Eccles Community Art Gallery Presents Thirty Profiles and Close Knit

Photo: Eccles Community Art Gallery Presents Thirty Profiles and Close Knit

This October, we’re excited to announce that two of our special art projects created to celebrate our 30th birthday, will be exhibited at Eccles Community Art Gallery!

These pieces reflect the creativity and voices of our company members, and we can’t wait for more people to see them. Both Thirty Profiles and Close Knit were first showcased at our 30th Birthday celebration event at The Angel Centre on Friday 21st of June 2024 and everyone loved them! As it was an intimate gathering, not everyone was able to see the reveal of our projects, so we’re thrilled to partner with Eccles Community Art Gallery to showcase our work to a wider audience.

The exhibition will be open from Friday 11th of October, until Saturday 2nd of November. You can visit it on Fridays and Saturdays only, between 10am and 2pm. 

We’re also hosting an “Open Day” on Saturday 2nd of November, where you’ll have a chance to meet some of the DIY artists and hear more about these incredible projects. We’d love to see you there! 

Thirty Profiles 

Thirty Profiles is a photography exhibition created by photographer Audrey Albert, working closely with our DIY artists and leaders. Audrey took individual portraits of each DIY member, capturing their unique personalities and passions. You can see these portraits in person, alongside personal stories from the exhibition at Eccles Community Art Gallery.

All of our photography processes so far have been very DIY as well. We just come into the space and have the ideas, discuss with everyone, and then create something with what we have in the space. I feel that it’s been unconsciously and organically like that since we all started working together on photographs. So, I think it’s very ‘on brand’ that the process is very DIY for DIY.” – Audrey Albert

Close Knit 

Close Knit is a stunning textile piece designed by visual artist Claire Hignett, in collaboration with DIY artists and participants. Together, we printed self-portraits and our favourite DIY Theatre memories onto fabric. Claire then used these pieces to create a textile work that celebrates DIY’s history and who we are today. 

The centre of the artwork is split into five sections, each representing one of our shows: Following the Thread, Give me Space, Following Patient 36, and Hanging by a Thread, along with our creative activities during lockdown. A border of triangles, created by our Thursday visual arts group, forms a series of arrows that surround the piece. Small cubes stand on the mat, representing our members as part of a game that’s yet to be invented. 

Textiles are a great way to work with lots of different people, including those who are non-verbal. It’s a wonderful way to communicate.” – DIY Artist

We want people to see our creative work and how we use drama and textiles. Everyone with a learning disability has a voice!” – DIY Artist

 


Our Poem About Close Knit 

As part of our evaluation of the Close Knit project, some of our members wrote this poem about what the piece means to them: 

What do you think it’s got inside it?

It’s soft as a teddy

It’s smooth

It’s nice and comfortable

It’s very, very soft

You can lie on it

Go to sleep

It’s nice, you can sleep on it

Like a pillow

It’s got pictures on it

It’s a flag

I can see faces

I can see the pictures I’ve done

The keys and the placards

It’s nice and colourful

Two faces and a T-shirt with a flower on it

Anna did the T-shirt

I made the jellyfish and the teepee

I made a face

This is a triangle

It’s very creative

 


A Big Thank You! 

Many thanks to Eccles Community Art Gallery for supporting this project and giving us the chance to share our work with even more people. The gallery is located at Unit 4 Boothway, Eccles, Manchester, M30 0EB, and it has been a key part of the local arts scene for many years. The gallery first opened its doors in a long-term disused shop unit in Eccles town centre in November 2008. It started as a one woman project, but is now a fully constituted not-for-personal-profit Community Interest Group. The gallery does not receive any external funding and is staffed entirely by artists and volunteers, giving the public a superb opportunity to interact with the artists and for the artists to get direct feedback about their work. 

We also want to thank the funders who supported the creation of these artworks: 

  • Thirty Profiles was funded by the Whose Art Whose Culture Fund managed by Salford CVS on behalf of Salford City Council; monies from the UK’s governance shared prosperity fund via Greater Manchester Combined Authority. 

logo of National Lottery Heritage Fund logo strip; 'Greater Manchester, Doing Things Differently', 'Powered by Levelling Up', 'Salford City Council', 'Funded by UK Government', Salford CVS, Making a difference in Salford'.