Foundation Press Starting Lines

Baltic is pleased to present Starting Lines, the first major solo exhibition, an interactive installation exploring creativity collaboration and community, by North-East-based artists and designers Foundation Press. 
 

Foundation Press are artists, designers and educators Adam Phillips and Deborah Bower. They devise initiatives and resources that support diverse communities to explore creativity and storytelling. Their work is rooted in the North-East of England where they work broadly, across subject matter and context, using their collaborative and inclusive practice to initiate conversation, celebration and creative action. 

Starting Lines begins with the art of the creative brief and considers creative making as an everyday activity, open to all. It takes inspiration from artist-authored instructional books, such as Corita Kent and Jan Steward’s Learning By Heart: Teachings to Free the Creative Spirit (1992), that use prompts designed to open up unexpected encounters, social awareness and a playful approach to creativity. 

The exhibition will feature material from the Foundation Press archive, including posters, banners, wallpapers and collaborative publications that traces their contribution and impact across design, print, and community practice over the last 10 years. Over the course of the exhibition, Foundation Press will collaborate with schools, community groups and wider audiences — contributing to a changing display of drawings, prints, publications and video works. The installation will include a studio space, where visitors can make and display their own artistic responses, as well as a Risograph print space that will host a programme of activity, displays and events across the exhibition run. 

Starting Lines will offer visitors and participants creative inspiration throughout its six-month run, highlighting the role of creativity as a powerful tool for meaning making, connection and community.