<< sva artist-led programme >>

	summer 2014
			Michelson Morley Thursday 5th June 8pm SVA, 4 John Street, Stroud GL5 2HA http://michelsonmorley.com Melodic, exciting and beguilingly atmospheric music led by Get The Blessing saxophonist Jake McMurchie and featuring Will Harris on bass, Mark Whitlam on drums, with special guest Dan Messore on guitar. Electronics and acoustic instruments combine with a minimalist, evolutionary approach to improvisation. At times dark, subtle and movingly beautiful, at others powerful and raw, the results are always innovative, tuneful and exciting. "This hot-shot jazz trio’s debut CD features spaciously atmospheric music that loops and elaborates through group interaction... The deft use of electronic enhancement in an essentially acoustic adds to a sense of mystery and surprise” Colston Hall, Bristol “… this band has a subtle range of textures that really needs our attention. ... with McMurchie’s synth-sax and pedals and Whitlam’s fancy-pad augmented kit adding loops and language beyond the expected. Harris, standing centrally and stooped around his bass, roots much of it with single note repetitions, playing rhythm while Whitlam flourishes around his cymbals or sparks up the electrics. McMurchie coaxes, loops, stutters and wails each piece to life, giving it flavour. Now and then there’s a snappy little tune and, for one number, a surf-pop drumbeat and a wig-out bass like jazz on a 60s Californian beach.” Tony Benjamin, Venue Magazine

			John Street Social Club hosted by Mr Messy and Teaboy every Friday 7-11pm 4 John Street, Stroud, GL5 2HA The John Street Social Club is a series of weekly friday night club socials hosted by different artists each week with visuals and audio to share in a non precious environment. Think of Radio 4's Pick of the Week, Resonance FM and Jarvis Cocker's Sunday Service with a handful of choice film clips...live! The format: decks, laptop, and a limited number of selected youtube clips of archive footage and informative curiosities. Free entry

			SGS Fashion Show South Gloucestershire and Stroud College Thursday 12th June Doors 7pm, Show starts 7.30pm SVA, Goods Shed Station Yard, Stroud GL5 3AP Ticket price: £5 Concessions (under 18's), £7.50 Advanced tickets can be bought online here or from Trading Post, 26 Kendrick Street, Stroud GL5 1AQ

			SGS Music Show South Gloucestershire and Stroud College Friday 13th June 7pm-11.30pm SVA, Goods Shed Station Yard, Stroud GL5 3AP 11.30pm-1am SVA, 4 John St, Stroud, GL5 2HA Ticket price: £5 advance, £7 on the door Advanced tickets can be bought online here or from Trading Post, 26 Kendrick Street, Stroud GL5 1AQ

			Stroud Jazz Sessions Thursday 12 June 8.30-11pm SVA, Goods Shed Station Yard, Stroud GL5 3AP June's jam features the exuberantly enchanting Dom Franks Strayhorn Quartet with an opening set of fearless and funky compositions, followed by our usual energeti-frenetic jam night for all to join in with.Dom Franks is a fantastic sax player routinely at our jam night, his gutsy playing spilling over with infectious latin grooves, sugar-coated bebop licks and dives, and intelligent re-workings of modern classics. Dom brings his outstanding Strayhorn Quartet, fresh from release of their 2nd album - listen here. It is sure to rock the Brunel Goods Shed to its foundations. Stroud Jazz Sessions is a hub for those interested in listening to or performing jazz, with a jam night with special guest every 2nd Thursday of the month. Tickets £4 (£3 performers)

			Big Band Jazz Thursday 19 June 8pm SVA, Goods Shed Station Yard, Stroud GL5 3AP Jazz Friday are a Gloucestershire Big Band who create their special sound based around Big Band charts and 'lead sheets'. Jazz Friday has about twenty members, ranging from 'young hot-shots' 'to late-bloomers'. Opportunity for improvisation is available and encouraged. Jazz Friday on a Thursday! Free

			Mambo Mama Summer Solstice Ju-Ju Saturday 21 June 9pm-2am SVA, 4 John Street Stroud GL5 2HA Mambo Mama is a celebration of exciting, complex, rhythmical patterns that have existed for over 30,000 years. With its roots set deep within the Voodoo religion, this musical journey will take you through the continents of Africa, North and South America, and the Caribbean in a night of Afro-Latin, Boogaloo and Jazz.

