Welcome to Orbart.com
Orb Art Studios can be found at The Comrades Club, Adelaide Street, Blackpool, just behind the Tower and Winter Gardens.
We are a collective of six artists, who at times work together to facilitate exhibitions but also work on our individual projects. The studios was established in 2003 by Nick Kowalski, course leader of the BA Honours Degree in Fine Art at the Blackpool and the Fylde College of Art and Design.
The studio is a large area with good natural light. Each artist has a given space in which to work while sharing a communal area for discussion and relaxation. The total area can be transformed into an open, white exhibition space, which readily lends itself for use as a gallery (see exhibition page).
Orb Art has participated in the Blackpool Vistas staging Post-ed in 2007, and Carnivalesque in 2008, two exhibitions which helped enrich Blackpool’s regeneration programme. In April 2009, we will host the 3rd Blackpool Vistas Symposium, which is partly funded by the Arts Council. Orb Art has always been committed to re-presenting Blackpool and to promoting its cultural assets. Blackpool is currently undergoing a process of changing its cultural identity: one which has always been easily recognisable - but somewhat typecast. We have contacts with The Lancashire Artists Network and have valued their shared commitment to our aims.
Our links with the community are strong. We appreciate the interaction, participation and support from members of The Comrades Club. Tiggers, a social club for children on the autistic spectrum, have benefited from practical input from the group. Students from the Blackpool and the Fylde College have been given the opportunity to work in an artists’ studio and groups from the college have visited as part of their course. We have provided a workshop experience for children, within the immediate locality, from St John’s Cof E Primary school. More recently, we have reached further a field. Pupils from St Teresa’s Primary School in Cleveleys, have been invited to work in current projects.
Our work at Orb Art Studios is both diverse and contemporary. We regularly visit current exhibitions and galleries both in this country and abroad. Although we have a contemporary outlook, we also value established ideas and practises. We endeavour to involve a cross-section of the community and to provided widening participation in art.
As a group, we do not have a manifesto but do exchange ideas and seek advice in order to generate a ‘ad hoc’ pool of experience based on knowledge.
We are indebted to members of the Comrades Club for their support and for allowing us the use of their facilities.