This weekend, broadcast live from Media City and in celebration of the Turner Prize, Mary Anne Hobbs and Jeremy Deller are inviting listeners of the Radio 6 weekend breakfast show to get creative!! I got together with Mary Anne Hobbs to find out more!
Fans of Mary Anne Hobbs’ BBC6 weekend radio show have become accustomed to her sonic curation of all that is interesting and cutting-edge in the world of music. Expanding our creative minds this weekend, Hobbs has invited Turner Prize winner Jeremy Deller into the studio. Deller, who’s fantastic exhibition ‘All That Is Solid Melts Into Air’ is currently running at the Manchester Art Gallery will be leading ‘Art Is Everywhere’ on BBC Radio 6 Music this Saturday & Sunday from 7-10am.
Painting by John Hobbs
In celebration of the Turner Prize, Hobbs and Deller are inviting us all to listen to the show and respond to what we hear. Listeners are asked to create a piece of art, using absolutely anything they like – from paint to pottery, banana skins to batique, lyrics to spoken word – and tweet a photograph of it to @BBC6Music with the hashtag #6MusicMakeArt . Alongside Deller a host of fine artists, cartoonists, and record sleeve designers are confirmed to take part including:
Pete Fowler – David Bray – Sophie Ryder – Pete McKee – John Hobbs – Hannah Adamaszek – Kelvin Okafor – Angel 41 – Chin – Give Up Art – Emma Gibson – Jack Cole (Dumblove Encounters) – Cosmo Sarson – Inkie – Ben Pepper – Sam Gayton – Leon Hatcher
I got together with Mary Anne to find out more about Art Is Everywhere.
Image © Shaun Bloodworth
Hi Mary Anne, can you tell Manchester’s Finest readers a bit more about ‘Art Is Everywhere’?
It’s a very simple idea. All you need to do is listen to the show and create piece of art inspired by what you hear.. that could be musical sounds, lyrics, spoken words, or more abstract elements.
You can use any materials you have to hand – oil paint, plasticine, pencils, Play Doh, clothes pegs, bananas, words, sound, old photographs, watercolours, iPad App.. whatever’s easy.
Then Tweet a photograph of it to us @BBC6Music #6MusicMakeArt and we’ll build an online gallery as the Weekend Breakfast shows unfold.
Why did you decide to dedicate your weekend show to this?
It’s a digitally native project – using the Turner Prize, as a spur to inspire creativity.
My special guest is brilliant Turner Prize winning artist Jeremy Deller. He’s leading the project, alongside sound artist Mira Calix, artist Gary Hume a Turner Prize nominee, BBC Arts Correspondent Will Gompertz, and Maria Balshaw Director of the Whitworth & Manchester Art Gallery. As a listener you’ll hear lots of fascinating words and thought about art – but you don’t need remain a by-stander – you can physically engage with us, create a piece of art become an integral part of the whole programme yourself.
As a listener you’ll hear lots of fascinating words and thought about art – but you don’t need remain a by-stander – you can physically engage with us, create a piece of art become an integral part of the whole programme yourself
At the Art Party Conference in Scarborough last weekend, a lot of focus was paid to how art should be taught and shared. What role do you think radio, and other forms of media, can have in the promotion of art and in encouraging people to engage with the arts?
What I love most about radio is the sense of communion that we all share – myself, my guests, my listeners. We are a family. We are all kindred spirits who gravitate together to share the same experience. This is a family that can communicate with each other, with me, with the show in real time as the programme goes live to air. It’s this unique relationship that we share which makes a project like ‘Art Is Everywhere’ so exciting, because proximity is no barrier, you can engage with this and feel the warmth and the thrill of sharing the experience wherever you are physically – be it Hull or Havana, Teesside or Tokyo, Salford or San Francisco.
What I love most about radio is the sense of communion that we all share… It’s this unique relationship that we share which makes a project like ‘Art Is Everywhere’ so exciting, because proximity is no barrier, you can engage with this and feel the warmth and the thrill of sharing the experience wherever you are physically
And why is this important?
This is about having fun. And sometimes we forget just how important that really is.
There are a lot of really interesting and varied artists taking part. How did you select which artists were to be involved?
Myself and my production team have simply reached out to the artists that we know and have worked with – the response has been incredible, the scent of excitement is high in the air and there’s a natural momentum building.
The scent of excitement is high in the air and there’s a natural momentum building
And what will they be doing?
Exactly the same as my listeners.. they will be creating a piece of art inspired by the sounds of the show.. and Tweeting a photo @BBC6Music using the hashtag #6MusicMakeArt
What will people get out of the show? And why should they take part?
I’m hoping they’ll feel lifted…
Do you have plans like this for your show in the future?
Yes absolutely – We did a wonderful project with poet Lemn Sissay. He delivered what we call a ‘3 Minute Epiphany’ on the topic ‘How I Knew I Was A Poet’. You can listen here.
It was incredible to watch the response unfolding on Twitter, so many deeply poetic Tweets written, and Lemn Re-Tweeting them all. There’s a real tangible magic about that kind of interplay
When the show went to air, Lemn was listening live with us and posting Twitter. Lemn has a ‘Morning Tweets’ ritual. He posts something original on Twitter to begin every day. I asked my listeners if they would like to do the same. It was incredible to watch the response unfolding on Twitter, so many deeply poetic Tweets written, and Lemn Re-Tweeting them all. There’s a real tangible magic about that kind of interplay.
So set your alarm and tune in to Art Is Everywhere this saturday and sunday from 7am-10am at BBC6 Music. Let’s see what we can create!
Interview by Anne Louise Kershaw