			Desert Island Treasures with Jon Cleave and the film Black Car Home Sunday 22 June 7.30pm SVA, Goods Shed Station Yard, Stroud GL5 3AP “What would you take with you if you were homeless?” Jon Cleave famous as the MC and bass singer of the Fisherman’s Friends and star of Black Car Home, a darkly comic fairytale set and filmed locally in Gloucestershire, explores with your help what it is like living in the back of a car, using the actual vehicle from the film. What few treasures would you keep close if you were living rough? Bring a few of your “desert island treasures” with you to participate with Jon and discuss the stories that make them important to you. You’ll see this short cinema film directed by David Pearson, Oscar shortlisted BAFTA and Emmy Nominated producer and Director of Stroud based Arturi Films and find out how the film was made, and how you can be part of its future story as a full length feature film. Black Car Home, is set at Christmas.Tatiana, a feisty illegal Latin American immigrant, is thrown overboard from a ship and told to ‘swim’. She is expecting to find New York, not a Severn mud flat at Oldbury-on-Severn. She is rescued from freezing mud by Nathan, a rough giant of a man who lives in a makeshift camp by the beach. As their quirky friendship grows, an unexpected visitor launches them on their adventure. For more details and the trailer go to: www.blackcarhome.com

			Artdoc Travellers' Century: Documentary Film. As part of the Laurie Lee Centenary Celebrations Thursday 26 June 8pm 4 John Street, Stroud GL5 2HA Benedict Allen, explorer. travel writer vividly re-traces part of Laurie Lee’s journey through Spain. ‘He is revealed as an enigmatic, mercurial figure in the tradition of the wandering minstrel or troubadour, with a huge array of talents and an astonishing facility to charm.’ The director, David Hutt and editor, Pip Heywood will be present to introduce the film. Funded by Stroud Arts Festival.

			Turntable Revolution presents ‘Change’ John Street Social Club Friday 27 June 7-11pm 4 John Street, Stroud, GL5 2HA All in a spin, everything changes, changes utterly. Prepare to be moved and grooved. Usual format decks, projector, music and film clips...all mixed in a considered and thoughtful way! Turntable Revolution are Chris Moore and Susie Walker. The John Street Social Club is a series of weekly friday night club socials hosted by different artists each week with visuals and audio to share in a non precious environment. The format: decks, laptop, and a limited number of selected film clips of archive footage and informative curiosities..The John Street Social Club is a series of weekly friday night club socials hosted by different artists each week with visuals and audio to share in a non precious environment. The format: decks, laptop, and a limited number of selected youtube clips of archive footage and informative curiosities.. Free entry

			MOULD goes to Japan Thursday 3 July 7pm Goods Shed, Stroud GL5 3AP Mould presents a Japanese themed night, with a film screening of Studio Ghibli's Howl's moving castle. There will also be a Sushi bar, live anime caricatures, sudoku challenge and origami corner. There will also be a Japanese themed best dressed competition (harajuku, manga, lolita..etc). Mould, in conjunction with SVA, is a youth arts collective dedicated to bringing contemporary arts to a younger generation.

			Mould host John Street Social Club Friday 4 July 7-11pm 4 John Street, Stroud, GL5 2HA Mould invites you to join us for the after party of Black & White and Other Colours Preview. Please where black & white or other colours for fun and games at the SVA, DJ's, live band, multi-coloured mocktails/cocktails and much much more! Giant twister games included. The John Street Social Club is a series of weekly friday night club socials hosted by different artists each week with visuals and audio to share in a non precious environment. The format: decks, laptop, and a limited number of selected film clips of archive footage and informative curiosities...

			Disco Sucks Saturday 5 July 7-11pm 4 John Street, Stroud, GL5 2HA The Disco Sucks crew are back at home after a long break, Balearic, Disco, House, smoke, flashing lights, bass bins and good times.

