UHC Newsletter

June 2008

The Water Table

Our third bespoke table is now tantalizingly close to completion! The Water Table is another solid oak piece, built in-house in our newly equipped carpentry workshop for clients 'Metal'. The project maps London's underground rivers and the Victorian engineers who built our railways and sewers onto the veins of a cabbage leaf, all hand-painted in Indian ink. The table will go on show at this year's Hampton Court Flower Show next month, in the Southend on Sea Borough Council low-water garden.

Camp for Climate Action

Once again UHC has produced the publicity for the annual Climate Camp. If you've been out and about (or visited the re-designed website) no doubt you'll have encountered the 'Be Prepared' Swiss Army Knife motif. Look out too for the free newspaper and "F-off E-on" badges. See you all at Kingsnorth between 3 - 11 August.

Artist In Residence Exhibition

For the past three months we have played host to French-Korean artist Jiyoun Lee. She has been exploring her practice and pioneering the use of Hotspur House's fourth floor during this period. Jiyoun's work will be exhibited in the space for two days from 1st to 2nd July, with a private view on Monday 30th from 6-8pm. Some of her work can also be seen on openmanchester.org.uk.

In the future we are looking to invite two artists a year to work with us. We are currently fundraising for the pilot residency in 2009.

Summer Holidays - Design Studio Closure

This year everyone at UHC is taking a well deserved break in July. It'll be the first time in six years we've closed for a holiday (phew!). You can still contact us in all the usual ways while we're away and messages will reach our design team, but we won't be scheduling any new work until mid August.
Call Sara on 0161 238 8523 if you have any queries.

Public of Sorts

In February 2007, UHC embarked on a 12-month research project into the art audience for contemporary radical art in Manchester (funded by Arts Council England). During this time, we sought to engage with the existing art audiences in Manchester, as well as encourage a dialogue between us and non-art -going audiences. The research also resulted in several provocative art interventions in 'public' spaces.

The outcome of all this is 'A Public of Sorts', a hand-made, limited edition book, written and designed by UHC (and produced by artist Lucy May Schofield). The 57-page, illustrated report draws together our findings based on interviews, public surveys, consultation sessions and seminars (with artists, art professionals and community workers), documents the art intervention activity and explores questions relating to art, the city and the concepts of 'public'.

Read the pdf version here.

Caroline Lucas

We are delighted to announce the launch of Green Party MEP Caroline Lucas's new website. Designed and built by UHC you can check it out at www.carolinelucasmep.org.uk. Caroline has got to be one of the hardest working UK politicians and her list of achievements, especially on key environmental issues in Europe is something we are proud to be associated with. Go Caroline!