Arts and creative practice weave through the work that we do at Homebaked CLT, may it be in the objects and site specific events we create, how we tell our stories or how we engage in the process of imagining – a home, a space, a way of being together.
With a grant from the Arts Council England we have over the last year and a half been highlighting and celebrating some of this red thread or Arts as DNA.
Trainings for the Not-Yet
We followed an invitation by Jeanne van Heeswijk to this exhibition at BAK – basis voor actuele kunst in Utrecht. The exhibition was a series of ‘trainings for a future of being together otherwise’ which took place amid artworks (or learning objects as Jeanne sees them) by Jeanne and an array of international artists and activists engaged in social change. During the time of the exhibition (14 Sep 2019 – 12 January 2020) each week a different community-to-community training took place in the gallery covering a range of subjects emerging from the practice, such as radical care, solidarity economies and the right to the city and unfolding in hands-on practices of cooking, storytelling, movement and debate.
Photos: BAK
Homebaked was invited to contribute a learning object and co-facilitated the peer learning week on ‘Decommodifying Housing’. For the learning object we collaborated with URBED and Jeanne to produce an installation of a 1-1 model of a terrace front room holding a multi-media Homebaked archive for visitors to engage with. Alongside the object we developed a timeline of housing struggle in our neighbourhood, Liverpool and beyond.
Photo: BAK
For the training we travelled to Utrecht with seven participants from across the CLT, bakery and Homegrown Collective. We took over the activist kitchen to provide (vegan!) pies for the daily lunches in the gallery, baked and brewed live, painted banners with the refugee collective ‘We are here’, learned about the Barcelona ‘right to housing’ movement and of course enjoyed the Utrecht nightlife and each others company. It is not that often that we get to travel together and find time to talk to each other away from the daily life of Homebaked.
Photos: BAK & Britt Jurgensen
Lead artist for Homebaked was Britt Jurgensen, the learning object featured works by Catherine Dalton, Peter Carney, Tim Brunsden, Fred Brown and Jeanne van Heeswijk. The training was led by Angela McKay from Homebaked Bakery, Sam Jones from Homegrown Collective and Tom Murphy from Homebaked CLT.
Dead Pigeon Gallery in a little terraced house
We commissioned the brilliant Dead Pigeon Gallery to take over 189 Oakfield Rd as a gallery and events space. Both Jayne Lawless and Catherine Dalton, the artistic lead of Dead Pigeon have engaged with Homebaked from the very early days and shaped the organisations with their input both as artists and community activists.
Jayne developed a concept inviting artists that have weaved in and out of Homebaked since it’s inception to contribute responding to the concept of home.
The exhibition opened 10th of October 2019 with live performances and outdoor projections. It was available for visits into January 2020 and hosted a Christmas Family special. The exhibition was a large success with over 200 visitors from all over the region and fantastic reviews.
The artists featured were:
Janet Brandon, Fred Brown, Tim Brunsden, Peter Carney, Catherine Dalton, Jess Doyle, Grace Harrison, Jeanne van Heeswijk, Tim Jeeves, Sam Jones, Britt Jurgensen, Jayne Lawless, Mark Loudon, Deborah Morgan, Louis Jeck-Prestidge, Silent Sleep, Lena Simic, Jo Steel, Mia Tagg, Melissa Tennant, Ehsan Vaziri, Franny G. Williams
Photos: Jane MacNeil & Mark Loudon