It was my intention to go to Margate today to take some pictures of the fencing that has appeared round Arlington House Margate I am sorry to have to admit failure here and I can only blame Elvis Presley.We started out by going to Westgate I was trying to find a new back pack and one or two other bits, but instead wound up buying books.
We then went on to park on Margate Harbour Arm and succumbed to coffee and chocolate cake at BeBeached at just over a fiver each this isn’t cheap but with the view the excellent WiFi connection coffee, cake and cream it has become a must before facing Margate.
While we were eating this a large plume of black smoke appeared beside Arlington House, I wasn’t sure if this was a normal occurrence but took pictures of it anyway.
Having been set up by the coffee I set out for the High Street where I bought the Elvis Videos above, the problem from then on were that they were extremely heavy and I wanted the loo. I remembered one was in the old market, but when I got there could only find the sign. I did discover a comic shop there though, something that people are always looking asking for in the bookshop, so it will be useful to have somewhere to send them.
Anyway after struggling back to the harbour arm, where the loo was open I went to look at the exhibition in The Droit House. The clock on the Droit House was completely wrong, something that never bodes well for me. After this I took a few more pictures, here is the link to the first lot of pictures http://www.michaelsbookshop.com/julylaptop3/id2.htm
I am afraid that the art exhibition, like the previous ones there now leaves me with completely the wrong feelings, well you can see the pictures, the problem is not so much about is it good, bad or even is it art, but much more that this is what public money is being spent on to rejuvenate Margate.
Anyway after this and the associated thoughts I forgot all about Arlington House car park and went off to St Peters graveyard for some sort of different visual stimulation, sorry some of the pictures of this are a bit wonky I was eating a Co Op Sandwich while it took most of them, see http://www.michaelsbookshop.com/julylaptop3/id4.htm
As you show Michael. My ward is one of the best in Thanet. Thanks for that
ReplyDeleteKen I will try and do St Peters properly when I get more time, most especially the village itself, it is my intention to do the main Thanet centres fairly systematically for historic record.
ReplyDeleteI am pretty sure I did St Peters churchyard before and published the pictures online, but I can’t find them in the maze of web pages that I have put up over the years.
Michael,the exhibition on at Droit House is by local people who meet up(and have made new friends)They are not professional artists but ordinary people who have had the chance to have a go at working in a team and expressing themselves through art.I know one of the people who is part of the group and they said they never thought they would get this great opportunity.I found their work fasinating,andsome of the comments they made about their work was very poetic.So easy to critise..
ReplyDelete12.23 I thought I had deliberately avoided any criticism of the exhibition, I agree that this is very worthwhile and is appropriate work to be undertaken by art clubs, schools and colleges, suitable display venues for this are local halls and churches see http://thanetonline.blogspot.com/2010/07/art-exhibition-in-st-georges-church.html as an example of what can be achieved without any public funding.
ReplyDeleteWhere this all falls apart is where expensively public funded staff are running this exhibition in the centre of Margate’s tourist leisure area in a purpose built publicly funded gallery, worst of all though these exhibitions are being promoted as though they are attracting tourism.
The furthest this lunacy has gone so far is the silly walk event, held during term time and on a weekday when families couldn’t attend it, with numbers made up by the forced attendance of local art students.
And yes you are going to say something nice about this if it adds to your course marks or justifies your teaching grant, perhaps not nice – poetic – I don’t know. Deep and meaningless is a phrase that springs to mind.
Peter I think perhaps I should have made myself a bit more clear here, I do sometimes play Elvis, I have quite a few things on records and have watched the odd movie, but am not really a dedicated fan. The whole batch of videos cost £6.50 and I bought them for my children to watch.
ReplyDeleteThis is more to do with having a tolerable sound track in the background when they are watching TV than anything that could be beneficial to them.
Droit House is open and staffed as an information centre for the new gallery anyway,so why not have exhibitions as well?
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