ARC researchers interviewing Adam Sutherland at Grizedale Arts

A group of ARC researchers (Eavan Aiken, Frank Brennan, Amy Farrell and Jai Thorn) visited Grizedale Arts in November-December 2015, with the aim of interviewing Grizedale director Adam Sutherland and documenting the organisation’s activities. Grizedale Arts is an arts organisation situated in Lawson Park farm, a historical site in the mountains above the valley where Coniston village is located, in northern England. While on residency at Grizedale, artists are invited to build relationships which benefit the artists, volunteers and interns in partnership with the organisation.

During their visit to Grizedale Arts, the ARC research team used video, photography, audio, object gathering and informative talks and interviews to explore and document the activities, history and rural setting of the organisation. While at Grizedale, the group met director Adam Sutherland, education curator Olivia Leahy and volunteer Megan Wiessner at the Coniston Institute. They attended a weekly workshop for local children, and visited Karen Guthrie’s piece The House of Ferment, which travels to IMMA in 2016. The group also toured the farmhouse and surrounding grounds of Lawson Park, including the kitchen gardens (used to grow food for the residents) and the former home of John Ruskin. The trip also provided an opportunity to visit the John Ruskin museum and to interview Karen Guthrie about her experiences of living at Lawson Park, and her work as an artist, which includes projects developed in conjunction with Grizedale.

The visit to Grizedale Arts is one element of an ongoing research collaboration between the ARC programme and the Irish Museum of Modern Art. The collaboration will form the basis for a programme of presentations and events titled Statecraft, to be presented at the Project Spaces, IMMA in March 2016. Thematically, Statecraft focuses on interconnections between residency, community and craft, informed by the work of Grizedale Arts.