Hannah Frank Art News June 2011 - volunteer for Harrogate wanted, new cards, etc
Fiona Frank
HANNAH
FRANK NEWS JUNE 2011
Branching out to Trade Fairs and New Cards on the go!
After eight years of exhibitions, and selling cards and prints on a small scale at the exhibitions, and off the website, I've decided to go full-pelt and try to get into the wholesale card market. This links with being made redundant from Lancaster Uni last July, nearly finishing my phd (it will be off my desk by next month!), vaguely applying for post-doc research jobs and education consultancy work, but being much more interested in the art project than anything else, and also really, really wanting to keep pushing my aunt's art into the public eye.
So I have invested Rather A Lot of Money on stalls at trade fairs in Harrogate and Glasgow and also, I'll be producing a set of around 25 cards for this occasion instead of the six that have been available for the last year. (The list is at the bottom of this newsletter. They're not on the website yet, but I can make any of these cards available to newsletter readers at the reduced price of £2.00 instead of the usual £2.75 each, for orders of 6 cards or more - I won't be able to get them to you till July, but I won't invoice you till they're ready to send).
I have a lovely volunteer who has come forward from last month's newsletter to help me at the Glasgow SECC trade fair. Thank you Tim Street... Tim has been a fan of Hannah Frank's work since seeing, instantly falling for, and taking home, a print of 'Night Forms' from a Glasgow art shop back in 1998. He lives in Troon and works as a trainer, coach and consultant. I now need a fan to help me out on the last day at Harrogate in July. I have friends coming to help for the first three of the four days - including Celia Briar, who will be playing her harp at the stall on Tuesday 19th, and Wendy Moore, who was involved in setting up the first really big Hannah Frank exhibition in Lancaster in 2003. But I now need a volunteer for the fourth day on the stall, Wednesday 20th July, as my daughter's just got a temporary job which means she can't make it that day. The 'job' would involve keeping me company, helping me field enquiries from trade people, be there while I go to the loo and get us food, and helping me take down the stall including taking pix off the walls, etc, loading up the van, etc. I would cover your expenses and if you'd like a Hannah Frank print or two that could be arranged! (I may be able to arrange accommodation too, on the Tues and Weds nights).
Things you might get out of it:
You might be interested in trade fairs - http://www.homeandgift.co.uk/
You might be interested in seeing how other artists commercialise their stuff (there'll be time to wander around)
You might be thinking of branching into trade fairs yourself but don't want to pay for the first visit (very sensible, I am beginning to wish I'd visited one before I paid for a stall!)
You might have that day free and fancy spending a day with me helping me to think about the next steps in the Hannah Frank art project
You might have an auntie in Harrogate that you wanted an excuse to visit
You might feel altruistic and like helping me in this mad adventure!
So let me know if this appeals.
There is free entry to the Harrogate Home and Gift Fair for trade visitors - register now at www.homeandgift.co.uk and quote EXHB when prompted.
In other news....
HANNAH FRANK POETRY BOOK EDITING UNDER WAY
The editorial team plans to complete the first edit of selections for the Hannah Frank poetry book, which will feature a large selection of poems entered into the Hannah Frank Poetry Competition which we ran in 2010, by the end of June.
As well as the wonderful Elsbeth Campbell and Stuart Harris-Logan (and Kate Tough, who's taking a back seat for the moment), we have a new member on the team – Katie Bates, who works for Environmental Scientists in Glasgow. She writes "My husband publishes poetry pamphlets and he has recently published a collection by an Edinburgh poet. I helped in a very minor way, enjoyed it so when I saw the call for help with the anthology I got in touch.” Katie met Hannah at an exhibition in Glasgow some years ago. She said "I have for many years admired her art and I enjoy the prints of hers I have at home.”
POSTGRADUATE STUDENT TO EXPLORE HANNAH FRANK ARCHIVING WORK
Last week I was interviewed by Dawn Sinclair, a student at Glasgow University. Dawn is doing her postgraduate degree in Information Management and Preservation and undertaking her dissertation on how archives take shape. She was talking to me about the Hannah Frank and Lionel Levy Archive, which is now based at the Scottish Jewish Archives Centre. She got me to think about "the motivations which push us [and Auntie Hannah] to want to keep material for ourselves but also, in a more societal sense, and the idea of collective memory”. It made me think about the fact that my aunt, a modest figure, still probably saw herself as a potentially significant person on the world stage - and that my role as her 'champion' was significant too. She had left her albums and cuttings books to the Scottish Jewish Archives in her will, but had made no provision for her personal letters, certificates, and other papers - a priceless collection dating back to the 1920s, and which is now safely archived. The work of the (volunteer) Director and Committee of the Scottish Jewish Archives Centre, founded 25 years ago, has also played a major role - committee members have put in many unpaid hours of fundraising, research work, and archiving, to ensure that the collection is available to researchers for many years to come. And finally, the fact that Westacres Care Home had room for these papers to be stored in her final years, and Matt Rodgers and Angela Ryan, the Manager and Housekeeper, personally moved all the papers, prints and sculptures to the home when my aunt and uncle moved there in 2001, was very significant and a fantastic contribution. I look forward to reading Dawn’s conclusions.
Brian Stewart
I was sorry to hear recently that Brian Stewart of the fantastic Falmouth Art Gallery died suddenly at the end of last year. He included Hannah's work in lots of exhibitions, he gave the personal touch and wrote a brilliant review for the book, Hannah Frank – A Glasgow Artist, Drawings and Sculpture, in Kent on Sunday in 2004. We had family and friends in Falmouth who helped us to link to Brian and his gallery, and it's very sad to hear that such a young, vibrant, and modest but erudite man is lost to us. http://www.falmouthpacket.co.uk/news/fpfalmouth/8734503.Falmouth_Art_Gallery_curator_Brian_Stewart_dies/
CARDS NOW AVAILABLE: (only six of these are available from the website currently). Order by emailing your requirements before the end of June for delivery by mid-July – cards are £2.75 each, 6 or more for £2.00 per card, postage flat rate £2.50. I will invoice when the cards are ready for dispatch. The order just needs to be an email with your address and requirements.
You can see all these images on the Gallery on the Hannah Frank website http://hannahfrank.org.uk/pages/gallery/prints/index.htm
Dance, Flight, Woman and Trees, Two Heads, Dream, Night, Night Forms, Now When Job's Three Friends, Wrap Thy Form in a Mantle Grey, Moon Ballet, Garden, Spring Frieze, Come Lovely and Soothing Death, In Thoughts from the Visions of the Night, Girl at Window (1952), Job, Woman with Birds, Sun, The Mocking Fairy, Red Flowers, Sorcery, Sea Story, Two Figures (1942), Daydream, Adam and Eve (1932), The Young Swineherd (1928), I sought him but I found him not (1935).
OR: ask me to email you a leaflet with images of each of these cards.
best
wishes
Fiona Frank
niece
of the late Hannah Frank
(please let me know if you'd like to come off this list)
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