Sunridge Avenue Projects
Sunridge Avenue Projects is a fantastic new Arts Council funded project happening in Luton. Dominic Allen has brought together a group of local and international Artists including Martin Creed, Jasleen Kaur, Mark Titchener and Bedwyr Williams.
In May I went to visit ‘At My Mum’s House’, and was shown around the exhibition by Dominic’s mother, who was fizzing about the show. I was struck by how blurred the boundaries between art and life, private and public were. The show had a humility to it which was refreshing, yet it remained a respectable collection of art curated in a real-life domestic setting.
The blurb on the website reads:
A newly commissioned Martin Creed sculpture will sit in the front garden of no. 32. It is un–steal–able. It is the name for this project because the gallery space in the town is used as a crèche and for business meetings. And they charge artists to use it. There's no art programme either. Sunridge Avenue is the name for this project because it shows that anyone can sit at their Mum's dining table and write an arts council application, ask loads of great people to join in and achieve both. It's the name for this project because we don't need a formal gallery space.
The philosophy behind the project echoes some of the frustrations I experience working as an artist in Luton. When I moved out of London in 2010 I wondered how I would survive as an artist in the suburbs. It isn’t easy, but projects like this invite great big glimmers of hope to the town. They show that another way of working and surviving is possible, that culture is needed more on Sunridge Avenue than it is on Cork Street and we have to work hard to make it happen.