Community

 Latest from the Busconductress:

1st June 2011

 Ladies and Gentlemen the Summer Art Bus fest is upon us! We will be all over the country in the next few months at various art, public and charity events. We are delighted to be supporting the British Heart Foundation's Mending Broken Hearts Appeal, and will be exhibiting our Breath of Life silkscreen portfolio, with all profits from sales going straight to the BHF. We had a brilliant day yesterday at the BHF's Race Day at Fontwell- it was great to see so many BHF supporters on board the Art Bus!

20th August 2010

The Art Bus is returned to CCA HQ after an amazing weekend at Vintage Goodwood, an amazing festival celebrating 5 decades of British cool: all that's best in British art, music, design, fashion and film. The Art Bus was taken over for the weekend by The Rock and Roll Public Library, who transformed the interior of the bus into an Aladdin;s cave of pop culture memorabilia from the personal archive of ex-Clash frontman Mick Jones. We also had secret gigs from the bus' balcony from brilliant young musicians who work with Strummerville (a foundation that helps up and coming musicians, please visit www.strummerville.com) . So the Art Bus hosted a vibrant combination of art, design and music, with both Mick Jones and Peter Blake making appearances on the bus over the weekend and hundreds of visitors coming on board to find out what it was all about. See some pics on our Fracebook page.

18th May 2010

 We LOVE going down to Brighton for the festival in May. This year we were once again supporting Art Republic, who seemed to have organised for the entire population of Brighton to get on board the Art Bus. Sir Peter was in attendance (though definitely distracted by by keeping track of the FA Cup Final) and was guest of honour at a special lunch and Q&A session. Later on in the afternoon he put his feet up on board the Art Bus and chatted to members of the public. We were exhibiting Peter's latest work on board: World Tour: a series of 8 silksrceen prints featuring cities across the world including Paris, Chicago, Cannes, London and Nice.

10th May 2010

 We had a great time visiting the Darryl Nantais Gallery in Linton, Cambridge last week. As well as celebrating their new exhibition of Modern British Masters, we took part in the Linton Children's Book Festival; lending inspiration for both a poetry and an art competitions amongst local schools that we visited. All poems were inspired by Sir Peter Blake's Birds, see one of the entries below:

The One in Red

Yes, that's me the one in red

Birds flying around my head.

People like statues surround me

Astonished at what they can see.

Busy, pretty, dark as night

Shades of grey, blue dark and light

Some are puffy some are scrawny

There are owls, snow white and tawny

Some with long necks some with short

One looks freaky, deep in thought

Yes, I'm still there the one in red

Dreaming of my feathery bed.

By Mollie Gibbs- Age 12

www.lintonbookfest.org

12th March 2010

We took a whirlwind tour of oxford last friday making stops at Oxford Castle and the Ashmolean Museum (amazing) before heading over to Inspires Gallery for their private view with Sir Peter Blake. I was expecting a deluge of art-enthusiast students to immediately colonise the bus, but I think word of our presence may not have hit the college bars as the students were woefully thin on the ground (surely they couldn't all have actually gone to their lectures? Or maybe they didn't realise that we have a bar on board...). Anyway, afternoon vistiors to the Ashmolean certainly got a nice surprise when they found the Art Bus parked outside (valiantly fending off over-zealous traffic wardens), it was a fabulous clash of the ancient and modern and a fun twist on the hushed reverence of the museum's interior. We then headed over to Jericho for Inspires' party (Little Clarendon Street is a lot more narrow than you think, especially when you are trying to jam a double-decker bus down it). I was introduced to some local pillars of the community James and Max who showed me the fantastic mural of the people, businesses and landmarks of Jericho that they had made on an empty building on the corner. That little corner of the world has a very special atmosphere, and a good time was- as always- had by all.

3rd March 2010

The Art Bus officially loves the West Country! We took our first mini tour to the artistic land of the west last weekend, stopping in Bath and Bristol. Bath was buzzing with its literature festival as we pulled up on Milsom street on friday afternoon. A couple of guys hopped aboard who had been on the Art Bus at Art London- it's always nice to know that we're building up some fans! Sir Peter Blake and his wife joined us for a rocking private view in the evening, and a thoroughly good time was has by all. We felt very honoured to spend the day in front of the Royal West of England Academy in Bristol on Saturday. The RWA is a truly stunning gallery and one of only 5 Royal Academies in the UK. We were there to support Innocent Fine Art, a beautiful gallery in Clifton Village, who are also staging an exhibition of Peter's work this month. Check out www.rwa.org.uk

We would like to hear from all you Art Bus friends.

Email form Jonny

Saw the bus at school today - I think is is awesome!!