Home is…?

This year The Albert Kennedy Trust launches a LGBTQ project called ‘Home is…?’ Working in partnership Manchester Pride Fringe Events Festival and The Arts Council, The Albert Kennedy Trust is keen to explore the issues surrounding youth homelessness in our own community and the impact it has on the lives of LGBTQ people.

As we move into the 21st Century our own perceptions of Home is continually changing and constantly evolving. The LGBTQ youth of today face a huge challenge, not only with their sexual identity but with living and growing in a safe and secure environment.

As lead artist Niall Mills will be working with collaborators as diverse as Gerry Potter, David Hoyle and Paul Jones to create a youth orientated response to the interpretation of Home in our community. The artists will endeavour to ask the LGBTQ youth frank, open and honest questions about the concept of Home to create a genuine and sincere response. Working in harmony with The Albert Kennedy Trust focussing on specific projects including Mail Art, a Low Tech/No Tech art installation and a collection of Home movies, this body of work will be showcased at Manchester Art Gallery for The Pride Fringe Events Festival in August 2011. (www.manchesterpride.com).

Our perceptions are varied, individual to everyone and not one person’s story will be the same.

Artist Introduction

Niall Mills – Art For All: A Sense of Space

Niall has a BA in interior architecture and MA in spatial design from Manchester Metropolitan University. His artistic focus is on a sense of place and sexual identity within urban landscapes, questioning the psycho-geography of the urban landscape. He has delivered workshops and learning projects with young people for REAP (Rural Education Art Project) in Derbyshire and has a keen interest in developing his participatory practice, using his own experience of dyslexia to create empathetic experiences with young people facing their own challenges. http://homeis.posterous.com/

Gerry Perry – Tell Me What You Know: Written and Spoken Word

Gerry works with written and spoken word, a performer and artisan. He has a long and well established career. Gerry’s new direction has moved on from the alter ego that was Chloe Poems, to bare a more raw more reflective view. http://www.facebook.com/home.php#!/profile.php?id=631166292

David Hoyle – A Different Way of Looking: Painting and Drawing

David is an artist/human being who has dedicated his life to art and expression since time immemorial. David has endured an international career that has taken him around the globe. Recently he has been proudly associated with the Victoria Theatre Production Company (now Campo), based in Ghent, Belgium, in a group devised piece entitled 'For all the Wrong Reasons' which took him to Belgium, Holland, France and Singapore and also Newcastle. http://www.davidhoyle.info/

Paul Jones – Snap Shot in Time: Life Through A Lens.

Renowned Village photographer, Paul Jones’s work captures an authentic and unique picture of everyday life. His recent work has moved away from automatically captured images returning to how cameras were once used. This move has proved highly successful and is a positive stepping stone in the direct of artistic digital imagery.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/paul_jones/