of Festival time.
All of the artists in the group studied creative subjects at college
or university, all have 'day' jobs, some part time,
some full time, and the idea of the group is that it brings together
and motivates the artists to keep on aiming for their goal of making
a good income from what they love to do. Previously the artists had found
it difficult to find opportunities to show their work in Brighton & Hove
as individuals, and the name ‘Red Hen’ comes from the children’s
story of the little red hen who decided, as no-one would help her with
her project, to ‘do it herself’!
Red Hen exhibitions are planned way ahead, a theme is set for artwork
and the artists meet regularly to talk about ideas, compare notes and
encourage each other with the projects. The artists also do all the behind
the scenes work that goes into organising the event, which always takes
more time than the artwork and includes admin, finance, print design & liaising
with printers, organising catering, making display boards, arranging
lighting, doing risk assessments, marketing, press and distribution of
posters/flyers/leaflets. The artists also staff and run workshop events
during the exhibitions themselves.
As you can imagine, organising exhibitions is lot of work and Hens have
come and gone! The current group, now known as Red Hen Artists, are:
Abi Macleod-Clark, Colin Bourner, Colin Clark, Jonathan Lodge, Martin
Chandler & Lou Partridge, with occassional guest artists.
Apart from organising, contributing work to and running exhibitions,
Red Hen Artists also work on freelance illustration, fine art, photography
and design projects, theatre design and making commissions, and organise
and run workshops (recent clients include Komedia Brighton/Churchill
Square Shopping Centre Brighton and Chichester Cathedral).
The Artists are currently planning their 2012 exhibition 'Queens', with artwork inspired by the Diamond Jubillee of the UK's Queen Elizabeth II in 2012 and celebrating all queens, past and present.
ENDS
Lou Partridge
15/05/2011
