The Friends of Arnold Circus

The Wonderful guys at BANDSTAND BUSKING present A December Hullabalooooooo at the Arnold Circus Bandstand on 4th December 2011.

They are featuring two fantastic bands for their very last busk of the year:

Forest Fire – 1.30pm :: http://on.fb.me/vBoMxg
The Lampshades – 2.15pm :: http://on.fb.me/uD1qVc

Wrap up warm and cosy!

Here’s a video of Jesca Hoop at the bandstand this summer, to get you in the mood – there’s lots more great videos on the bandstand busking blog.

Let them know you’re coming on Facebook (it really helps) and on twitter @bandstandbusks.

If anything changes they’ll post it on their blog. So check!

See you there!

Boundary Gardens, Arnold Circus, has received a highly commended award at the annual Landscape Institute Awards Ceremony.

More details to follow, but well done to everybody involved!

…is a multimedia art exhibition at the Rochelle School from the 2nd to 23rd November, featuring 120 artist and over 200 works including painting, sculpture, poetry and music.

The project was created to raise awareness and funds for BirdLife International and their frontline conservation projects.  Each artist was asked to adopt an extinct bird and breathe the life back into it through their art.  The gallery will be full of artworks resurrecting Gone Birds so that we can learn more about what has been lost.  A section of the exhibition will be dedicated to telling stories about the work being done around the world to stop any more bird species becoming extinct.

Here’s a taster of some of the excellent work featured:

The exhibition includes work from major British artists like Sir Peter Blake and Ralph Steadman, wildlife artists like Dafila Scott and Harriet Mead, plus young rising stars of the contemporary art scene like Kai & Sunny, Charming Baker, Jamie Hewlett and Rob Ryan.  Music is by Jimi Goodwin (Doves) and writers such as novelist Margaret Atwood and poet John Barlow.

The project aims to “raise a creative army for conservation” – to establish a new meeting point between art and the environment.  As well as enjoying the multimedia exhibition, local schools are invited to fulfil the same brief as the artists and create their own artistic tributes to extinct birds, and get the opportunity to discuss the work with a representative of the RSPB or BirdLife or even one of the artists themselves.

Check out the Ghosts of Gone Birds facebook page for more information and some more images of the exhibition.

The exhibition is at Rochelle School, Arnold Circus, Shoreditch, E2 7ES from Nov 2-23rd.

Looks like some joker has mistaken one of the trees on the circus for a hot girl.  Whoops.

Really though, why spoil the garden that so many members of the community have put so much effort into creating?  And with such a rubbish tag?  Hope this hot girl doesn’t come back.

I’m sure lots of people remember the beautiful wall hanging “Bagaan” embroidered by the Boundary Women’s Project at St Hilda’s Community Centre.  It was so brilliant that it was exhibited in the Museum of London last year.  It featured Arnold Circus and its flora and fauna (here’s a pic for anyone who wasn’t lucky enough to see it):

After seeing Bagaan, Lloyds register commissioned the group (and their teacher, textile designer Mary Spyrou) to make a wall hanging for them, which, after many months of hard work, they’ve finished.

Here’s the group hard at work:

And here’s the finished product:

Brilliant work!  Its going to be exhibited as part of the ‘East Hand’ exhibition from 7-30 October at Forman’s Smokehouse Gallery in Hackney Wick (smokehousegallery.org).  Do go and see it if you get a chance, it really is a masterpiece, and the culmination of many many hours of embroidering!