Jan Bee Brown has been busy this autumn as Reader in Residence at Falkirk Libraries with The Scottish Book Trust. One of her transformative projects involved getting creative – Walking With Words down Falkirk’s famous Forth & Clyde canal. You can get a taste of this on iPlayer as Radio 4’s Ramblings joined Jan on one of her walks in their new series Walking with Artists.
Jan is also curator at The Thrive Archive, currently residing on the fifth floor. Working with the fabulous ladies from Link Up on the ground floor, Jan helped them to share some memorable meals and to produce some food inspired prints for their current exhibition as part of the Mental Health Week.
See more about current happenings on the blog and Facebook.
During Open Studios, visitors helped Jan to make carrot bunting for Lapin – our favourite French rabbit. Le Petit Monde Theatre will use it to decorate touring venues for a new show which previews in November at The Scottish Storytelling Centre.
In Gallery 3, Jan recently revealed the Giving Quilt made with the help of members of the awesome Edinburgh Quilt Collective here at St Margaret’s House. Visitors were invited to literally get into bed with The Thrive Archive and add a stitch, a wish or a button to the refugees on the bed quilt. The Thrive Archive’s bed is now in studio 5.19B and will feature in Thrive’s next pop-up exhibition, A Bit of Give & Take in Gallery 1 from Sat 9 – Sat 16 January 2016.
As the title suggests, our focus this year is to find out what it feels like to give and what it means to receive. The theme Hearth Heart Earth will continue and Thrive will be hosting an indoor winter picnic on January 9. Come have lunch with us – surrounded by inspirational art and stunning images from The Abandoned Project by Leith-based photographer Derek Anderson.
First come – first served, delicious picnic food will be on offer for 50 guests. Local suppliers will provide the lunch so all you need to provide is a rug. There will be live music to munch to and produce on sale from inspiring Scottish food entrepreneurs plus art activities to get your creative juices flowing. Engaging with the theme you will be simply be invited to give what you can at the end of the afternoon’s entertainment or you could help with the washing up.
On the final Saturday 16 January we are planning a petite dejeuner with Lapin for 50 younger guests – families are invited to come and make carrot bunting, have brunch, make music with food with an amazing Makey-Makey machine and then stay to see Le Petite Monde’s new show! Again it will be first come first served and tickets will be on sale for a pay what you can price.
We do need your help though and if you have time or produce to spare Jan would like to hear from you! Jan’s wish list to create a community event for The Thrive Archive is as follows:
- Volunteers to invigilate the exhibition and serve our guests 9 – 16 of January.
- A special person to volunteer a half a day a week in November and December to help organise, market and mount the pop up exhibition.
- Jams, home-made pickles and chutneys, or inedible art for raffle prizes
- A Video whizz to help edit a Kick Starter video
- Some sexy soup bowls to auction off
- Some awesome art activists for Saturday 9 and Saturday 16 January
- A poster
To help please contact Jan by email: jbeebrown@mac.com or call 07799852162