Out of adversity comes opportunity.

Recently, a gallery I was after securing to include in my ACE application got  knocked back. I decided to ask for the help of the arts liaison officer from Suffolk County Council for galleries that were big enough to hang my work. I got a very good reply with several suggested organisations but not only that, one of them via their Head of Collections, contacted me before I had had a chance to finish reading the original email response. As a result of this I went over to Stowmarket to meet the people there and I was overwhelmed at their support for my work and their desire to dovetail a potential exhibition into engagement with various groups of people that either visit the museum or engage with it on other fronts.

I walked around a soggy 80 acres as the curator explained her desire to take exhibitions out of the main house and lead visitors around the estate. As I walked with Lisa and Ellie I really liked Lisa’s enthusiasm for planting photographs in the open and my mind went into overdrive with the various aspects of county industrial activities represented here and how my Edgelands theme depended upon lapsed and current industries. All in all a very inspiring week.

I’ve now got to take up an offer from Metro Imaging to test produce weather-proof images to plant outside and then work up the ACE application again with the Museum of East Anglian Life input to public engagement.

I’ve made a few reference shots for my own use lodging some logical chapters for my work that will re-commence in about 6 weeks time as I locate and begin shooting a Suffolk themed Edgelands portfolio on Kodak Professional film.

This ACE application has matured considerably since March this year but most significantly since finishing at UCS as I engage with professional organisations in the real world.

The Listed building is an interesting exhibition site. I am minded of Tillmans hanging an image on the building at SNAP in 2013 so Metro might be able to do something here that does not alter the fabric of the building but attracts visitor interaction for 8 months, whilst being inaccessible owing to an unsafe bridge. Abandoned buildings are an aspect of Edgelands that could use this particular location to good effect, especially with our lost agricultural industry.