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In Focus
New exhibition: 'Flock' launches ahead of community ownership drive
Two Queens, an artist-run gallery and studios, are currently hosting an exhibition, named ‘flock’, and featuring the work of over 50 local artists from Leicester and the surrounding areas.
‘Flock’ has bought together a range of eclectic pieces of work, and some of the most notable are a mirror covered in Barbie dolls and a bird’s eye view drawing of Leicester, using felt tips. It also is featuring various paintings, sculptures, drawings and installations.
This exhibition is an annual members’ show, and this year it is marking its 11th anniversary.
Daniel Kelly, the fundraising and development officer, said: “All the people who work there are artists and it’s a chance for us to show our work as well which we don’t get to do the rest of the year.
“I enjoy seeing what everyone’s been working on over the past year, and having the chance to present what our community does. Quite often when people come to Two Queens, they see the gallery and they see a show by one artist, but they don’t necessarily realise that there’s 45 artists working in the studios, so it’s nice to show people what happens here.”
One of the pieces in the exhibition was created by Mita Solanky, who uses an artist alias, Saintly Amok. Their piece of artwork, named ‘Time and Tide’, was created using Japanese wood block prints and was made during a state of meditation. It follows the grain of the wood, which is then printed using what she carved out.
Talking about the show, Mita said: “It’s quite a clean show. It’s laid out in quite a structured way, which is kind of unusual for this space. I’m used to seeing shows which are more looser and more ambiguous.
“Because it’s a kind of open exhibition, and open to all, it needs to be able to display all the works in the space and I guess for that you need some kind of a structure to pour it all into.”
Two Queens strives for freedoms of artistic expression and strongly believes that art brings meanings to people’s lives, while also serving a therapeutic purpose for individual wellbeing.
But recently, they are under threat of losing the facilities due to their lease expiring in early 2025. Therefore, they are preparing to launch a community share offer, which will put the building into community ownership and will raise the funds needed to buy Two Queens and secure the gallery space.
Community shares give those that invest a voice, and they can have an opinion about how the facilities should be run. This will then make them a community-owned gallery in Leicester.
Two Queens has already received funding of over £9,000 from the Co-operatives UK’s Community Shares Booster Fund, which is in place to provide support to new and existing community businesses.
Talking about community shares, Daniel said: “We roughly need to raise just under half a million pounds to buy the building and all the sort of legal costs that come with that.” They will be aiming to raise this money through a combination of grant funding and through the community shares.
“Community shares is kind of like crowdfunding, except people get their money back in the future and they can earn interest on the money that they put in.”
Not only would the closing down of Two Queens affect the aspiring artists, but it would also have a knock-on effect on the people who find enjoyment in the arts.
Rosa Fernandez was at the show on opening night and said: “It’s a real shame. Art spaces are really important and it’s really important that we just engage with the arts generally. We all go out and use art for our own needs.
Rosa said: “It’s important that there are spaces where people can be making art, and if there aren’t, then everybody’s sad because it’s no good for the artists because they’ve got nowhere to do stuff and it’s no good for us because we haven’t got stuff we can enjoy.”
The ‘Flock’ exhibition is open until Saturday, 13 July.
⛅️ Monday: A mainly dry day with some early sunshine and cloudy in the afternoon. Feeling milder at 19C with moderate wind.
🌧️ Tuesday-Friday: Some heavy rain on Tuesday and then heavy showers on Wednesday and Thursday. Potential heavy and thundery showers with temperatures peaking at just 19C. Drier on Friday with only a few showers.
⛅️ Weekend: Mainly dry with some sunny intervals and temperatures up to 21C and a light breeze!
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Rhys is a seasoned journalist, writer, and community organiser. As community lead, he works across fundraising, community engagement, daily operations and some editorial work too.
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Rhys Everquill
