There is Beauty in the City: Bilbao Exhibition

Something amazing has been going on in Bilbao. The Beauty in the City Magnet project has exploded! Glen Stoker (project manager) has been in conversation with Igor Calvo from Bilbao and a Bilbao based project has blossomed from their conversations.
Over 300 people queued up to get their hands on one of the magnet packs, and tomorrow night an exhibition will open at one of Bilbao's major art spaces, Sala Rekalde.
Here is the press release for the project: I will post later with images from the show. 137 new photographic submissions have come in from Bilbao over the last couple of months so far - go to the project blog to have a butchers.

Press Release for There is Beauty in the City: Bilbao

What : Photographic Exhibition

Where: Sala Rekalde Gallery, Alameda Recalde, 30 48009 Bilbao

When: Tuesday 17^th May – Tuesday 24^th May

Web: www.thereisbeautyinthecity.blogspot.com

There is Beauty in the City is an online photographic project which originates from Stoke-on-Trent by local artist, and Lecturer in Fine Art at Staffordshire University, Anna Francis. The idea, a central part of the City’s 2008 Axis Festival, was inspired by the post-industrial nature of Stoke-on-Trent and was aimed at generating an attitudinal change in the way we look at our cities. To look for the beauty in our city, rather than a constant emphasis on degeneration.

To join the project the participant simply applys for a “There is Beauty in the City” magnet – places the magnet in a beautiful or favourite part of the city – and takes a photograph. The photograph and some explanatory text is then submitted to the project blog.

In the 3 years since its inception, this celebration of Stoke-on-Trent has grown into a celebration of cities worldwide. Over 300 submissions have come in locally, nationally and internationally – in fact from 13 different countries – reaching as far as Whanganui in New Zealand, over 12,000 miles away.

The latest instalment comes in the form of a collaboration with an artist collective and gallery in Bilbao. The project has taken the city of Bilbao by storm, with over 300 people queuing up to get hold of their magnet and the photographic results will be on show at a major art gallery (Sala Rekalde) in the heart of Bilbao.

I hope you agree that it is an uplifting and enervating thought that a Stoke-on-Trent artist and the city itself has inspired another great city, going through a similar regeneration process to look at itself in a different more positive light.

For more information and images please contact Glen Stoker:

thereisbeautyinthecity@yahoo.co.uk