Local arts for wellbeing charity, Independent Arts, has announced announce its forthcoming Looking Out From Lockdown tour, taking place at various venues across the Isle of Wight this summer.
Looking Out From Lockdown is an Island-wide project celebrating the creativity of Island people during lockdown, both in 2020, and again in 2021.
In collaboration with Lord-Lieutenant of the Isle of Wight, Susie Sheldon, Independent Arts offered people the chance to exhibit their lockdown creations online, be it painting, photographs, poetry, music, speech, pottery, writing, crafts, projects, inventions, baking, gardening or anything else creative completed to keep spirits up during lockdown.
Pieces from this online gallery, which can be found here, have now been selected to feature in a series of summer exhibitions which will take place in Ryde, Ventnor, Cowes, Freshwater and
Newport from July through to September, giving as many people as possible the chance to visit and see the work created by a cross section of Islanders during the pandemic. Work was submitted from all corners of the Isle of Wight, from those aged 7 – 77, and includes landscape paintings, sketches, sculptures, photography, as well as flower arrangements and baking!
Independent Arts CEO, Lisa Gagliani MBE:
“As a charity committed to supporting people who are isolated across the Island, we felt during Lockdown that was time to get everyone on side with arts for wellbeing. The online gallery proved really popular and now that we can all venture out, we are delighted to pull the Tour together and bring much needed footfall to some of our cherished cafes and other venues.”
As well as free to view weeklong exhibitions, there is also a ticketed event taking place at Medina Bookshop, Cowes, where attendees will be able to see a selection of pieces, as well as live performances of poetry and spoken word from the online collection.
The free to view shows will be taking place at:
- 13th – 22nd July – Monkton Arts, Ryde
- 23rd July – 1st August – Ventnor Fringe, Ventnor
- 17th August – 1800-2030 – Evening reception at Medina Publishing, Cowes
- 3rd – 27th August – Freshwater Coffee House, Freshwater
- 13th – 19th September – Independent Arts Creative Hub, Newport
