Today Christopher Green (No Show, The Home, Ida Barr, Prurience, Tina C, Office Party) launches a brand new initiative to reconnect audiences with local artists and ease us back into cultural spaces as we take our first tentative steps out of lockdown. ArtBank is an emergency art delivery system that takes its structure from a foodbank – providing essential creative sustenance to both audiences and artists.
The initiative will be piloted with four free events at Hornsey Library in Crouch End, London. The events will run across two weeks – on 27 & 28 of April and 4 & 5 of May. Audiences will meet five exciting local artists – musicians, comedians, dancers, poets, painters, film makers, performers and more – and have a short experience with each. Some experiences will be ephemeral, and some will result in you walking away with something to hold in your hand.
The next stage from May onwards is to open ArtBank up to a wider audience following the Hornsey Library pilot. A free toolkit will be made available to interested venues and groups across the country, providing them with all the information they need to create and run their own local ArtBank experiences.
Christopher Green has decades of experience in the arts industry – creating bespoke, immersive and experiential work including The Home – an overnight stay in a nursing home – Office Party, a massive night out in, well, an office, and a self help group in Prurience. On their latest project, they said:
“During the first lockdown in 2020 I began working at a foodbank. The emergency systems we put in place to provide one another with food and essentials during a crisis got me thinking about our emergency systems for the arts. Where is our creative safety net? How do we continue to connect with one another and experience art when our theatres, galleries, concert halls and pubs close?”
“ArtBank provides us with a bridge out of lockdown – a way for us to ease ourselves back into creative experiences as we emerge from the fog of Covid-19. I hope our pilot at Hornsey Library will inspire others across the country to set up an ArtBank in their local area.”
Hornsey Library is ensuring that all ArtBank experiences are Covid safe, with enhanced cleaning, NHS Covid-19 app check-ins, social distancing measures and face coverings. All audience members will be allocated a 15 minute slot within which to experience ArtBank, ensuring that the number of people indoors at any one time is kept to a minimum.
ArtBank will run on 27 & 28 of April and 4 & 5 of May at Hornsey Library, tickets can be booked by emailing artbank@email.com or calling 0782 778 5799.
ArtBank is supported by Arts Council England and Haringey Council.
On ‘The Home’
“an unforgettable feat of emotional engineering.” – ★★★★ The Guardian
On ‘No Show’
“The truth is: Green is heroic” – Within Her Words
On ‘Prurience’
“… a disorientating, provocative experience…. Theatrically the piece is audacious, springing a series of head-spinning surprises. This is the kind of art that leaves its mark on you. Unnerving, and uncomfortably compelling” – The Times
Green creates “..a deeply unsettling experience; one that gets right to the core of contemporary life” – ★★★★ What’s On Stage
“Tests the limits of theatre…. Very funny and genuinely discomforting…at its fiendish, exhilarating best it makes you question not just attitudes to porn but how we experience reality.” – Lyn Gardner
artbanklive.co.uk / @artbanklive
