A Brief History...
the midland group of artists was started by evelyn gibbs and others in 1943 - occupied various premises in the centre of nottingham then settled at east circus street opposite the playhouse in 1961 - sylvia cooper was director in the seventies when i started there part-time around 1975... the cellar was full of a jumble of old catalogues and paintings - the gallery was on the ground floor... staff around at that time (not all at the same time) - in rough chronological order - were sylvia cooper, libbie fawbert, katie laws, jeni licastro, jill day, gill clarke, annette widdowson, halina stochaj, nigel earthy, david bryers, dorothy fields, pat reeder, robert sheldon, malcolm macyntyre-reid, terry morden, lynda morris and vinny cleary... exhibitions/performance - ian breakwell, strider, john bull puncure repair kit, john blakemore, paul hill, raymond moore, john charity, michael horowitz, thomas joshua cooper and many more... fuller list at the nottingham archive and the tate... sylvia was fundraising to move to new premises in the lace market area of nottingham - an old haberdashery store at the front (carlton street) - large lace warehouse floors at the rear (warser gate)... the move happened in 1977 - office furniture - the archive - all the paintings from the east circus cellar including some john piper - the opening exhibition was ‘my life as a pitman’ by oliver kilbourn - an ashington miner... the carlton street front was just a row of wooden hoardings - this wouldn’t be developed until the 80s - entrance to the only functioning gallery was via warser gate - a second floor gallery was opened in ‘78 - a performance/theatre space opened on the third floor in ‘80 - film workshops occupied the 4th floor - separately run by frank abbot, tony bloor, geoff baggott, mick eaton and others... sylvia left - robert sheldon (deputy director) became acting director - he also managed the performance programme and started to get the new cinema on the go - anthony everett was appointed as director - the organisation was known as the midland group arts centre or midland group art and community centre by this time... anthony went off to head the arts council - fred brookes became director... over the next few years further areas were developed and opened to the public - these included the new cinema - 80 seater - in the basement on the warser gate side but on the ground floor when approached from carlton street... |
julian marsh designed the new carlton street facade and bar, accessible from carlton street - the ground floor gallery, shop and video viewing booth (betamax) also opened - all floors and areas were now operational - the arts centre was now set fair for a glorious future but that was too far away...
staffing at carlton street - not necessarily at the same time... directors - sylvia cooper, robert sheldon (acting), anthony everett, fred brookes... exhibition organisers - linda morris, jackie ford, richard stokes, terry morden, madeline holmes, laura hollins... film officers - steve neale, marion doyen... performance officers - jeremy peyton-jones, steve rogers, nikki milligan... publicity officers - jean holmes, gill bates... education officer - carol jones... shop manager - carole macdonald hardie... exhibitions staff - vinny cleary, ian rodgers, tim boynton... box office and shop - maggie aaser, marjorie todd... projectionists/performance technicians - dave pitt, terry... (now at broadway), simon richardson... administrators - margaret munyard, pat reeder, mark jepson, millie mills, liz gurney, crispy (chris de marigny), paul wombwell... And many others sarah tutt, paul hough, maxine, verne… i have missed out a few people - if you can fill in the gaps or have info, reminiscences, anecdotes, comments or pics then contact me... some of those people are in the picture opposite... the arts centre thrived through the early eighties until fred brookes left - the new director and his sidekick very quickly were in conflict with the existing staff and made the unionised staff redundant... the staff lobbied the management committee and had the decision reversed - staff were re-instated and the director got the heave but was re-appointed in a caretaker role - the centre folded a year later in 1987/88... exhibitions... oliver kilbourn (ashington miner) 1977... david hockney 1979... paul waplington... robert mapplethorpe... gisha koenig... badge exhibition... john newling... fuller list at the nottingham archive and the tate... the nottingham contemporary opened november 2009 with another hockney exhibition... ! sylvia died in 2014. ________________________________ |