Art Uniting People Exhibition 2010

The Art Uniting People Exhibition 2010 ran for two weeks from Monday 13th September - Friday 24th September.

Planning for the exhibition began in late 2009 with organisers Stephen Finnimore, Roy Bray and Richard Tanner working on ideas to build upon the success of the first exhibition to make it bigger and better. Plans stalled in early 2010 due to Steve Finnimore suffering from mental health problems that led to the exhibition being pushed back from a June / July timeframe to September. Richard and Steve worked with a number of PR companies on ideas for promoting the exhibition throughout Kent and eventually began working with Lynne Hodges.

Pleased with the previous exhibition, Paul Absolon from KCC put forward funding for the event, allowing organisers to move forward to recruiting artists which was done in several ways.

• Artists with mental health issues were recruited through mental health groups that they attend.
• Amatuer artists were recruited with a poster campaign in Kent Librarys and Maidstone museum as well as in local art shops.
• Professional artists who are part of the South East Open Studios scheme were emailed individually.
• Artists from 2009 were contacted individually.

Additional funding from MENCAP and the Lottery Arts Council was also sought by Lynne Hodges, however at this stage, it was too late to meet their deadlines for allocating grants. Janet Lloyd from Kent and Medway NHS Partnership Trust then put forward a grant.

During this stage, on 30th July, Steve Finnimore - the creator of Art Uniting People sadly passed away from a suspected heart attack. The remaining organisers got together to decide if the exhibition could go ahead without Steve, but after establishing it would be possible to get access to the funds already deposited, it was decided to push ahead in memory of Steve.

Artist Beryl Bush had been brought on board to give art lessons to mental health groups and following Steve's death assumed a much larger role in organising the event. While artists were initially given the option of entering two pictures, this was extended to three items due to apparent lack of take up. However, by the end of August, 77 artists had paid their entry fee to be exhibited.

Pictures were collected together at Kingswood Community Mental Health Centre in Maidstone between 1st and 3rd September giving time for pictures to be catalogued and organised in time for hanging on 10th September. Artists Fiona Hart, Martin Tanner, Claire Lucas, Cyrell Webb and Peter King helped with the hanging as well as organisers and volunteers Matthew Wallis, Gia Stobbs and Sian Milliner.

Artists were invited to a Grand Opening Event on 11th September. Helen Grant, MP for Maidstone and the Weald formally opened the event. The opening event was largely organised by Beryl Bush. One of the primary goals for the opening event was to attract interest from the press and Lynne Hodges approached Kent Messenger, Kent on Sunday, Downs mail, Meridian TV and the BBC to ask for coverage for the event, but despite several promises, sadly the press did not cover the opening.

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