Associated Artists
Supporting Local Artists
At Bridgwater Arts Centre we believe it is important to support the
work of Somerset-based artists and provide opportunities for them to
create and show their work.
We have an ongoing practise of mentoring arts practitioners,
providing advice and support. We can offer rehearsal and performance
space for performing artists to make and develop work, and encourage
and develop exhibition proposals from visual artists.
We employ local professional arts practitioners to run our Get
SmArt programme of classes and also for our Get StArted programme of
outreach work. We can also arrange opportunities for artists to work
alongside more experienced practitioners should they wish to gain
experience in this area.
Below are details of some of the Somerset practitioners with
whom we regularly work.
Jonathan Brown 
As writer and performer, Jonathan Brown’s Association with BAC started
in 1996 as a life model for their regular life-drawing classes. He had
just finished rehearsing his first one-person theatre work, and whilst
sitting stock-still and naked, he had an unusual idea, which he put to
the BAC management. A few short months later at BAC, as part of Get
SmArt he premiered, naked, “The Father Monologues, Part 1,” to an
audience that was invited to draw him as he played.
Around the same time, he played at BAC with Somerset-based
improvised theatre company, Touch and Go, (previously the Festival of
Fools) and since then BAC have supported Jonathan’s work, offering
rehearsal spaces, and programming both Part’s 1 and 2 of his successful
“Father Monologues” trilogy, which Jonathan has played to about 100
audiences, at Edinburgh Fringe, throughout the South, and at Brighton
Fringe where he was Nominated for Best Male Performer in 2007.
He is due to play his latest work, “Free Beer” at BAC in the
spring 2010, and in the meantime, with Denise Evans, he’s collaborating
on a new play, of Brunel-esque proportions, set deep in the Earth
during Victorian times, and written for a fuller cast. It explores,
amongst other things, the suppression & vandalism of ancient
localised pre-Christian tales, mythologies, divinities & sacred
sites.
www.jonathan-brown.co.uk
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Greig Cooke
Greig graduated from London Contemporary Dance School in 1995 with a
Post Graduate Diploma in Contemporary Dance and subsequently performed
internationally for fourteen years originating roles for Adventures in
Motion Pictures’s production of Swan Lake, Richard Alston, The
Featherstonehaughs, Aletta Collins, Charles Linehan, Mark Bruce, Random
Dance, Arthur Pita, Tom Sapsford, Fleur Darkin and the reworking of
Peter Schaffeur’s west end production of Equus in 2007.
He has toured the world extensively and was nominated for
most outstanding performer whilst on tour in Toronto in 2004 and is
currently working with Mark Bruce Dance Company and Yorke Dance Project
who are based in the South West.
As a Teacher, Greig enjoys working with different age groups
and abilities and teaches extensively in the UK delivery workshops and
regular classes to schools, boys groups, professionals, over 50’s and
vocational dance schools. He has delivered Primary, GCSE, A-Level, BTEC
and professional workshops for Richard Alston Dance Company, The
Featherstonehaughs, Adventures in Motion Pictures, Random Dance and
Charles Linehan.
In 2001 he set up and delivered the Hurricane boys project at
The Place, London, to encourage young boys to dance. Hurricane is a 1
week intensive summer project culminating in a performance piece and
has been running for 7 years with guest artists joining the group each
year. Greig was a member of staff for London Contemporary Dance
School’s Centre for Advanced Training and recently joined the selection
team for the CAT pilot in Exeter.
He is very excited to be developing a relationship with
Bridgwater Arts Centre this year and running a regular boys dance group
at the arts centre.
more>
Nancy Farmer
Nancy Farmer is a Somerset-based artist, popular for her irreverent and
tongue-in-cheek mixture of fairytale, mythology and satire. Her
paintings re-work many a familiar tale, balancing elements drawn both
from fantasy and reality with a humour that appeals to a remarkably
wide audience.
Nancy’s artwork has appeared at BAC on many occasions, often
on the walls of the gallery and on one occasion on stage as scenery and
costumes for the 2007 community pantomime. Nancy’s artwork may be seen
on her website at: www.nancyfarmer.net
Dan Gale
Dan gets paid to make films for people. The money he makes is spent on
food which he eats with his mouth. This in turn keeps him alive which
only encourages him to make more films. Sometimes the money comes from
Bridgwater Arts Centre. He would never have been to Glastonbury
Festival if it hadn't been for the Arts Centre. BAC often asks him to
contribute to their annual pantomime which gives him a creative release
from the corporate nonsense he often has to endure in his job. He did
work experience at BAC when he was 16 and had his first ever kiss on
his lunch break with a girl named Kate in the park bandstand.
He has also met some amazing people and good friends in the
building over the years. He will always be grateful to BAC for all the
above facts although he doesn't tell the staff there anywhere near
often enough.
Find out more about Dan here: www.rightsmart.co.uk
And watch more of his films here: www.youtube.com/dangale123
more>
Tim Hill
Tim has been active in outdoor celebrations for over twenty years.
During this time he has directed shows, created community street bands
and been musical director on community and professional performances.
He has led funeral and wedding celebrations, run celebratory arts
courses, built bread ovens for feasts, cooked for hungry and wet
performers, played with Soca bands on the back of lorries at Notting
Hill carnival and with samba bands at Stonehenge solstice celebrations.
