exhibitions – Make Yeovil Creative

Yeovil Art Space (YAS) invites creative practitioners/artists (individuals or groups) to submit an Expression of Interest to work with our Art Action Group (AAG) and our team members to create new public artwork. The work should engage with Yeovil’s communities and be located in or focused on the town centre. This commission forms part of OUR TOWN, a year-long creative placemaking project supported by Somerset Council and Yeovil Town Council, funded by Arts Council England, aiming to shape the future cultural landscape of Yeovil Town Centre.

We are seeking Expressions of Interest from creative practitioners/artists (individuals or groups) who wish to work with us to create new artwork exploring the following themes which has identified by the Art Action Group.

Connectivity & Movement – exploring how people navigate, inhabit, and interact with Yeovil Town Centre, including those from a diverse range of abilities, ages and backgrounds.

Hidden Voices & Stories – uncovering lesser-known narratives and lived experiences from the past to the present and re-imagining the future, including those living here for generations, newcomers and those connected with it.

Greening & Environment – addressing sustainability, nature, and ecological interventions in public space, including connecting wider geographical areas and resources.

Celebration & Activation – considering ways to animate and transform the town centre through creative interventions, including redefining the function and character of public spaces

The commissioned practitioner(s) will be responsible for developing ideas, methodologies, and approaches that engage with Yeovil’s community and lead to a tangible outcome. We expect the commissioned practitioners(s) to spend time engaging with Yeovil’s community or a specific community group in Yeovil. We will encourage the commission to utilise the development opportunities that link with the town centre regeneration, and the established connection with community and existing resources from Yeovil Art Space. This outcome can take various forms, in different public spaces, such as empty shops and community spaces, including but not limited to:

A material artwork (e.g., installation, sculpture, or mural)
An immersive experience (e.g., projection mapping, sound-based work, music based project, digital intervention)
A participatory event (e.g., performance, procession, or interactive experience)

We are eager to work with practitioners(s) who are experienced in co-creation, taking an action-research approach to this commission and hope the resulting artwork will inform a future larger public realm art project, with findings contributing to future funding applications and the long-term artistic strategy for Yeovil Town Centre. The commissioned practitioner(s) will be expected to take part in an evaluation process and work with the Art Action Group on measurable outcomes.

Commission budget: £10,000 (including artist fee and production budget)
Submission Details: Please download the full brief HERE.
Submission Deadline: Friday 23rd May, 5pm

30 April – 7 June / Exhibition Opening Event: Thursday 1 May 5-7pm

Celebrating the arrival of spring after a long winter, Yeovil Art Space is delighted to present a solo exhibition of new work by dorset-based artist Andy Rollo.

‘Our Time on Earth’ features a collection of paintings and an installation of a large-scale drawing as well as mixed media collages, photographs and animation which the artist has worked on in collaboration with his family members. The exhibition aims to show that there is soul and beauty everywhere you look and to encourage you to stop and look harder.

Over the last four years, artist Andy Rollo has immersed himself in the landscape and woodland of Dorset near his home. He has created a new body of work on what he considered to be unassuming, almost incidental subjects; the complexity of moss clad trees, the quality of light falling on the woodland floor and abstract shapes and forms.

The paintings on show juxtapose dabs and dashes, palette knife marks, washes and impasto together with a mix of oils, acrylic and spray paint. They depict the striking landscape of the local area which has become a place of sanctuary in recent years for the artist.

‘You see how the transformational quality of light has enabled areas of woodland to take on an almost cathedral-like quality, awe inspiring and magnificent with their juxtaposition of grandeur and the spiritual. They are intentionally uncomposed, in an attempt to give the spectator the feeling of an incidental view, echoing the way you observe nature when surrounded by it.

It symbolises strength and protection, steadfastness and long life. The tree withstands whatever nature throws at it, and we have had to do the same, whilst continually being reminded of our own mortality and the passing of time.’

About the artist

Andy Rollo is an artist and Lecturer in Fine Art and Visual Culture who has lived in North Dorset for the past 15 years. He has work in private collections in Europe, Australia and the United States and has had his work exhibited in London, Paris and Barcelona over a thirty-year career. His creative practice has always been in response to his immediate surroundings and explores the concept of time, memory, cycles, connections and patterns in nature. The work also explores the thin line between abstraction and figuration, most obviously observed on the surface of each painting with its juxtaposition of differing mediums, descriptive marks and intuitive gestures. https://www.andyrollo.com