Power of Place: January 2011

Tuesday 25 January 2011

Roger Birchall

Dartington 1973 - 1984

'Moving to the North East has surprised me by its combination of natural grandeur and a post-industrial landscape that has stimulated my increasing desire to “just paint”. The steep sided dales, the miles of stonewalls, the light and the man-made geography are very exciting and to my delight I am starting to get things finished.

It occurs to me that over thirty-five years late I am completing some of the opportunities that were put in front of me at art school.'

Image copyright Roger Birchall

Sunday 23 January 2011

Paul Binder Elmhirst

Paul spent his working life as a solicitor in Yorkshire and took up sculpture in retirement!

Image copyright Paul Binder Elmhirst

Thursday 20 January 2011

Anna Raven

'My painting is about a synthesis of the experience of the land in which we live with the inner landscape of the self. I am committed to finding a visual equivalent for our internal landscape as seen and experienced in our external world. Having finally achieved the ambition of living on the West Coast of Scotland I have now embarked on a process of submission. I want the place to work on me so that I can find a voice to represent what it has to say. '

Image copyright Anna Raven

Tuesday 18 January 2011

Briony Eastman

Religious Buildings linocut

Bee on honeycomb necklace

Based in London Briony is another artist from Dartington who is talented in more than one field.

Image copyright Briony Eastman

Monday 17 January 2011

Harry White

Measuring jugs.

Image copyright Harry White

Saturday 15 January 2011

Simon Tozer

'A predominant theme in my work is the idea of the journey or quest. There is a lot of anthropomorphism – animals and objects stand in for people and visa-versa. I am interested in storytelling and metaphor;the act of drawing is a kind of search,and sometimes during this process a narrative is found.'

http://www.snapstudio.org.uk/hello/artists/simon-tozer

Simon is a member of Snap an artists' cooperative in Bristol

Snap, 20-21 Lower Park Row, Bristol, BS1 5BN

Image copyright Simon Tozer

Friday 14 January 2011

Liz Elmhirst

Etching of the Dartington Hall Gardens

http://www.lizelmhirst.co.uk/

Image copyright Liz Elmhirst

Thursday 13 January 2011

Grizel Luttman-Johnson

Handmade books

'There are lots of different processes involved in making books – marbling the papers is the most thrilling part. I am currently obsessed by blobs, especially recurring cellular forms. I work in my shed dripping inks and enamels into trays of water. I always experiment. Individual colours have different behaviours, some are very active and antagonistic, others too passive. I generally make a print when the colours are still in motion. I wash surplus ink off with a watering can filled from the water butt.You have to be quick. I often work in a frenzy and tend to end up green.'

David Highet

Etching

David is also an architect practising in Axminster, Devon

Image copyright David Highet

Wednesday 12 January 2011

Ann Lovick

Mythical Beasts tapestry

Tuesday 11 January 2011

Nicky Scott

Clay bird

Monday 10 January 2011

Liz Elmhirst

Tuscan landscape, Watercolour

Image copyright Liz Elmhirst

Saturday 8 January 2011

Sarah Whittington

African scene, Watercolour

Sarah also has a lovely B&B in Totnes so if you're in need of a bed at the reunion in September.....

http://www.dartvillasbb.co.uk/

Ben Rowlandson

Ben is one of the few photographers around who still uses film.

About us

Power of Place

The Power of Place project, led by artist and ex-Dartingtonian Alice Leach, was set up in 2010 to celebrate the cultural legacy of Dartington Hall School 1926 – 1987.

Part of a unique social experiment, Dartington Hall School was in the vanguard of progressive co-education. Founded by Leonard and Dorothy Elmhirst, the school was central to the Dartington Venture – widely regarded by Victor Bonham-Carter as ‘the most important private enterprise ever undertaken in the economic, social and cultural rehabilitation of a rural area’.

Dorothy was the guiding spirit behind the school, having played a leading part in progressive education in America, but Leonard’s unhappy memories of his education at Repton School and his experience working for Rabindranath Tagore in his ‘community’ in W. Bengal, helped cement their joint vision.

The original concept was a school without buildings, where the estate and surrounding countryside were to be looked on as the ‘classrooms’. ‘I want the thing to grow quite naturally out of our own home life and never to mention the word school from the start,’ wrote Leonard. It was to be a school that was ‘prepared to break with a number of outdated, but often unquestioned, traditions from the past.’ All the full-time workers on the Estate were regarded as members of staff, and expected to contribute to the ‘joint adventure’ in learning. Instead of a headmaster there was an education committee.

This initial experiment, between 1926 and 1930, represents one of the most radical attempts of the 20^th Century to break down the boundaries between learning and life. As numbers increased both within the school and on the Estate it was clear that this approach had to change.

W. B. Curry, the first ‘Director of Education’, appointed in 1930, was convinced that progressive education would usher in a ‘Brave New World’, producing saner humans capable of solving political problems without war. Writing in 1934, in his book, The School he explained, ‘A modern school is one which recognizes that the social order must be radically changed if civilization is to survive at all, and which also recognizes that education will have perhaps the most difficult and the most important part to play in the changes which must come about.’

Among the 20th century’s leading private patrons of architecture, the arts and education in England, Dorothy and Leonard saw the arts as integral to their vision and wanted artists to contribute to the education of children at the School. Dorothy was particularly passionate about them, arguing ‘if at Dartington we aim to provide a full and balanced life, then it is essential to include the arts.’ Not surprisingly the School became a Mecca for imaginative parents including Jacob Epstein, Barbara Hepworth and Ben Nicholson, Aldous Huxley, Sir Clough Williams-Ellis and Bertrand Russell.

In the thirties, Dartington became a vibrant, virtually international artistic centre with many cultural refugees fleeing Nazi persecution. Hein Heckroth, designer to the Ballet Jooss, who trained at the Bauhaus, but was blacklisted by the Nazis because his wife was Jewish, Cecil Collins, the painter, and Willi Soukop, the Austrian sculptor, were all resident at the Hall. Naum Slutzky, who also trained at the Bauhaus, taught metalwork to a youthful Lucian Freud. Bernard Leach and his son David taught pottery and the American Abstract Expressionist Mark Tobey was the school’s resident artist.

Other departments were equally international. Kurt Jooss and Sigurd Leeder brought their dance school from Essen to escape the rising tide of Nazism. Michael Chekhov, a Russian refugee, was invited to set up a Theatre Studio and Hans Oppenheim, assistant conductor at Glyndebourne, was asked to initiate some opera. ‘By any standards it was an extra-ordinary set-up – the first highly professional arts centre of its kind in England. Sadly the outbreak of war brought it to an end…’