Childrens Art Project at BFC- Examples of Today's Work

Genuinely makes me sad.


You Reds?

 

Paintings/photographs of the stadium, legends, even local landmarks/scenery etc, would certainly add even more character/identity to the concourses, and like you say they wouldn't look dated in a couple of years time. The club should make use of talented fans who are more than willing to help.

Have you proposed the offer to Mansford? He certainly comes across as very courteous and i'm sure he would welcome ideas, perhaps unlike his predecessor.

 

No, that's it. I've better things to do. It will be interesting to see if other stuff materialises, such as proposed activities in October for the national Big Draw event and an exhibition area for kids pictures in the east stand concourse.

I will be making more stuff independently, including a Bobby Hassell testimonial piece. The painting will go to Bobby and I will make a ltd edition print of it which will be available to supporters. I hope BFC don't read this!!

 

Who had the proposal?

If anyone who had a copy is still there perhaps they passed if off as their own idea in order to impress the new gaffer?

 

Either way it's great to see the club finally getting kids involved.

 

All fair points but they could have contacted Paul and explained the situation...

 

I think the point here more than owt is that Mr C's ideas disappeared into a void and he had no communication back.

Then all of a sudden this appears.

It may well be a widely used organisation running this but doesn't any fan contacting the club with a serious, well thought out idea deserve a decent response ? Even if the club aren't going to proceed.

This is no reflection on this art project which I think is superb

 

On a smaller scale I did the same. Was even invited down to talk about a number of proposals with Don that I offered my time gratis to manage and help with.

Never got anything back. Instead, they just asked if I fancied ringing local businesses to sell some sponsorship. I declined.

Let's hope the new era changes a few things...

 

dp

 

That's not exactly true either Gall, that was just the ONE occasion. I gifted 5 prints to the club, they wanted to raffle one so I provided a further one framed, under my own expense. It was on the vague understanding there may be an opportunity to sell one or two, which was not accommodated. It would have meant me literally going table to table in the exec saying 'want one of these?' - which I found very inappropriate and was not prepared to do.

On that occasion I happened to bump into Gordon Shepherd, who is a friend and he invited me to watch the match with him. So I watched for free from the exec and we beat Watford, which was nice and the club did very well from the framed print. Fair do's.

I was in the exec on a later occasion, the tonking by Charlton actually, to drop off a further framed print and a dozen more for the club to sell/auction at the POTY do. On that occasion I had already bought a match ticket. On yet another matchday I had popped into give Bruce another framed print to raffle at his festival. I never heard back from him either, as to how that went.

Point is, on no occasion did the club help me to sell prints. They were enthusiastic about doing stuff and asked me to re-send the proposal, which I did. It doesn't get answered, they roll out a project that was literally what I had proposed. If I had heard from the club and they said they were using another firm, I would have been chuffed and that would have been one to tick off the list. It was never my intention of doing everything myself, how can I? I'm in London most of the time, which is why I put several calls out for supporters to get involved.

Even not for profit firms take a wage, I was prepared to do these things for free in my own time. In fact everything in the proposal was geared towards cost neutrality for the club, which is something I am very well drilled in. Also, there were other commercial ideas to actually make the club money, which was my way of responding to this 'in it together' nonsense they have been pedalling this last few seasons.

The checks and qualifications Gally mentions, I already have or the equivalent - and much more. Remember I have been doing such things for nearly 20 years and for organisations much bigger that Barnsley Football Club. My first aid will have expired by now, actually. Add to that 1st class honour and Masters degrees from two of the best art schools in the country. I also have major museum Directors as referees. I wouldn't have felt the need to mention this, if others had not.

If it was a coincidence as Gally has suggested, it should have been pre-empted with an email at least, as much to avoid this exchange we are having now. I did say yesterday it is not a unique idea, just a very curious time to put it into practice.

There has been a change in leadership, fair enough and there was an additional workload preparing for relegation. But my point of contact is still at the club, so that excuse does not was with me and very few of us would get away with that in the workplace.The truth is no-one took ownership of the proposal and communication was poor. But we are talking about BFC here, remember. They are famous for it.

That's my last word on it. I'm only really responding, because Supertyke has been goading me all week and people, Gally included, are coming to their own conclusions. I do feel my efforts were not appreciated, but I'm not going to lose any sleep over it. As I said yesterday, they have not proved themselves to be anyone I could work with, so in one respect it's a bullet dodged.

 

Sorry to hear that mate, is that what you do for a living then? Be interested to see what sort of work you've done in your professional life.

On a side note I think I like the idea of it being current squad members because it means it can be a rolling scheme where kids paint the whole squad every year. Might help make the connection between fans and team a bit better.

 

I see the sense in that too, if it can be initiated every year. It's actually probably cheaper than getting the photo enlargements, though I do feel Oakwell legends are more deserving of paintings. My idea would have involved quite complex painting by numbers which I would have drawn out massive scale, then kids and parents could have filled them in.

I felt the club was struggling with this kind of thing, so I offered to help. It was responding to the call, what can you do for the club? I can't afford to sponsor a player or the like, but this I can provide. I don't want to come across as negative on this project they have done, I hope they do a lot more and it continues into next season and beyond.

My experience came initially through an independent, community arts place called Candid, then later through 6 years at English Heritage and the Foundling Museum. Less so at the V&A because we have a designated department for these things. A lot has come from my own career as a practicing artist/ I've worked with all sorts of groups - autistic children, disadvantaged kids at risk, even prisoners from Pentonville.

My own work, which I exhibit etc, can be a little dark and challenging. At the same time, it is also seen as compassionate and vital by those who take the time to look properly and think about the issues. It does create problems for me occasionally, especially at home in Barnsley. After the last 'incident' I pre-empt any aggro, by attaching press releases and testimonials, one from the Director of the Museum of Childhood in London. The club got these too, just in case someone googled me and found anything 'sinister'. For all I know, this is why the club ignored my proposal.

I like to think most regular posters on here know where I'm coming from. I give so much stuff away for charity causes and the like. Again, it's not something I'd make a fuss about, but right now I do feel like acknowledging the amount of stuff I do for others.

 

Bet Perkins got fed up with people trying to give him a paintbrush every two minutes.

 

Sounds like you've had an interesting career mate. Kudos on the charity work, too.

 

I am happy to confirm

Paul has done a great deal of work for Laura's charity PostPals and we, as a family, are extremely grateful to him for his time and efforts. We appreciate everything he's done in raising money for seriously ill children through the charity. I may be accused of bias here, but Paul is a generous, thoroughly decent bloke who couldn't do enough to help us.

 

Re: I am happy to confirm

Seconded.