THE MOTLEY BAUHAUS
Access Info (docx) Access Info (pdf)The Motley Bauhaus is many things to many people.
For those who like live performance we have two live performance areas. An intimate Theatre where weekly you will see a host of live shows from independent producers. Upstairs we have a less formal stage area for cabaret, music, burlesque, standup or any of the bits in between.
For those who like art we have a beautiful light filled gallery dedicated to promoting up coming and independent artists, along with workshops and studios for those who prefer to do instead of watch.
For those who like just a fun place to hang out we have two seperate bar areas with an outdoor courtyard downstairs, a fun relaxed vide, happy hour from 4-6, free bbq's on Friday afternoons and the occasional free entertainment.
And for those that like to know things, what we are is a completely unique, utterly independent and proudly inclusionary multidisciplinary art and craft house dedicated to promoting skills based art practices, encouraging intermingling across all disciplines and making art an everyday part of our lives.
The ethos of the space is derived from the Staatliches Bauhaus school opened in Germany in 1919 which combined art and craft, respected them equally, and believed they should be more integrated into the community. In that vein we are focused on promoting skills based arts practises and fostering creativity in the wider community by giving a home to artists of any and all disciplines and running various art and craft classes and related activity.
So whether you're seeing a show, attending a workshop, looking at art or just having a drink. To you we say... welcome.
OUR MANIFESTO
The ultimate aim of the artist today is survival. Once valued and exalted members of society, the artist has now been pushed to the fringes, forced to etch out a little piece of life by any means they can, whilst occasionally passing commentary on the world around them. Not as members of that world, but rather as rarified, unappreciated and exotic foreign creatures.
A new world is upon us. Robots stand poised to take away the workers means of production, the media takes a back seat to backyard journalists, while truth keeps trying desperately to put its pants on.
This is the age of mediocrity. Our revolutionary leaders have been traded for social media and in a world where a persons entire existence can be negated at the speed of a million retweets, fear of standing up to the onslaught of public scrutiny has lead to a void of inspirational leadership. What is left is a society directionless, motionless, lost in a sea of half formed ideas presided over by shysters, conmen and buffoons.
Traditionally in these times of political turmoil people look to their artisans to shine a light into the darkened recesses and find the hidden way forward. Unfortunately it is these exact recesses that are now home to the shrivelled masses of artists already discarded by the world around them. The beautiful symbiosis of artist and audience has now become a broken relationship, like two ex lovers still living in the same share house.
While all the while the masters of creation, exalted by their rich benefactors and to the absolute exclusion of all others preside over an arts industry, where once there was an arts practice. Streams of money flow through entire mechanisms, festivals and centres, fuelled by the free labor of the artists upon who’s shoulders it’s all built.
So how do we reestablish this unity? Reunite these spurned lovers. The responsibility lies squarely on those self same shoulders, those who seek to etch out a life of artistic pursuit. The old ways of artist as genius lead to nothing but the idolisation of false gods floating above society in a bubble inflated by their own ego.
So it is time for a return to craft. To skill based arts. To technique. To artists that have the necessary physical ability to excel in their chosen art form. We must be active, fit and hard working. Always looking for opportunities to better ourselves, always searching for new ways to grow and strengthen our skills. Be sharp and intelligent, listening to the world around and ready to reflect it back with barbarous wit, infectious joy and absolute love and kindness.
If artists are once again to be respected members of society (and it is crucial that they are) then those self same artists need to have the skills necessary to call themselves artists. That word must mean something.
Locked away in studios and workshops, it often feels as if an artist walks a lone path through this life, but they should know that in this life they are not alone. For all artists, from those who shape clay to those who tread boards, those you scratch on paper to those that spin through the air, we are all just one big motley crew of creators, working towards a common goal. All communicating through different dialects of the same universal and ancient language.
So let us create a new guild of craftspersons without the class distinctions that raise an arrogant barrier between craftsperson and artist.
And let this place be not a vicious factory demanding absolute and unequivocal brilliance. Our goal is not practically perfect polished work, but rather a fun house of experimentation. A place for audiences to revel in seeing skilled artists throwing it all up in the air, turning it all on its head, test driving, cutting teeth. Staring oblivion in the face and bending it to their will. Let's fail spectacularly and have fun doing it.
And let the Motley Bauhaus be not a final destination, but a stop along the way. Little more than a roadhouse outside the gates to the golden city of creativity we shall build together.
So powder those dance shoes, prime that canvas, dust off the vocal cords and ink that quill. Society needs us. And we need them.
Because we may well be able to live a life without art, but what a shit life that would be.