The Falmouth Convention brings new creative life to Cornwall –

The distinguished American writer and curator, Lucy R. Lippard, will arrive in Cornwall from her home in Galisteo, New Mexico on Thursday 20 May to deliver the keynote lecture that launches The Falmouth Convention, a three-day international conference about contemporary art and exhibition making.

The Convention will focus in particular on remote non-urban areas such as Cornwall, and on activities that can bring new creative life to such regions - such as residency schemes, artistic commissions, and innovative forms of exhibition making.

In addition to Lucy Lippard, speakers will include curators from Canada, France, the Netherlands, Norway, Poland, and Spain and artists based in Berlin, Paris, Vancouver and the UK.  Among the visitors to the event will be the internationally renowned artist, Tacita Dean, a graduate of Falmouth School of Art (now University College Falmouth), whose work in film and other media has been shown in museums and galleries around the world.

To introduce speakers and delegates to the local context, the Convention begins on Friday 21 May with field trips specially devised by artists, curators and local experts and looking at particular places and histories in Cornwall.

The Falmouth-based organisation, Urbanomic, will lead a field trip to the Gwennap mining district: ‘a journey into an historical process that assembled the powers of geology, mechanics, hydraulics, mineralogy and metallurgy, salvation and combustion, steam and capital into a mighty, infernal machine that traumatised the Cornish landscape and kick-started the industrial revolution'.

Tacita Dean and Lucy Gunning (also a graduate of Falmouth College of Arts, now University College Falmouth) have devised an expedition by boat and land across Falmouth Bay, and the Marazion-based poet, Jane Tozer, in conversation with the artist, Jeremy Millar, has prepared a tour of the landscape inhabited by the legendary lovers, Tristan and Iseult.  There will also be field trips to artists' studios in St Ives and ancient stones and field patterns in Zennor, to St Just to explore its mining heritage, and to the telecommunications sites of the Lizard - from the iconic satellite dishes of Goonhilly to the invisible terabit flows of the SEA-ME-WE 3 cable.

The conference itself will convene at the Woodlane Campus on Saturday 22 May and during the morning of Sunday 23 May.

Aimed at artists, curators of contemporary art, writers, arts policy makers, commissioning agencies, producers, researchers and art students, the fee for the conference is £100 (although a limited number of concessionary places for artists and students are available at £40.)  Places can be reserved by visiting www.thefalmouthconvention.com/booking

A programme of special events will also be presented at the Poly, which re-opens to host a special late-evening conversation between the celebrated curator, Hans Ulrich Obrist and the French Algerian artist, Kader Attia on Friday 21 May.  During the evening of Saturday 22 May, the Poly cinema will screen a programme of artists' films and experimental films selected by the East Midlands-based organisation, Annexinema.

Both of these events are open to non-delegates, with free tickets available in advance on a first-come-first-served basis from info@thefalmouthconvention.com, as is the Lucy Lippard lecture.

The Falmouth Convention has been developed as a collaboration between University College Falmouth, ProjectBase and Tate St Ives, in response to a series of forums and conversations held last year with artists, curators and writers based in Cornwall to consider a bid to host the international exhibition Manifesta in Cornwall in 2014.  It is convened by the independent curator, Teresa Gleadowe and supported by Arts Council England, South West.

Ends

For further information about University College Falmouth, please contact Jilly Easterby Dip CIPR MCIPR, Head of Public Affairs, Telephone: 01326 213792, or email:  jilly.easterby@falmouth.ac.uk  

Notes for editors:

Events open to non-delegates

Lucy R. Lippard presents her keynote lecture from the Chapel Lecture Theatre at University College Falmouth's Tremough Campus at 6.30pm on Thursday 20 May.  A small number of tickets are available free, on a first-come, first-served basis, by emailing info@thefalmouthconvention.com

For Lippard's biographical details see: http://www.thefalmouthconvention.com/convention/speakers 

Hans Ulrich Obrist interviews Kader Attia at the Poly on Friday 21 May, from 10.30pm to midnight.  Tickets are available free, on a first-come, first-served basis, by emailing info@thefalmouthconvention.com

For biographical details of Hans Ulrich Obrist and Kader Attia see http://www.thefalmouthconvention.com/convention/speakers  

Annexinema screenings in the Poly cinema on Saturday 22 May from 8.30 pm to 11.30pm.  Tickets are available free, on a first-come, first-served basis, by emailing info@thefalmouthconvention.com  

About University College Falmouth

University College Falmouth is the only independent Higher Education institution in Cornwall with the powers to award degrees in its own name.  It has two campuses in Cornwall - at Woodlane in Falmouth and Tremough in Penryn (which it owns, and jointly manages with the University of Exeter) - and a third campus at Totnes in Devon, following its merger with Dartington College of Arts in 2008.

This merger created a new institution focusing on the expansion of Falmouth's expertise in Art, Design and Media and Dartington's expertise in Choreography, Music, Theatre, Art and Writing.  The Devon-based courses will relocate to a new, high-specification Performance Centre at Tremough in 2010, paving the way for a new specialist Arts University in Cornwall by 2013/2014 that will be unique to the South West.

The University College is a founding partner in the Combined Universities in Cornwall (CUC), a unique initiative to promote regional economic regeneration through Higher Education, funded mainly by the European Union (Objective One and Convergence), the South West Regional Development Agency, and the Higher Education Funding Council for England, with support from Cornwall Council.

http://www.falmouth.ac.uk/  

About ProjectBase

ProjectBase is a commissioning organisation based in Cornwall with a programme including the commissioning of innovative artists' projects, often outside conventional gallery or museum contexts, and public events, talks and seminars.  ProjectBase builds sustainable, long-term partnerships with local communities to develop new audiences, increase the offer and widen the opportunity for engagement, particularly in place-based contexts, rather than formal white-cube environments.

ProjectBase is a registered charity and not-for-profit company limited by guarantee.  We are a regularly funded organisation (RFO) of Arts Council England South West and raise all funding related to projects.  We have received generous support from: Henry Moore Foundation; Arts Council England; Arts & Business; Enquire; engage (Watch this Space); Princes Foundation for Children and the Arts; and Awards for All.

http://www.projectbase.org.uk/  

About Tate St Ives

Tate St Ives, designed by architects David Shalev and Eldred Evans, opened in 1993 to celebrate the modernist legacy of the town's international artist colony.  The dynamic spirit of the artists who lived and worked in the town throughout the twentieth century is reflected in a broad programme of historic and contemporary displays that embrace the best of international modern and contemporary art, presenting temporary exhibitions, special commissions and works from the Tate Collection.

www.tate.org.uk/stives

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