What is The Creative Space Exhibition?
Magic Carpet are celebrating joining ECI and gaining funding from The National Lottery by staging ‘The Creative Space Exhibition’ at Positive Lights Project, Sidwell Street, Exeter.
The exhibition is a showcase of the talent of artists attending ‘Open Studios’ and ‘Story Into Art’ and features work primarily produced since Magic Carpet became a project of ECI.
Magic Carpet groups are held at Exeter Phoenix, the creative hub of the city. All abilities and styles are welcome, and the emphasis is on unlocking individual creativity, self-confidence and social inclusion.
Open Studios is a mental health art group where participants come together to experiment, share ideas and offer social support while exploring their own creative practice. Participants are offered guidance from session tutors to realise their artistic interests and abilities and to gain confidence in themselves and their artwork.
Story Into Art is a mixed mental health and learning difficulties group where participants create work based on a chosen story. This year, the group have made work based on ‘Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland’ by Lewis Carroll, the collected stories of Beatrix Potter and ‘Charlie and the Chocolate Factory’ by Roald Dahl.
We are hugely grateful to The National Lottery Community Fund who have funded The Creative Space exhibition and to Ikea who have donated frames for the artists to display their work to the highest standard.
By staging this exciting and dynamic show of talented artists, ECI hopes to raise the profile of the work that the Magic Carpet project does with individuals with mental health and learning difficulties. The Magic Carpet project works to the ethos that art is accessible to all and that through and that through accessing their individual creativity, people can live healthier, more socially connected lives.
The current exhibition seeks to showcase the work of our artists in a professional art space at the heart of Exeter’s cultural scene. The Creative Space Exhibition is a statement that these artists are a vital, often unseen, part of the city’s artistic scene and they deserve to be celebrated.
The exhibition will launch with an opening night on Wednesday 23rd of October from 6pm to 7:30pm and will run daily until Saturday 26th at The Positive Lights Project, Sidwell Street.
Book your space on the open evening here