Oh goodness me! There’s always such a lot going on, and I am in danger of forgetting to appear at some events!!! If it hadn’t been for a friendly reminder, I would have missed the opening day of the new arts venue that is Modern Painters New Decorators (MPND) who have moved out of the Carillon Court shopping centre where they had been for about seven years, and into a new space which they have kitted out themselves on Aumbry Gap – which nowadays seems to be called Aumberry Gap, but on the 1901 map is listed as Cemetery Place! While I know what an aumbry is – a cupboard or recess in a wall in a church in which the sacred vessels are stored – I have no idea what kind of berry an “aum” is, nor why it might be significant to this area. At one time I believe there was a church on this street – a non-conformist chapel, I believe, but I can’t remember any more than that at the moment.
Anyway, that aside, the new space for MPND is part of that new glass complex on the corner of Barrow Street and Leicester Road, and Aumberry Gap and Pinfold Gate, and is almost where William Corah’s, the builders, place was, and which later became Groops Music Tuition, then a gym.
Golly, what a huge complex it is, too! I had no difficulty finding MPNDs as firstly, there were lots of people wearing MPND white t-shirts standing around outside the space, but also because I had enquired a couple of months ago and the concierge in the student flats had actually taken me round to the space that MPNDs were, ummm, decorating!
Truth to tell, on the opening day I was on a bit of a timescale, as I was due to be out walking the Erewash Canal later in the afternoon, but there was quite a lot to see, and so many lovely people to talk to, that I lingered for a while, talking and being amazed at the spaces that had been created within what was essentially a square box! There was a long, narrow-ish exhibition space overlooking the street, another, bigger and wider, and probably the main exhibition space running the depth of the building, and about ten artist’s studios in the middle – full of artists doing their thing, and demonstrating to the many visitors.
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| Looking out from the long, narrow gallery space |
One of the things that appealed greatly to me was that although this was a new building, which one might have expected to be all spick and span, neatly polished, and almost like someone's living room, albeit, rather a large living room, but this space was so reflective of an industrial space! No exposed wooden beams here, just exposed metal ducting. No parquet or carpeted floors here, just polished cement (I'm guessing here!) under foot! And some stunning floor-to-ceiling windows!!
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| The floor! |
Anyway, I was so pleased to bump into many people I knew, particularly some of these good people (photo below), and artist Jessica Ashman, whose work was the main feature in the exhibition. She took the trouble to visit the Local and Family History Centre in the public library to learn about Brazil Wood, near Swithland Reservoir, so it was great to see her interpretation of this on silk, dyed mostly using natural dyes, like madder and woad – things that I have only recently written about in ‘Loughborough At Work’.
Do pop in and visit the exhibition if you are able – when exhibitions are on it’s likely to be open Thursday to Saturday, 10am-3pm.
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