Revisiting Utopia: Participants

Thanks to all artists and volunteers who made Revisiting Utopia. Follow the links below for more info on participants.

Artists:

Jonathan Kenyon
Craig Atkinson
David Kirby
Emma Shannon
Mat Birchall
Hazel Edmunds
Hannah Elizabeth Allen
Rebecca Chesney
Thomas Saible
Andy Marshall
Manchester Modernist Society
Martin Cogley
Evelyn Rose
Emma Johnson
Ruth Warman
Richard J Flynn
Lisa Hawes
Michael Mackenzie
Victoria Lucas
Benedict Rutherford, Mark Oughton & Robbie Judkins.

Team:

In Certain Places: Charles Quick & Elaine Speight
Revisiting Utopia Curator: Steph Fletcher
Tech & install: Benedict Rutherford
Install & invigilation: Mark Aston, Emma Johnson, Kelsey Stead

Revisiting Utopia: In the news

So the exhibition has come and gone with great success, and we'd like to thank everyone who exhibited, volunteered, and attended. We had a fantastic, busy preview and lots of great dialogue about the Bus Station over the course of the symposium day.

We'll be uploading documentation, artist info and pictures on here (apologies for the delay in doing so thus far) - so watch this space!

You can also keep an eye on In Certain Places for further pictures and projects and Save Preston Bus Station for further info on the bus station campaign.

In the mean time, here's our first press clippings from the exhibition, from the local Lancashire Evening Post.

Private View

Revisiting Utopia: Exhibition

After a successful open call and lots of hard work preparing the exhibition space, we are pleased to announce the opening of Revisiting Utopia, on Tuesday 10th July at 4 - 5 / 5.30 pm. All are welcome to attend, please see the flyer below for full details, location and opening hours.

Revisiting Utopia: Installation

The Revisiting Utopia exhibition takes place in an empty building located in the very heart of Preston. Formerly PAD Gallery (and before that, a central Post Office and council offices), the three-storey building has been closed for over two years due to large funding cuts in the arts - another example of abandoned architecture in an age of austerity.

Our team worked all hours for just over a week to rejuvinate the damp & dark ground floor gallery space to for the week-long Revisiting Utopia show.

Revisiting Utopia Exhibition: Call for Submissions

 Revisiting Utopia – Open exhibition

Tuesday 10^th – Sat 14^th July, 2012
Preston City Centre

Call for submissions:

To coincide with the one-day symposium, Revisiting Utopia: Modernist Architecture in the Post-regenerate City, In Certain Places is organising an open exhibition of artworks inspired by modernist buildings in Preston, such as the city’s iconic bus station.

The artworks will be shown in an exhibition in the Old Post Office, previously home to PAD Gallery, just off Market Square. Artwork can take any form, including painting, drawing, photography, video, sculpture or publication. 

Anyone is welcome submit their artwork, as long as it has been inspired by an example of modernist architecture in Preston.

To submit your work for selection: Please e-mail up to 5 jpeg images and/or a website URL of your artwork to: revisitingutopia@gmail.com by midnight on Thursday 28^th June.

Selection will take place on Friday 29^th June and successful artists will be contacted soon after.

The handing in day for all the artwork will be Saturday 7^th July.  

Artwork will need to be ready for display and all successful artists will be sent details of how to ensure this.

Please note - artworks will not be insured by Preston City Council, however the exhibition will be invigilated at all times.

Revisiting Utopia: Modernist Architecture in the Post-regenerate City

Tuesday 10th July

University of Central Lancashire/Preston Bus Station

This one-day symposium will bring together architects, artists, urban planners and people with an interest in the future of cities, to examine the role of architecture in an age of austerity. Employing Preston’s iconic bus station as a case study, the event will explore the Modernist principles that informed the construction of the building during the late 1960s and discuss the architectural impact of recent urban regeneration schemes, such as the planned re-development of Preston city centre that threatened to demolish the bus station.  Examining issues of environmental sustainability and the significance of local knowledge, the event will ask to what extent the utopian ideals of Modernism, and the buildings they inspired, might still be relevant within today’s urban landscape.

The symposium will feature talks by architecture writer and Guardian journalist Owen Hatherley and architect and author Irena Bauman, as well as a chance for delegates to share their own views during a panel debate.  The day will also include a bus ride and tour of Preston Bus Station, and a chance to view a new exhibition of some of the many artworks inspired by this distinctive building.

Preston Bus Station was designed by Keith Ingham of Building Design Partnership, and is an example of Brutalist Architecture. Completed in 1969, it has 80 bus bays and is the largest bus station in the UK.  The building includes a multi-storey car park on the top, and it is linked to other parts of the city centre via subways and an elevated walkway.  The building, which continues to make a profit, has been threatened with demolition for over ten years, as part of city centre redevelopment plans.

For more information and ticket booking, please visit www.incertainplaces.org