Mid Pennine Arts 40th Anniversary

Exhibition Preview and Celebration
Mid Pennine Gallery, Yorke St, Burnley BB11 1HD
01282 421986
www.midpenninearts.org.uk


Friday 7th July 2006, from 5pm to 8pm
Exhibition continues to 12th August 06
Wed - Sat, 10am - 4pm
1966 was an auspicious year… The World Cup was won by England, Swinging London swung, Brian Wilson recorded Pet Sounds, and in Lancashire something cultural stirred. The intrepid Doris Chew and colleagues got together with a cluster of town councils to create a pioneering enterprise - The Mid Pennine Association for the Arts. It was unique then, and forty years later, it still is.
Mid Pennine Arts was formed in 1966 and its aim at that time was to deliver high quality performance and visual arts to East Lancashire. At that time major cities had the monopoly on all artistic endeavours but by bringing representatives from all of the towns across East Lancashire together to talk about the arts, Mid Pennine Arts was able to bring exciting and original artistes and artists to the area. With its ability to adapt to changing trends and new ideas, Mid Pennine Arts has remained at the forefront of arts in East Lancashire for 40 years and shows no signs of slowing down.
Mid Pennine Arts brought performances to smaller venues like Oswaldtwistle Civic Theatre, Colne Municipal Hall, Accrington Library, Towneley Hall, amongst many others in each town. Mid Pennine Arts still brings artistes to these towns and works with all 200 schools in East Lancashire providing educational workshops and projects for pupils and teachers alike. We’ve hosted the RSC and the National, exhibited Kokoschka and Sutherland, and established the touring company Theatremobile. Welfare State came to Burnley and moved on again, leaving behind the seed of the Burnley Youth Theatre. We promoted Worldbeat, Jazz at the Blue Note, Sound!, Camerata and Halle, countless exhibitions, shows and festivals.
In the 90s Mid Pennine began to work within wider socio-economic agendas. We’ve seen community literature, the Mughal Tent, the Five Wards Project, C2K, outdoor Melas and music festivals, Arts in the Forest, Panopticons and Land. And through it all, MPA has never failed to maintain a strong bridge between artists and education.
This exhibition gathers some of the artifacts from those four decades. It is a fascinating record, not just of one organisation, but of the cultural life of East Lancashire through a period of enormous change and creative energy. And while we look back and celebrate, we also want to look forward to a bright future, for Mid Pennine, for East Lancashire, and for the arts in our area.