Pretty Shitty City

Heres a gallery of drawings from Samuel Jones an illustrator studying at Swansea Met.

Swansea Arts Forum Trust are holding an open discussion about the Arts in Swansea on 31st January at 7.30pm at Glynn Vivien Gallery.

“The keynote speaker will be Professor David Warner (Principal of Swansea Institute of Higher Education) who will be talking about a future vision of the Arts in Swansea and how Swansea Institute is contributing to this.

Afterwards we would like to involve the audience in an interesting discussion on how they see the Arts developing here in Swansea. This affects all of the Art community in influencing the City and County of Swansea to recognise what an asset they have to enhance Swansea’s image. “

For more information please visit the SAFT website.

http://www.swanseaartsforum.org/home.htm

The Swansea Arts Forum Trust (SAFT) are an organisation that promote arts and culture in Swansea. You can check out their new website here http://www.swanseaartsforum.org/.

Be sure to sign up to their newsletter too! If you’re interested in art events and opportunities in Swansea and South Wales its a great resource.

The people behind Platform (Swansea’s coolest and only underground/arts culture magazine) have launched the Platform Blog.

If you want to keep up to date with creative happenings in Swansea (with an emphasis on the arts scene) then I thoroughly recommend checking this out.

http://www.swanseaartsforum.org/wordpress/

Thanks to Dilac, aka Dan Spinks, for sending us this month’s header design… and very festive it is too.

Dilac is an illustrator and painter and the main design honcho for Exist Clothing, you can check out his online portfolio here: http://www.dilac2003.com/

If you’d like to contribute a design, photo, illustration etc. for next month’s header then please email us at hello@prettyshittycity.co.uk.

Images should be supplied in JPEG (or similar) and atleast 750 pixels wide by 280 pixels tall.

Cafe Artistique returns to Monkey on Monday for a “culmination of the current series of discussion events featuring artists working with music, club culture and live performance.”

Heres some more information from the promoters, Axis ;

7.30pm at Monkey Bar (upstairs), 13 Castle Street, Swansea

With Mikhail Karikis, an intrepid artist whose work spans experimental music, electronica, performance and installation.

Artist-in-residence for the evening will be video and performance artist David Marchant interacting with proceedings in his unique style.

This event is free and there is no need to book.

For more information:

http://www.axisweb.org/cafeartistiqueswansea

Check out the brand new Monkey Cafe website for venue details and other information.

The next Framework Social is on the way; Tuesday 6th of November at St. James Social Club.

This is probably Swansea’s most unique event and Pretty Shitty City recommends checking it out.

In their own words…

“If you haven’t been before you can find us on St James crescent, just off Walters rd as you walk towards the uplands from the city centre.

As always, we are looking for an artist in residence to respond to the proceedings; performance based work to entertain the masses and static, film or video work to exhibit throughout the venue.

If you think you could contribute to the shared experience, then reply to this email with contact details and a brief description of your work and ideas, and we’ll get back to you as soon as possible.

The Social is an excellent opportunity to experience new and challenging work; experiment with your own practice and ideas in the unique context of the St James Social club; interact with like and unlike minded people, or just come for the atmosphere…

We’re looking forward to it already.

Framework.”

http://www.myspace.com/frameworkswansea

Until then, check out these photos below from previous Framework artist in residence, Adam Goodge and his project ‘Hello, I’m Johnny Cash’.

The Swansea fringe festival is back with a new name, and a range of alternative events including music, comedy, art & film; all happening across venues in Swansea from the 26th of October until the 9th of November.

Potential highlights include; experimental jazz from Led Bib at S.I.H.E Townhill campus on the 26th of October; local indie pop from Everyone Else But Bert at Monkey Cafe on the 29th; and multidisciplinary artist collective, Framework, help launch the new Elysium Gallery on the 2nd of November.

Check out the full lineup on the official website http://www.dylanthomasfringe.com/.

I’ve been keen to check out the Framework Social events ever since I’d first heard about them, but I was also a bit apprehensive. What kind of people go out to bake bread and listen to music?

Last Tuesday I finally plucked up some courage, spurred on partly by the fact that I had my own promotion to do (thanks for letting me flyer guys ), and ventured down to St. James Social Club to see some art.

That’s what Framework is basically; a place for people to perform, watch and interact with (or is that intra-act?) art.

I arrived early-ish so that I could take a seat comfortably and watch from the sidelines (not very sociable, I know). The organisers were friendly and they filled me in on the programme of events. I payed my £2 (proceeds going to Oxjam on this occasion) and went to the bar.

St. James’ Social Club is a great little venue for performance, with the tables and chairs arranged in a sort-of U shape around the dance floor come stage. Its worth mentioning that Swansea Jazzland organise events here every Wednesday.

So what happens at the Social?

Read the rest of this entry »

Exist are putting the finishing touches to their brand new website. Its nearly done, so head over to buy a tshirt, check out some photography or have a chat in the forum.

They’re also hosting a free live show in store, this Friday 14th September from 7pm till 9pm; featuring local ‘5 piece Punk Rock heroes’ The Arteries. Plus there’s a new art exhibition from Michael Sorenson.

The Exist Outlet is at 214 Oxford Street, Swansea SA1 3BG.