Agora Session 2

SECOND SESSION February 2026

AGORA has now moved on, to the Phoenix Art Space in Brighton.. the same format, but a large white wall gallery, very different feel. but lovely to recognise everyone from the first session

We were asked to bring 1 large piece or up to 6 small, to display in the gallery , and friday morning was spent with the team trying to fit us all in.

The tutors involved with this session and who gave the crits, tutorials and general discourse, apart from the lead tutors are

Kate Reeves Edwards @cuturalcapitalarts

Neil Pavey @neilpavey

Veronica Slater @slater.veronica

Jacques Nimki @jacquesnimki

Lucianna Whittle @luciannawhittle

Paulina Zorge @an_zorge.studio @theadelaidesalon

First evening a public event, ticketed but free.. there were three lectures/conversations led by Jesse, with the visiting audience

The artists in conversation were

Lucy Day, director of the Phoenix @lucydayherethere

David Shrigley @davidshrigley

Veronica Slater @slater.veronica

The conversations on friday evening led by Jesse Leroy Smith were, as always, excellent …it was full house and a livey audience as always… I particularly related to Veronica’s conversation , and sorry not to have had a one to one tutorial with her..

ARTISTS STATEMENT The beginning session for me focussed on my artists statement… talking to Kate Reeves Edwards.. it was a really useful session , with Kate asking relevant questions for me to answer… she wrote copious notes, although to date, I haven’t had any feedback

The GROUP CRIT with Jesse gave me several pointers .. simple ideas that i hadnt thought of myself! general feeling is that the transparent pieces were more successful than the fabric pieces made from the domesic cloths

The transparency work is trying to show my ancestors who are no longer with us, so an intengible set of drawings… the black line drawings are probably too obvious… if I want lost faces they should be lost! so why not try white drawings on white fabric?

Jesse looked at the back of my fabric pieces.. this gave a much more abstract result, so i might investigate this… it is so valuable for opinions of non textile artists , a fresh look , I think we textile people just keep doing what is ‘normal’ without enquiring enough .. these crits help enormously

ONE TO ONE TUTORIAL with Jacques Nimki.. another view of my work, let’s see these large! he pointed out that some elements of this body of work is very important to me but maybe not to the audience… the fact they are drawings of unknown people from my past is probably irrelevant to the viewer even thoughit is paramount to me … so try and see through the eyes of independent audience.. if the text is not really meant to be read, and is there as pattern, play with scale.. maybe handwrite a phrase huge! make a low tonal variation for the absence…

THINK TANK with Neil Pavey.. I am afraid I still dont quite get this part of the sessions.. it is supposed to be a discussion of what happens after this year, but, I have no idea where my work is going to go.. I am busy developing my current ideas, and dont have a clue what is going to happen next… i guess I will go down the exhibiting route while I am still teaching, and then I definitely want to do some residencies, and I have been given lots of advice on achieving these