Impressions Gallery

For more information about Save the Arts, please visit http://www.savethearts.org.uk or subscribe to the SaveTheArtsTV channel on YouTube http://www.youtube.com/user/SaveTheArtsTV Over a hundred leading artists including David Hockney, Damien Hirst, Anthony Caro, Howard Hodgkin, Anish Kapoor, Richard Hamilton, Bridget Riley, Antony Gormley and Tracey Emin have joined the campaign to make the case against the proposed 25% cuts in government funding of the arts. The campaign is launched today with the release of a new video animation by artist David Shrigley highlighting the effect of the funding cuts and a new work by Jeremy Deller with Scott King. Each week the work of a different artist, created in response to the campaign, will be released. Mark Wallinger will present the next project. Supporters of the artists' campaign will be asked to sign a petition which will be sent to the Culture Secretary, Jeremy Hunt. It points out that it has taken 50 years to create a vibrant arts culture in Britain that is the envy of the world and appeals to the government not to slash arts funding and risk destroying this long-term achievement and the social and economic benefits it brings to all. The artists acknowledge that reasonable cuts and efficiencies are necessary but they fear that the 25% cuts being proposed will destroy much of what has been achieved and will have a particularly damaging impact on national and regional museums and their collections. The campaign is being organised by the London branch of a national consortium of over 2,000 arts organisations and artists dedicated to working together and finding new ways to support the arts in the UK. The costs of David Shrigley's animation have been covered with a grant from the Paul Hamlyn Foundation. Robert Dufton, Paul Hamlyn Foundation Director, said: "We are pleased to support this campaign and hope that its message is taken on board. As independent funder of the arts we are aware of the effect that cuts will have on many of the organisations we support. We stand to lose a great deal as a society if arts organisations are forced to stop the very valuable work they do."

In 2007 Impressions Gallery and Bradford 1 Gallery commissioned photographer Gavin Parry to document our new building in Centenary Square, Bradford, as it underwent the dramatic transformation from shell to state-of-the-art galleries. The resulting photographs were presented in this film on the Bradford Big Screen with an accompanying soundtrack listing the historic uses of the site over the years, recorded by various people involved in the hands-on construction of the new galleries. The photographs also formed the basis of the publication 'Relocation' with a foreword by influential designer Wayne Hemingway. In the book Parry's wry and perceptive photographic observations are be accompanied by text drawn from sources ranging from documents about the site's history to snippets of overheard conversations. "I'm interested not just in the architectural and design details, but the evidence of human activity -- the tea and biscuits and the wiring diagrams drawn on the wall." Gavin Parry To view details on the completed publication Reconstruction by Gavin Parry please click here http://bit.ly/bFH7k8

Photographer Stephen Vaughan discusses his stunning large-scale landscape photographs which explore the connections between geology, archaeology and history. Ultima Thule was exhibited at Impressions Gallery, Bradford, UK from 13 February to 13 April 2008 Read more about the exhibition at: http://bit.ly/9xhMPM Directed by Anne McNeill Filmed and edited by Sarabjit Kohli Video © Impressions Gallery 2008 Photography © Stephen Vaughan