			Stroud Jazz Sessions presents Geoff Bowles Thursday 10 July 8.30-11pm Goods Shed, Stroud GL5 3AP July's Stroud Jazz Sessions features the fabulous Geoff Bowles on sax as special guest, a short Gerry Mulligan interlude from jammers John Lawrence and Simon Day, and our all-welcome energeti-frenetic jam! It's a delight to welcome back Geoff Bowles, who is a superb player - well known in the West country as a prominent saxophonist, he has played in all the main West Country venues and around the Midlands. He has also played with many leading names. Hard bop style with a considerable technique but can also do justice to a ballad. Be there or square... Second Thursday of every month. Tickets £4 (£3 performers) on the door

			Mr Fluffypunk’s Penny Gaff featuring Matt Harvey and Wil Greenaway Alternative Cabaret with a spoken word spine! Saturday 12 July 8pm SVA, 4 John Street, Stroud GL5 2HA Roll up, Roll Up for the 2nd Penny Gaff with your delightful host, Mr Jonny Fluffypunk, Stand-up poet. Sit-up storyteller. Give-up guitarist. This month's featured artist is Matt Harvey a Bona fide Radio 4 Star, Writer, Poet and Enemy of all that's difficult and upsetting! Matt’s way with words has taken him from Totnes to the Wimbledon Tennis Championships via Saturday Live, the Edinburgh Festival and the Work section of the Guardian. He is host of Radio 4’s Wondermentalist Cabaret, creator of Empath Man, and author of The Hole in the Sum of my Parts, Where Earwigs Dare and Mindless Body Spineless Mind. “…not only funny, but tender and true” The Guardian. www.mattharvey.co.uk Plus a full Edinburgh show in the 1st half featuring Wil Greenway a beautiful, dazzling, surreal storyteller & comedian, coming all the way from Melbourne. But, er, via London. He will be performing "Vincent Goes Splat!" his all-new one-hour solo show, off to Udderbelly at the Edinburgh Fringe. From the idiot behind A Night to Dismember comes a bounding comedy for your bitter heart. Vincent Goes Splat is the difficult second album, the seven year itch, the ugly twin. A stupid new study of guilt, grief and gravity. “Completely original and confounding...expect great things” Edinburgh Spotlight (UK). And that's not all ...Why, there's off-the-wall misery and lyrical gothic wierdness from Stroud's very own postcard maker and punmeister extraordinaire Mr Bill Jones. www.hawkerspot.com/

			John Street Blues Thursday 17 July 8pm SVA, 4 John Street, Stroud GL5 2HA John Street Blues is about bringing enjoyment and wider awareness of the genre which is at the heart of Western popular music. The night is a chance for those who are interested in the music of the blues to get together and enjoy it in a social setting. It will feature a mixture of live music from a house band, blues vinyl, and documentary film.

			Mambo Mama Saturday 19 July 9pm-2am SVA, 4 John Street, Stroud GL5 2HA Mambo Mama is a celebration of exciting, complex, rhythmical patterns that have existed for over 30,000 years. With its roots set deep within the Voodoo religion, this musical journey will take you through the continents of Africa, North and South America, and the Caribbean in a night of Afro-Latin, Boogaloo and Jazz.

			Oliver Marsden Saturday 31st May 10am-41st-21st June Thursdays, Fridays, Saturdays 10am-4pm SVA, 4 John Street, Stroud GL5 2HA Oliver Marsden studied Drawing and Painting at Edinburgh College of Art in the mid nineties and has been exhibiting internationally since. Solo exhibitions include “In Praise of Light” at the Tado Ando designed Koumi Machi Kougen Museum, Japan, “Cult” Vigo Gallery, London, and “Illuminieren” Galeria Hilario Galguera, Leipzig. For him, painting is a physical and meditational practice linked to a search for an understanding of nature, energy and life. He creates sculptural paintings, which act to fuse a sensual appreciation of the natural and scientific, where the random and organic meets mathematic structure. It was under the guidance of Stephen Ives at the SVA Re.sound event in 2005 that he began experimenting with sound, combining harmonic sine waves, time delays, echoes, sub-bass, Buddhist chants, and binaural beats. He then focused on a deeper study of the qualities of sound, vibration and their influence on the physical world. This led him to discover Chaldini's sound figures and the Cymatics of Hans Jenny, Sacred Geometry, the Golden Section, and Kepler's Harmonices Mundi. The Dub paintings consequently evolved as he experimented with methods and materials. The resultant works celebrate light, spirals, and the intrinsic qualities of paint. Their name is a simple nod to the dub plate music producers and sound systems who inspire.

