phil blog: NEOS week day1

Phil Thompson (NEOS designer) is going to blog his NEOS week...

today is the first day of NEOS2009... Gabi rushes off to Mill Farm for some last minute prep / hanging, whilst I look after Poppy (late night last night!), so Pops has a lie in...

We get to Mill Farm at 10.30 to see a throng of people checking out the 12 artists congregated at Susie Hunt's venue. The morning has kicked off with a real bang!

The morning is solid - at least 10 people per 20 / 30 mins up until dinner time... We were visited by Aberdeen City Council's Cultural Strategy crew! - Gary Cameron was most impressed with the scope and range of practitioners included in NEOS - and sees a great opportunity for NEOS to be a major part of the "City of Culture" - if (and when!) we (Aberdeen City & Shire) get it... 2013. It was a pleasure discussing the range of work on show- the amazing stories of how people have progressed and pushed their artwork / practice because of NEOS over the years (I'd mentioned Sjarifah Roberts story for the Creative Cultures Networking night about NEOS giving her the confidence to build a bespoke kiln to realise her "bigger" ideas - amazing story!)...

I was also impressed to meet a man who was one of the first people to "digitize type" - (Alan, was his first name)... He promises to get in contact about "Typefaceaweek" - and is very interested in not only contributing, but helping Gabi and I squeeze more potential from the project. He Took out postcards and business cards - so we'll hopefully have more to report on later this week!

We also had a visit from a tutor from Duncan of Jordanstone (Dundee art school) who was most impressed with the NEOS set up - and the connection it had on many levels with the "art going public".

All in all, not only did we all at mill farm think that today was an amazing success (for the sheer number of visitors), but we all pulled together, had some banter, talked about our work with each other, talked about our aspirations and dreams... it's crucial and an often over looked aspect of what we do as practitioners.

Overall, there was a steady stream of people coming to see the work on show (140 + over the whole day). Everyone sold work (except me, but I was more than happy to have met the people I did and the possible projects that might arise from those meetings!)

after a long and eventful day, we slink home and have a fantastic home made vegetable stir fry - simple! more tomorrow. Phil.