12 hours of art to the airwaves and the streets of St Helens as Heart of Glass teams up with artists Hunt & Darton once again
Heart of Glass is delighted to welcome back art duo Jenny Hunt and Holly Darton for their national touring production Radio Local #radiolocal.
Described by the Guardian as “a pop up establishment of disarming eccentricity”, Hunt & Darton will be on the streets of St Helens – Church Square, Saturday 29th June, 8am to 8pm for a hyper-local 12 hour radio show made, with, for and about the town. Everyone who calls St Helens home is invited to be part of this BRAND NEW radio station, broadcasting live from Church Square – for ONE DAY only.
In the weeks leading up to the event, Jenny & Holly along with artists Lois Weaver, Lucia Scazzocchio, Rosana Cade & Sian Baxter will be getting to know the heroes, the characters, the pillars of the community, the weird and wonderful, the fonts of all gossip and inviting them to take part. The resulting 12 hour long live show will be broadcast by WA12 Radio – the radio station powered by Newton Boys and Girls Club.
On the day of the event, audience can get involved with phone-ins, scavenger hunts, jingle-writing, soap operas and dating shows, or just sit down and listen while Hunt & Darton invite guests to share their wisdom and tell their stories. The marathon broadcast will also include pre-recorded content made by the artists who are spending time living in St Helens exploring finding out more about what it means to be local.
Angharad Williams, Lead Producer at Heart of Glass said:
“We’re thrilled to welcome back award-winning artists Hunt & Darton for their latest participatory show and to be teaming up with our friends at BuzzHub again. We’re also delighted to begin working with the WA12 Radio team at Newton Boys & Girls Club. This is a show that’s all about local people and we know that St Helens will make this event very special indeed.”
Hunt & Darton were last in St Helens for the very successful Hunt & Darton Cafe – a fully functional cafe where everything was considered art opened. The project was also presented at Tate Britain, Edinburgh Fringe and Latitude Festival.
Radio Local forms part of Heart of Glass’s 2019 programme and continues its mission to turn the Town into an Arts Centre. Throughout the year the St Helens collaborative arts agency will be bringing together diverse artists with communities to create and present ambitious new art works and reimagine spaces from empty shop units to taxi cabs and town halls to bingo halls.
Key artists and communities they’ll be working with include:
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Gemma Nash uses sound to uncover and reimagine stories about people, places and objects. Gemma is working with Knowsley disability groups and disabled women’s collective Sister of Frida on a new project.
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Phoebe Davies is collaborating with young people from Wild Card boxing club in Parr. She is working with film, photography and sound to create a new artwork based in the boxing gym.
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Cathy Cross is Heart of Glass’ Artist in Residence: Schools and Colleges. Cathy will be continuing to produce art projects with students from various schools across St Helens, as well as providing professional development and learning resources for teachers.
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The Vacuum Cleaner aka James Leadbitter, an artist and activist creating; performance, installation and film, addressing challenging issues such as consumerism and mental health. James is curating this years Take Over Festival – a series of events and installations across St Helens town centre (more TBA).
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Mark Storor – Mark continues his 12 year Baa Baa Baric: Have You Any Pull? residency with communities in St Helens. The current chapter of this project: The Suicide Chronicles explores how we can shape a creative language about suicide working with communities affected by suicide and experts in this field.
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Scottee and Friends – Scottee is returning to St Helens to develop a project with young people and communities.
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Larry Achiampong will be working with refugee women in Liverpool on a new project. His solo and collaborative projects employ imagery, aural and visual archives, live performance and sound to explore ideas surrounding class, cross-cultural and post-digital identity.
Along with developing an artist professional development programme, Heart of Glass will also be presenting its 4th annual With For About conference on 23rd May, where artists and professionals from across the UK, tickets on sale now.
More information about Radio Local and Hunt & Darton.