			Meantime presents: Helen Carmel Benigson Travelling to Africa via a Machine Called a Sun-Bed Saturday 31st May Saturday 7th, 14th and 21st June 10am-4pm SVA, 4 John Street, Stroud GL5 2HA Travelling to Africa via a Machine Called a Sunbed explores notions of a corrupted archive, travel, geography and the cyber-body and is based on the work and house/museum of the South African artist Irma Stern (1894 – 1966). The video was first conceived during a residency at the Irma Stern Museum, Cape Town in 2013 and then further developed at Meantime Project Space, Cheltenham. Previous versions of the work have been performed live at Performa 13, New York in November 2013 and at The Showroom, London in February 2014 as part of the LUX Associate Artist Program.

			Zombie Licks Lorraine Robbins 1-21 June Thursdays, Fridays, Saturdays 10am-4pm 4 John Street, Stroud GL5 2HA Nestled in the refurbished top floor, above SVA's new gallery, Lorraine Robbins presents an intimate series of drawings, collages and playful sculptures. A space where intimate fantasy mingles tentatively with the confusion of reality, where vivid acid colours meet with sugar candy pastels in an ecstatic embrace.

			Redhanded 1-30 June Ale House 9 John Street, Stroud GL5 2HA Work by Zoe Benbow, Alison Cockcroft, Aimee Lax, Isla Pearson, Sally Hampson and Esther Caplin, Noela Bewry and Maggie Shaw. Redhanded currently has a new temporary art space in King's Cross, curated by artists Sally Hampson and Esther Caplin in partnership with SVA. Redhanded is profiling work and projects that have been supported by SVA in Stroud and will build connections with artists, artist led projects and communities based in London.

			Stroud by Bath - An architectural exhibition Opening night: Friday 4 July 6-9pm 4-12 July 10am-4pm 4 John Street, Stroud, GL5 2HA The final year architecture project at the University of Bath was this year set in Stroud. To celebrate the completion of our projects and share the results of our hard work we are putting on an exhibition of our work in Stroud. Visitors can view a range of images and models representing proposals in a variety of sites in and around Stroud. Projects range from a modern day wool mill to a community cidery, from co-operative housing to an orthodox monastery. We have had a lot of help over the past few months, so we are taking this as an opportunity to thank the residents of Stroud for their insight and support, and showcase Stroud’s potential for exciting development.

			Mould Presents Black & White and Other Colours Opening night: Friday 4 July 6-9pm 4-12 July 10am-4pm Unit 9 Merrywalks, Stroud GL5 1RR An exhibition featuring four young Brighton based artists: Nettle Grellier, Shanti Gorton, George Lloyd-Jones and Will Wade. Mould, in conjunction with SVA, is a youth arts collective dedicated to bringing contemporary arts to a younger generation.

			Up the Swanny Opening night: Friday 18 July, 2014 6-9pm Saturday 19 and Sunday 20 July 10am-4pm Goods Shed, Stroud GL5 3AP Take an enchanted swan ride through pools of glimmering light, past the last vestiges of an archaic world in to the dawn of the new. A multi-disciplinary exhibition by award-winning artists, Lorraine Robbins and Soozy Roberts. Expect a sensory downpour and dark, irreverent humour. Daytime openings suitable for the whole family.

			Andy Sheppard's Jazz Trio - The Pushy Doctors Sunday 10th August doors open at 8pm 4 John Street, Stroud, GL5 2HA Andy Sheppard’s Bristol-based jazz trio The Pushy Doctors will be bringing a special musical treat to the good people of Stroud. The Pushy Doctors are Andy Sheppard on saxophone, Tony Orrell on drums and Dan Moore on keys. The Doctors play an irreverent repertoire that will both surprise and intoxicate, including obscurities from Neil Young, Coltrane, The Beatles, Pink Floyd amongst others. This is jazz for medicinal purposes only. “The players interactivity makes this a very creative mix indeed and there’s big excitement about their performances coming up in Bristol this month.” Venue magazine

			Stroud Jazz Sessions presents Ben Thomas Thursday 14 August 8.30-11pm 4 John Street GL5 2HA August's Stroud Jazz Sessions features the fabulous Ben Thomas on trumpet as special guest and our all-welcome energeti-frenetic jam! Trumpet and flugel horn player Ben Thomas has performed with a diverse range of contemporary artists from the world of jazz, pop and classical music. In 2004 he formed the trio Mosaic which featured legendary pianist Brian Waite and Double Bassist Erika Lyons. In 2008 Ben formed the vocal led group The Edge. In 2009 they released their first album entitled We All Fall Down. 2011 saw the realese of their second album Dark Scrawls. Be there or square... Second Thursday of every month.

