Adults with learning disabilities from West Sussex County Council’s Starburst Arts are being supported to sell their work through an online gallery. Called Art Out There, this is a growth of its OUTBURST initiative by the Chichester-based project, which has been trying to make the work of the artists more visible within the wider community. The artists are creating online galleries of their work with support from staff from the Chichester-based Starburst Arts, which is based at the Wrenford Centre. Recently Starburst Arts ran a project called 20ME12 in which iPads and iMacs were used to make works of art. Participants were then supported to upload their work onto the internet via the Starburst Facebook social networking site. The artists involved in that project said they wanted to develop and explore more ways of using technology, not only to create artwork, but also to connect with their community – hence the decision to create the online galleries. This has led to the idea of promoting artwork for sale online, as well as by the traditional means of exhibitions and commissions. Starburst Arts are continuing to add new artists and support their existing artists to put new artwork on their galleries to ensure they stay up to date. Artwork from the galleries will also be shown in local venues.
Artist Phillip Judd said: “I like it that people can see what I can do, it makes me feel included in the community. I enjoy updating my Weebly page, I can do that by myself now. I also really like the response I get when I’m on the Starburst Facebook page.” Fellow artist Marc Talmage said: “It makes me feel good that somebody has bought my painting. Making some money is fantastic, I’m going to use it towards my holiday.” Peter Catchpole, West Sussex County Council’s Cabinet Member for Adult Social Care and Health, said: “These are some very talented artists so I welcome this initiative. I would encourage members of the public to take the time to log on to view their work.” The artists’ work can be seen at http://starburstartoutthere.weebly.com/
Starburst Arts are also encouraging people to follow them on their on their Facebook page. https://www.facebook.com/pages/Starburst-Arts/278123718884034 For further information on this initiative email starburstarts@hotmail.co.uk.