‘From Our Yard’ to yours: Dive into recent work by Fenners Artists

‘From Our Yard’ is an online publication created by 13 artists from our Fenners studios in Letchworth Garden City, giving an insight into their work and processes.

“This weekend we were due to hold our summer Open Studios event in conjunction with Letchworth Festival. Sadly, due to Covid-19 we cannot welcome the public into our studios. We have therefore put together an online publication which gives a taste of what we have been working on over the last few months.” – Katherine Roberts, Artist

View ‘From Our Yard’ publication

The title for the publication came out of an idea to utilise the Fenners car park as an exhibition space for the postponed Open Studios show (as illustrated on the cover). During lockdown, it seemed even more relevant to highlight the context in which the artists are currently working. A yard is defined as an area of land used for a particular purpose or business; a piece of uncultivated land adjoining abuilding, typically one enclosed by walls or other buildings; the garden of a house. During lockdown, the artists have been using garden sheds, home studios, living rooms and bedrooms as spaces in which to work.

There have been some real success stories for the artists in the past year: Abi Freckleton’s work was featured in the recent ‘MKCalling’ exhibition at Milton Keynes Gallery and in Conscious Isolation’s ‘The Haptic/The Virtual’. Sue Pilborough had a solo exhibition, ‘The Flow’ in January 2020. Veronika Peat participated in a residency and exhibition at PADA Studios in Portugal. Liz Harrington had her first solo show ‘Where Land Runs Out’ at the Broadway Gallery last year and was selected to exhibit at the Reclaim Photography Festival in January 2020. Kate Windibank was approached by Kalpa Art Living to develop work to sell at their gallery in Volterra, Italy. Katherine Roberts exhibited in ‘Tremble Tromos’ with Sian Wilson at the Broadway Gallery and with Motion Sickness Project in Cambridge. Stuart Jones exhibited at Manchester Art Fair in October 2019. Julie Leaming was accepted as part of the competitive Herts Open, an exhibition that moved online and took place in April 2020. Maria Merridan produced artwork in collaboration with Dr Giles Yeo, a Geneticist at Cambridge University, as part of the international ‘A Pint of Science’ Festival. Sarah Rooms Heaphy’s recent works are being shown in VK Gallery’s Summer exhibition and Byard 2020 Exhibition in Cambridgeshire. Fiona Booy has supported 70+ lockdown families with her make-at-home pottery club and she’s due to have her first show in the Netherlands in September at Kerimisto. Muna Zuberi was selected for the prestigious British Glass Biennale which showcases the most interesting, diverse and outstanding glass art made in the UK in the last two years. Jaime Freestone’s work was recently in the July-August edition of ‘World of Interiors magazine’ and he is showing work in ‘A moment of silence’, an online exhibition demonstrating a strong united stance against racism following the murder of George Floyd and so many before him.

From Our Yard publication