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November 2010

Excellent speaking contributions and visual stimulation from photographer Chris Oaten, his muse Kitty Griffiths and lens-based creative Scott Wigglesworth were somewhat overshadowed by the new Clear as Mud forum at November's humberMUD.

The forum, which will focus on a different area of topical debate each month, provided an update on activity in the Humber Street area, with information from the horse's mouth of Kingston Art Group (KAG), Eleven and the Museum of Club Culture as well as an electronic missive from Oresome Gallery, all of whom are based in the street. 

Artists from KAG were able to exclusively reveal to MUDders that they have received a sizeable grant from the Arts Council. “Part of the grant was a move to somewhere that secures the long term future of KAG,” we were told.

This money will enable KAG to get studio space at Humber Street up and running, expanding their offer to KAG members from 18 to 28 studios. Once the studio space is in use, the gallery's doors will be open with increasing frequency.

It was clear that artists are just as frustrated as members of the public by the delays to fulfilling the Fruit Market area's potential as a creative hub. Much of this, they said, was down to delays in receiving moneys from grant applications and gaps in funding.

There is, we were told, much building work to do to bring the buildings up to scratch. While spaces have been open during special events such as the Clipper weekend and Freedom Festival, these openings have been enabled by short-term licenses to operate.

Hull City Council's City Arts Unit was cited as a body that has provided a lot of support, guidance and positivity throughout an otherwise stalling process.

Optimism was the order of the night, however, with confident noises being made by Eleven's Rob Moore that all outstanding work will be completed and an end of work and a regular opening of doors is clearly in sight. Eleven will now be open every weekend up to and beyond the festive period.

In his role as Dean of School at Hull School of Art & Design, Rob was also able to provide an update on the large premises at 2-5 Humber Street, which is earmarked for use as an Arts Centre. With an estimated cost of £200,000, Rob revealed that there is a current shortfall of £40-50k. “We hope that the city council can hold the £150,000 we have in funding and then we can at least get the work going.”

The Arts Centre will house a gallery space, studio and incubator space and a media centre. “I think that 2-3 The Arts Centre will be a key project for the street. We are about seven months away from making it a reality if all goes well.”

Clearly the recent demise of Hull Forward hasn't helped the process. It is the spirit of the likes of the Museum of Club Culture's Mark Wigan that will keep the dream alive. “We don't need funding. We will just go ahead and make things happen. We just get on with what we want to do,” he said.

Going forward, humberMUD members present on the night promised to show their support when prompted by chair mighty Mal Williamson to attend Humber Street at least once every weekend.

In addition to the photographic slant of the main speakers, Lindsay West and Carolyn Burgess also took the stage to provide information about the World Trade Centre Hull & Humber and business incubation and stimulation spaces that are available in the former home of Hull Forward.

Photographer Neil Holmes, who was due to talk, has pledged to speak at a future event.

humberMUD takes place on the third Thursday of the month. The next MUD will take place at FRuIT on Thursday, December 16.

Dave Windass