Tim’s street band Tongues of Fire plays at events, festivals
and carnivals all over the country. www.myspace.com/tonguesfire
and www.tongues-of-fire.co.uk.
He also co-leads Rag and Bone and Leviathan Whispers, two companies
pioneering a number of approaches to outdoor performance, building
processional devices and great beasts from recycled materials, creating
music for landscapes and urban spaces, and devising sonic playgrounds
and giant musical instruments. www.leviathanwhispers.co.uk,
www.rag-bone.org
Somerset has been Tim’s for nearly five years, and he started
the Albion Horns here three years ago. This community band has played
at many events, including wassails, fairs, flower shows and Christmas
lights openings.. www.myspace.com/thealbionhorns
For the last twenty years he has played in the Melstock band,
recreating and researching the English rural music making of the
eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. The band has appeared in many
film, television and radio productions including the recent BBC Tess of
the D’urbeyvilles and the classic Pride and Prejudice. www.melstockband.com
Tim plays the saxophone in a number of groups playing with
improvisation, free jazz, groove and traditional music. You can hear
more at;
www.myspace.com/noiseeatingmonster
www.myspace.com/worldsunknowntrio
www.myspace.com/machinetwittering
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Kath Kelly
I have been working with the medium of puppet-making for eight years
now. I have a passion for inspiring children to use this medium to
support their self esteem, language and negotiation skills as well as
designing and making their own puppet characters. I have been working
across Wiltshire, Somerset and the Bath area, in museums, arts centres,
libraries and schools.
Bridgwater Art Centre first approached me 3 years ago to take
part in a project involving year 6 and 7 pupils, designed to support
children needing extra help with the transition to senior school. Since
then I have worked on a further two transitions projects for BAC. These
projects are essential to give vulnerable young people the opportunity
to make friends and to feel less anxious about change. Puppets are a
brilliant way of communicating as the attention is on the puppet and
not directly the child. This can allow thoughts and feelings to be
freely expressed. I also find making puppets appeals to all ages and to
boys and girls alike.
Many themes can be used depending on your chosen topic; I love
exploring other cultures and their stories and folktales, such as India
or Native Americans, or going back in history to discover how we
dressed in different periods of time, for example Ancient Greeks, or
Georgian times. I work directly with class teachers to plan sessions
that enrich their curriculum, and to make the most of the experience
with the children. So as you can see puppets allow us to interact on
many levels in the learning environment, bringing together lots of
skills to create a cross curricular approach in the classroom.
more>
Pretty Good Girl
Pretty Good Girl Dance Theatre is a leading small-scale, Somerset based
dance company known for its innovative, narrative based choreography.
The driving philosophy behind the company's projects is that dance can
tell stories - real stories and should be accessible to people of all
ages and interests
In addition the company have taught workshops and built youth
performance pieces in no less that 65 education settings. Each member
of the company is a trained dancer and teacher - combining professional
training and experience of mainstream performing arts education.
As well as performing at BAC, PGG Director Lou Barrett has
worked with BAC to establish Street Steps, a Street Dance Company for
secondary school ages which meet at BAC on Wednesday evenings.
www.prettygoodgirl.com
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Kerrie Seymour
On her first visit to BAC Kerrie found herself almost immediately
dressed as a pirate whilst being attacked by a clown with a custard pie
on Blake Statue – I guess you could say that’s where the madness
started. A plethora of random spontaneous roles continued
over the following months including Santa’s little elf helper and
indeed the man himself Mr Claus!
After many years and many jobs within social and youth work Kerrie took
the leap back into the arts world – a place her heart has always truly
sat since she qualified as a community artist in 1996.
Since then Kerrie has met some truly fabulous people, learnt
to use a range of power tools, fire spins with wire wool, has directed
6 different shows at once and is no longer scared of
polystyrene. Travelling to distant lands in search of new
skills Kerrie has learn to Flamenco dance with Trestle theatre (woop),
build puppets with Kinetika (woop woop) and create large scale
illuminated processional art with the legend that is Mr Matt Richards
(woop woop woop!).
As an associate artist for BAC Kerrie delivers the youth
theatre programme, directs the community pantomime and co ordinates and
delivers a range of theatre and visual arts based projects with young
people in Bridgwater.
Kerrie can be contacted at Bridgwater Arts Centre. kerrie@bridgwaterartscentre.co.uk
more>
Sue Webber 
I always like to keep busy with various art/illustration projects,
exhibitions and photography projects. As a versatile artist, my
personal projects may vary, from landscape painting/drawing using
either pen or acrylic or I may create three-dimensional artwork using
wire or papier-mâché. I also have a passion for books and
creative bookbinding.
In recent years I have enjoyed running bookbinding workshops
at Bridgwater Arts Centre. In the Autumn of 2009 I will be running a
bookbinding workshop called 'A Miscellany of Bookbinding' and a wire
sculpture workshop called 'Grow your own Doodles' .
Over a number of years (and of course throughout my life,
Bridgwater born and bred), I am pleased to be involved with the Arts
Centre both as theatre goer and artist, and take delight in entering
the Centre's open art exhibitions and exhibitions with The Chandos
Society.
My website is: www.busybeeillustrations.com
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