HEROES & VILLAINS AT JACK HOUSE GALLERY OCTOBER 2019

60  St Jude’s Primary School Year 4s came to Jack House Gallery in October over a 2 day period to take part in workshops lead by the artist Peter Lloyd as part of his ‘Heroes & Villains’ project which opened in September 2019. This was our first time at school workshops and the staff and kids of St Jude’s couldn’t have made it a better experience. Peter Lloyd discussed with the students why he made the work and asked them to talk and ask questions about what was going on in them. Themes like body positivity, bullying & sexism were covered. Like a growing number of schools in Portsmouth many St Jude’s celebrate Black History Month and the large collaborative images the children made went on to be shown in the school hall for all the pupils and parents to see.

Another first was the audience panel discussion that took place on a nasty October night with panel guests Don John of Southampton Black History Month, the artist himself Peter Lloyd and a well known face here at Jack House Gallery artist Amartey Golding. It was really good to welcome new faces to the gallery including Marie Costa and colleagues from the African Womens’ Forum who helped spread the word about the event which was free. The discussion used the work on show as a starting point with Peter Lloyd describing what prompted him to make the work and opened out to cover questions about what are the appropriate platforms and mediums to air subjects such as racism and how and who can and should do it. Nearly 2 hours of talk was wide ranging and open to the floor for points and questions.

The project ‘Heroes & Villains’ is ongoing and a new experience for Jack House Gallery. We would like to follow it’s progress and look forward to another show on the same themes in future. We were pleased to make new relationships which we have started to build on. The African Womens’ Forum were so helpful in finding us an audience as were Portsmouth University Student Union and their Equalities and Diversity Team for promoting the show along with local news organisation Star & Crescent. We also enjoyed the wonderful help of film students at Solent University who filmed and photographed the activities at the gallery.