			Emily Joy Thursday 14 - Friday 15 August 11am-3pm Special evening opening Friday 15 August 6-8pm Saturday 16 August 11am-3pm SVA 4 John Street, Stroud, GL5 2HA www.giftsformothermnemosyne.wordpress.com Emily is a sculptor and installation artist based at SVA. Her practice is an investigation into the subjectivity, transience and loss inherent in the act of remembering and examines how we experience recall through the imperfect copy of memory, language and image. She is currently developing work for a solo exhibition with accompanying events programme in October. She will be making a new work in situ in the gallery, which will develop her use of rammed earth in large scale sculptures.

			Vena Portae (feat. Emily Barker) plus The Diamond Roadshow Brunel Goods Shed, Stroud GL5 3AP Friday 15 August doors 7.30pm An interesting evening of folk based music featuring BAFTA award-winning singer songwriter Emily Barker with her new band Vena Portae also featuring a audio visual folk duo from Berlin, Digger Barnes & Pencil Quincy. Vena Portae are an Anglo-Swedish alt-folk band, comprised of BAFTA award-winning singer songwriter Emily Barker, songwriter and performer Dom Coyote, and Swedish producer and multi-instrumentalist Ruben Engzell. Vena Portae’s eponymous debut album draws the listener into an epic journey of love, loss, memory and longing. From the heady alt-pop highs of ‘Flames & Fury’ to the dark, hypnotic depths of ‘Transatlantic’, this is an album that is atmospheric, moving and irresistible. The Diamond Road Show is the work of Hamburg-based artists Digger Barnes & Pencil Quincy. The show sits in between concert and cinema. It is a travel through dream structures, events and unfoldings that inventively blend road-movie aesthetics with experimental film techniques. The soundscape is created by Digger Barnes; a one-man-band, storyteller and outlaw. Each song a cinematic and atmospheric journey itself drawing on influences from Americana, film-soundtrack and folk music. The visuals are created by low-brow Pencil Quincy and his Magic Machine. Quincy combines early cinematic and animation technology with his imimitable, vaudeville style.

			Maggie Shaw: Atmospheres 3 Special evening opening Friday 22 August 6-9pm Saturday 23, Wednesday 27-Saturday 30 August 11am-3pm SVA 4 John Street, Stroud, GL5 2HA Painting Air – contemplative translucent abstract paintings about light and air in the Northern latitudes. An opportunity to see the latest series of paintings by Maggie Shaw, which she has been working on over the summer in her studio at SVA.

			John Street Social Club Friday 22 August 7-11pm SVA, 4 John St, Stroud GL5 2HA A special evening of film clips and soundtracks focussed on Pina, a film about Pina Bausch by Wim Wenders mixed up with some special Jazz moments from 1959 including Miles Davis, Dave Brubeck, Charles Mingus and Ornette Coleman. Free

			Edge and Shore Surveying the edges of place and practice Sat 30 August and Sun 31 August 11am - 5pm Friday 5th September 11am - 5pm and Saturday 6th September 12 - 5pm Closing view 6- 8pm Saturday 6th September Goods Shed, Stroud GL5 3AP Installation with passing view 22 - 30 September The Control Room, North Cabin, Redcliffe Bridge, Bristol. Friday 26 September 3 - 5pm and 6 - 8pm. Saturday 27 September by invitation only Siobhan Davies Dance Studios, Quay 2C, Kings Grove, Peckham, London SE15 2NB Edge and Shore is a new durational work by visual artist Helen Carnac and dance artist Laïla Diallo. Emerging from a dialogue between the two artists about making and process, the work offers a contribution to thinking concerned with place, practice, making and moving. Their explorations inhabit a curious space between installation and performance. Commissioned by Siobhan Davies Dance and supported using public funding by the National Lottery through Arts Council England. Photo: Gorm