Our Handmade: Art Curator Heather Forknell

Filed Under: Blog

Hey Heather - What have you been doing for Handmade?
I have worked as Handmade Festival’s Art Curator since it’s creation in 2013. As the Art Curator, my role is to commission and create opportunities for East Midlands based artists to create specific work for the festivals venues. It means creating strong relationships and liaising with venue managers, other artist led events and organisations, technicians, artists and the Handmade Team. This year I have been able to secure funding from De Montfort University’s Fine Art Department which has created numerous paid opportunities for it’s graduates and undergraduates. I strongly believe in creating paid opportunities for emerging artists and offering them support in developing their practices; Handmade Festival is the perfect chance for us to do that, as well as showcasing their work at a national level. I have also been lucky enough to create an internship for the role of Arts Assistant – which offers the individual a chance to learn how to produce and curate a large festival, and I am also throwing an ART PARTY at The Cookie as an homage to The Attic Art Collective who worked on the festival in 2013. Putting art, comedy and music together just makes a lot of sense and it’s what Handmade is best at.

What makes the festival special?
What makes Art at Handmade so different is that we intricately pick artists whose work compliments the festivals musical line-up – creating a marriage of two art forms. We bring contemporary art practices to a large audience who wouldn’t necessarily seek to view art in galleries or museums – creating an accessible environment to view art and music together.

I grew up in Leicestershire and I studied at university in Leicester – this is my home and when I first moved here almost seven years ago, we had just demolished our art gallery and it seemed like there was no other option than to move to London when I graduated. With a lot of perseverance and hard work, we have achieved a growing community of creatives from collectives and organisations such as Leicester Lo-Fi, Two Queens Gallery, The Phoenix, Leicester Print Workshop, Tetrad and more. It has been a real pleasure to be a part of that growth and to see it happen, and Handmade Festival’s ethos is to enable that development and to strive to put Leicester on the map as a hub for brilliant art and music.

What’s your favourite memory of previous Handmade years?
Other than putting on the art and seeing everything come together - I really enjoyed dancing like a fan girl to Shonen Knife last year at Hansom Hall and being packed in Firebug like a sardine when Dry The River played.

It is both the best and worse feeling of being so nervous and stressed before the launch night because you’re hoping that everything will go well – and it does, but there’s always something that doesn’t work last minute and you have to think fast to make it happen. When everything is sorted and you watch it come together, you stand and see an awesome band and finally grab a beer – it’s just the best feeling, and that’s why I love doing it!

What are you most excited about seeing at this years festival?
I am so excited for this year’s festival. I am really happy to be working with Steven Mills – who is a West Midlands based artist who confronts the notion of documentation as practice in the digital age. I’ve been a fan of his practice since I first saw it in 2013, and it’s been great to see his work develop and finally commission him to create something site-specific at the 02 Academy.

I am also very excited to see the work of Leicester Lo-Fi. I am always amazed by David Wilson Clarke’s ambition as a photographer and his enthusiasm for arts in the Midlands. He has a great analytical and creative eye, so I highly recommend going to see some of the photography exhibitions going on around the city during Handmade Festival.

In terms of music I am so stoked for Honeyblood – they have that perfect slouchy, summer vibe. I can’t wait to dance like a moody ‘90’s kid to them.