Two Bridport Museum artists are making their marks across the country this summer.
Nancy Clemance, and Harland Viney, who worked together in 2015 on ‘The Working End’, which was exhibited at Bridport Museum for six months, originally came together to explore the town’s rope and net heritage industry after being selected for a New Opportunities Award by New Expressions 3, a national programme to engage artists with museum collections.
During their research, Nancy Clemance had conversations with literally hundreds of tourists, locals, and industry workers, of all ages, and often asked people if they’d like to make and donate a knot, which she would then gild and exhibit. While Nancy was listening to Bridport’s oral histories, Harland Viney carried out research at the Museum where she closely studied the rope collection, and then in the surrounding second-hand shops where she found vintage visuals by way of black and white photographs of local people.
The resulting exhibition at Bridport Museum, incorporated all the freshly made knots from the local community, gilded with 23c gold, and the photographs which had been meticulously embellished with painted rope detail.
As a consequence of all the conversations, Nancy Clemance was inspired to study coaching, and has now been selected by the University of Cambridge, to career coach some of the Queens Young Leaders 2017 this June, while Harland-Viney’s painted photographs work entitled ‘Lost Vignettes’ has been shortlisted for the prestigious John Ruskin Prize 2017 and will be exhibited in Sheffield June – October this year.
