Current programme 2009
Meetings are held at Jacob's Well, Trinity Lane, Micklegate, at 7:30 on the first Monday of the month, unless otherwise stated.
Admision: members £2, non members £4.
Events marked * are open to members only.
12 January
Mini talks

This popular format allows any of our members to speak for five or ten minutes about some aspect of their work, or particular projects, which they feel would be of interest to the audience.

2 February

Unfortunately tonights meeting has been cancelled as Janet Williams has decided, with great regret, that she will not be able to make it tonight to speak to the YAWA due to the weather conditions.


2 March
Helen Douglas, book artist and publisher

Dr Helen Douglas has been at the forefront of artists’ book making and publishing since establishing Weproductions with Telfer Stokes in the early 1970s. In this talk she will give an overview of her publications, discussing approaches to book making and the importance of visual narrative in her work.

Her books, primarily visual with embodied texts, engage with book structures, photography and printing to develop visual narrative and poetry. Encouraging new ways of reading, her work engages with the book as a place for contemplation and visual beauty. Published by Nexus Press, Atlanta, Pocketbooks, Edinburgh and Weproductions, Yarrow, her book works are widely distributed and exhibited in Europe and the US and have contributed to the developing genre of Book Art. Helen Douglas lives and works in Scotland and teaches on the MA Book Arts course at Camberwell, The University of the Arts in London


6 April
David Pearl

David Pearl is a Canadian artist and has been working from a base in Wales for the last 25 years. His work is principally site specific for architecture and the public space. The work is often collaborative, frequently involving his partner Amber Hiscott as well as engineers, poets and landscape architects. He is currently working with the City of Toronto as artist on the design team for a new park on a semi industrial site in the city.

11 May
Paul Young, ceramics

Paul Young was introduced to early English slipware on a college visit to the City Museum, Stoke on Trent. It blew him away! The honesty, life and warmth of the pots moved him deeply. Slipware is England’s oldest and liveliest form of pottery and Paul’s work derives from this fine tradition. His range of slipware, including tableware and figurative pieces, is influenced by folk art and decorated with birds, animals and people.
1 June
Charles Morris

Charles Morris will talk about his unorthodox route into architecture. He will describe the pain and pleasure he has derived from making buildings throughout the British Isles, and why after more than 35 years, he is grateful for the past, and happy and hopeful for the time being.

6 July
Visit to Markenfield Hall *

Markenfield Hall is a moated 14th century mediaeval house, 3 miles south of Ripon. Built around 1310 for the Markenfield family, it witnessed the invasion of the Scots in 1317, and the Rising of the North in 1569. As a punishment for the Rising, Queen Elizabeth seized the Hall, and it became the working farm which it still is today. It is a Grade 1 listed building, but is rarely open.



7 September
Simon Lawrence, private press printer

Simon Lawrence runs his Fleece Press from a rural barn on the pretty side of Barnsley and specialises in printing and publishing books about wood-engravers and printmakers, as well as miniature books. Most of his 65 or 70 books in the past 29 years have been hand-printed in a painfully slow manner; all display love and care in their production.
5 October
Lucy Goffin, textile artist

Lucy Goffin's work is constructed by piecing together fine textured fabrics, richly coloured or sometimes understated and subtle. With a strong sculptural interest and a sense for intricate detail, many stitched, layered and applied methods are used in the construction of her work. Her repertoire includes large works for public spaces, jackets and waistcoats commissioned by individuals, pictures and smaller works.


2 November
Gavin Stamp, architectural historian

Yorkshire Museum, Museum Gardens, York In association with York Museums Trust

The Art of Death: Memorial and cemetery architecture of the Great War.
Gavin Stamp, well known architectural historian and writer, will discuss the cemeteries and memorials of the Great War with an emphasis on their sculpture and garden design as well as architecture.


7 December
Ben Arnup, ceramics

For the past twenty years, Ben has been producing slab-constructed, stoneware ceramics that play with the viewers’ perception of space - trompe l’œil. Benefiting from an Arts Council Grant, during 2008 Ben has undertaken research into distressed clay techniques. This has resulted in entirely new methods of working, and the development of more organic, natural forms that result from clay being taken to its limits whilst still retaining physical integrity.

The talk will be preceded by a brief AGM and followed by our seasonal celebrations.