Hannah Frank Art News December 2010
Fiona Frank
HANNAH FRANK NEWS DECEMBER 2010
FULL CIRCLE
AT LANCASTER
EXHIBITION
Back in 2003, when I was just embarking on this seven year journey, the Gregson Community and Arts Centre, Lancaster, held an exhibition of my aunt’s prints. I am delighted to report that this week, another Hannah Frank exhibition will be opening at my local community centre. The exhibition runs from Wednesday 8th December to Tuesday 4th January, from 11 a.m. to 11 p.m. every day. The opening night is Tuesday 7 December from 7pm. All are welcome and there will be special opening night offers on print purchases.
Gregson Community and Arts Centre, 33 Moorgate, Moor Lane, Lancaster, LA1 3PY. Tel: 01524 849959
CELEBRATORY SHOWING OF THE SPARK DIVINE AT KLEZMER EVENING
There
will be a free showing of the short film 'Hannah Frank, The
Spark Divine' by Sarah Thomas, award winning film maker, at The Gregson on
Saturday 11 December oat the Gregson Centre. Why not order dinner from The
Gregson's popular menu and eat it in the hall as you watch the film? The film
begins at 6.30pm but you need to be at the hall for 5.45 if you want to order a
meal, as there’s a Klezmer Dance in the hall at 7.30 (all welcome,
£7.50/£5.00).
SPECIAL OFFER
ON ONE OFF REPRODUCTIONS
To
celebrate the success of the Hannah Frank Poetry Competition we have a special
offer for you on one-off reproductions, on heavy art paper, of the
following drawings which inspired some of the winning poems in the
poetry competition:
‘Then
to the rolling heaven’, 1928; ‘Out of the night a shadow passed,’
1928; ‘O that was a flight through the air’, 1928; ‘And many a jealous
conference’, 1928; ‘Untitled’, 1931; ‘How sultan after sultan with his
pomp’, 1928; ‘Woman with book’, 1934.
We
ordered a reproduction of each of these beautiful early images for
the poetry competition presentation and the recent exhibition and can
now make these available to newsletter readers for a minimal £25.00
(plus £2.50 p&p in UK,
£7.50 outside UK).
If you'd like one of
them email me at fiona...@gmail.com with
your choice/s and I'll send
you a Paypal invoice or give you the address to send a cheque. There’s
only one reproduction of each image
so it is first come first served! See the images at http://fionaathannahfrank.blogspot.com/2010/11/these-are-seven-individually-reproduced.html
THE BALLAD OF
HANNAH FRANK
The Hidden Lane Gallery exhibition came to a close on 30 October but not without a lively poetry workshop run by poet Marc Sherland on the theme ‘Hannah Frank and the Scottish Border Ballads’.
One attendee was Katherine Beaumont, from Glasgow,
who is a member of The Word Factory, which Marc also runs. She said:
“The session was a wonderful taster into the art of ballad writing. Marc gave us a very thorough history and tradition of this vast subject matter. It was lovely to see Hannah Frank’s art in the gallery; this was my first encounter with her work.
The workshop was very inspiring and opened up a new window to two new genres of poetry and art.
I
was particularly inspired by her work ‘Dream’ from 1952 and plan to write a
ballad on this.”
Chris Ross from Strathaven, said: “I also did not know of Hannah Frank’s work until I attended the workshop but I shall certainly remember it now. I was inspired by the sculpture ‘Sleeping Head’ from 1958. My town, Strathaven, is a weaving town, so I wrote a ballad about a weaver, a girl. The Hidden Gallery exhibition was just lovely and I would have been happy to have spent double the time at the workshop.”
HANNAH FRANK DRAWINGS HELP CHARITY APPEALS
I was very happy to help out Caroline Wilson, who has written many articles for us in the Herald and Glasgow Evening Times, when she asked for a donation of a Hannah Frank drawing to be part of a fundraiser organised by the Glasgow Parsonage Choir last month. They raised £1700 for Panzi hospital in the Democratic Republic of Congo, which supports women and children affected by rape during military conflict. The very appropriate drawing of ‘Dream’ – showing two women entwined - was raffled as part of the fundraiser.
A framed copy of ‘Woman with Birds’ was auctioned in September by the Glasgow Women’s Library, which has recently relocated to the Mitchell Library in Glasgow City Centre. They were overwhelmed with the quality of food, drink and auction items that they were able to offer their guests and absolutely thrilled that these collectively raised over £8000 on the night. Glasgow Women’s Library receives no core funding for general running costs and relies on the generosity of donors, ‘Friends’ and other supporters to continue to offer life-changing services to women.
A Hannah Frank print was also auctioned on behalf of Breast Cancer Care Scotland at the Scottish Fashion Show 2010 in September. The event was a huge success overall and raised a fantastic £132,000 for Breast Cancer Care Scotland.
FLINDERS UNIVERSITY ACQUIRES ‘WOMAN WITH BOOK’
The original drawing of ‘Woman with Book’, 1928, has now gone to Flinders University, Adelaide, South Australia.
Emeritus Professor Vincent Megaw from the university’s Department of Archaeology, explained how the acquisition came about:
“My wife - a Glasgow graduate - and I hold honorary positions in the University of Glasgow Department of Archaeology. We have a flat in Glasgow and became aware of Hannah Frank’s work. We have a modest but quality collection of European works on paper of the period but certainly nothing Scottish. I personally was attracted to the work because of the obvious link with the work of earlier as well as contemporary black-and-white artists as well as the Jewish link (my mother came from a Dutch Jewish family). The work will be housed with our on-campus reserve collections.”
NORWICH DRAWINGS ACQUIRED BY TWO FANS
A rare opportunity to bid for original Hannah Frank works presented itself during the Hidden Gallery exhibition via a silent auction. Two drawings which had been in a private collection in Norwich for around 30 years and which were on show during the recent exhibition in Glasgow have gone to a couple from East Dunbartonshire, long-standing Hannah Frank fans who already own a Hannah Frank bronze sculpture. This was the first time that there had been an opportunity to bid on original Hannah Frank drawings since the 1970s and they were over the moon to have acquired the drawings.
SCOTTISH JEWISH ARCHIVES HELPED BY NEW VOLUNTEER ARCHIVIST
The Scottish Jewish Archives, which hosts the Hannah Frank and Lionel Levy Archive collection of certificates, letters, albums, and art books left by my aunt and uncle, has been very pleased to have the services of Cristin Sarg, who has just graduated from Glasgow University’s MSc in Information Management, and who is spending time for the next few months volunteering at the Archives cataloguing part of the collection. When the unique collection is catalogued it will be available for researchers to access and will be of interest to people looking at the history of art, women in Glasgow, the history of Glasgow Jewry, Glasgow intellectual life, and women artists. My late aunt never threw anything away and her letters and diaries date back to her early teens. The Scottish Jewish Archives Centre is open on Thursday and Friday mornings by appointment and has regular Sunday afternoon open days. More information from http://www.sjac.org.uk/ .
Please let me know if you’d like to come off this list.
Best wishes for Chanukah and Christmas
Fiona Frank
Niece of the late Hannah Frank