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On 21 July 2014, an article in the Norwich Evening News opened with the words “I have fallen in love with Anglia Square.” The author of this love letter was Michael James Lewis, artist and Lecturer in Architecture at Norwich University of the Arts. Having made his public declaration of love, Lewis has now gone a step further, with the exhibition 'A Love Letter for Alan Cooke' at the Norwich Arts Centre. James Benedict Brown went to meet him at the exhibition to find out more about the story of this unlikely romance.

First broadcast on 'Platform' on Future Radio 107.8FM, 7 December 2014.

Interview: Michael James Lewis & 'A Love Letter to Alan Cooke' (broadcast date 7 December 2014)

For many artists, starting a family can feel like a major disruption - if not a complete interruption - to one’s creative practice.

Frustrated by galleries, residencies and commissioning bodies that expect all artists to be childless, independent and unconstrained by domestic obligations, the Norwich-based artists Anna Townley and Lawrence Bradby have published a new book about their experiences of combining parenthood and creative practice.

Called 'An Endless Round of Repetitive Tasks with Operatic Anger and Comic Turns', the book combines drawings and photographs by Townley and Bradby, and two essays by Frances Williams and Judith Stewart. Townley and Bradby (along with two of their three daughters, Hope and Martha) sat down at their kitchen table to describe the creative processes that informed their new book.

Interview: Townley And Bradby for Platform, Future Radio 107.8FM (broadcast date 7 December 2014)

With less than two weeks to Christmas, you may be struggling to find a present for that difficult to please friend or family member. So earlier this week, we asked three of Norwich’s book sellers to each recommend three titles that will make excellent Christmas presents. James Benedict Brown speaks to Ben Richardson of Waterstones on Castle Meadow, Henry Layte of the Book Hive on London Street and Chris Rushby of Jarrolds on London Street.

Feature: Norwich booksellers recommend their books for Christmas (broadcast date 14 December 2014)

Formed in 1944, the Norwich 20 Group has just celebrated its seventieth anniversary, and somewhat appropriately the group has now grown to more than seventy members. These include painters, sculptors, installation and conceptual artists, printmakers and photographers. 

While it has been no stranger to the work of the more notable individual members of the Norwich 20, Mandell’s Gallery on Elm Hill in Norwich is hosting its first ever exhibition of the group. The exhibition includes works by more than fifty members of the group.

We’ll hear from John Allen, proprietor of Mandell’s Gallery and two of the group’s younger members, Laura Such and Andrew Reeve. But first, Martin Batty, the President of Norwich 20 Group, introduces the exhibition.

Feature: Norwich 20 70th Anniversary Exhibition (broadcast date 21 December 2014)

Tony George may be known to many artists and students in Norwich as the proprietor of three small gallery spaces on St. Augustine’s Street, but he is also an accomplished artist in his own right. Earlier this year, George graduated in Fine Art from Norwich University of the Arts, before being awarded the Norfolk Contemporary Art Society’s annual prize for his degree show piece, Visual Delights. This series of seven triptych screen prints recalls the landscape and human occupation of the Antarctic, where George was employed by the British Antarctic Survey.

Following a recent exhibition at Gresham’s School and ahead of a planned exhibition in Cambridge next year, Tony George spoke to Platform about his recent work one afternoon in the back bar of the King’s Head on Magdalen Street.

Interview: Tony George & 'Visual Delight' (broadcast date 21 December 2014)

An exhibition with a difference opened this week at Norwich Cathedral’s Hostry. Zheni Warner is presenting a selection of new work entitled The Light of the World. But Warner’s paintings are no ordinary canvases, featuring as they do a variety of coloured neon and LED lighting.

James Benedict Brown met with Zheni at the Hostry to talk about her work, but first, we’ll hear a little bit more about the exhibition space available at Norwich Cathedral Hostry.

Interview: Zheni Warner (broadcast date 11 January 2015)

Now, do you love to take things apart just to see if you can put them back together again? Imagine if you had an open access workshop in the city to use 3D printers, laser cutters and CNC routers by the hour. A new crowd funding campaign is looking to make that possible.

Live interview: Karl Ablitt & the Norwich Makerspace (broadcast date 11 January 2015)

In January 2015, the Norwich writer Lora Stimson was named as the winner of the second annual Words and Women New Writing Prize. Stimson, a graduate of Norwich University of the Arts and the University of East Anglia, has been awarded £600 for her short story, Cornflake Girl.

James Benedict Brown spoke to Words and Women organisers Bel Greenwood and Lynne Bryan about the group’s activities and publications, but before that, we hear from Lora Stimson, as she reads an extract of her prize winning short story.

Stimson’s short story Cornflake Girl will feature in the second Words and Women anthology, to be published in March 2015, alongside other highly selected entries from the competition and four newly commissioned texts for About, an Arts Council supported project which explores the relationship between women and place.

The launch of the book and a performance of extracts from the About commissions will take place on International Women’s Day, Sunday 8 March 2015, at the Forum in Norwich.

Interview: Lora Stimson, 2015 Women & Words New Writer Award Winner (broadcast date 18 January 2015)

Telephone interview with Chris Dercon, Director of Tate Modern, ahead of his 2015 Robert Sainsbury Lecture at the University of East Anglia on 30 January 2015. Following a compressor failure in our studios, this had to be recorded via conference call, hence the lower than usual sound quality.

Interview: Chris Dercon, Director of Tate Modern (broadcast date 25 January 2015)

In the autumn, the Sainsbury Centre for Visual Arts launched a major new exhibition called Reality - Modern and Contemporary British Painting. Curated by the painter Chris Stevens, the exhibition features more than fifty works by thirty three artists. I went to the Sainsbury Centre to meet Chief Curator Amanda Geitner for this two part interview.

Gallery tour: Amanda Geitner at REALITY, Sainsbury Centre (broadcast date 1 February 2015)

James is the Producer and Host of the Arch. Ed. Podcast (archedpodcast.com).

Contributions to Platform, Future Radio 107.8FM

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