N-E-W are planning more events for 2025. If you are interested in joining our meetings and building projects together, please let us know by email – info@n-e-w.org

N-E-W Tuesdays –  Would you be interested in meeting other artists, groups, musicians, writers, poets, designers, filmmakers and more to share ideas, swap tips or just say hello? We are currently gauging interest in a monthly meeting and are proposing the first Tuesday of each month. This could take place in a set venue, or move to different locations. Ideas and thoughts on this will be very welcome – please email mark@markjessett.com

N-E-W ASSEMBLY 2023-24

N-E-W ASSEMBLY was an intergenerational engagement between artists and young creatives from the area. It consisted of an exhibition/project space, workshops and networking events. The project space for ASEEMBLY ran from 15th and the 17th of September 2023 at St. Lawrence Chapel, Ashburton, as part of Little Big Town festival. This was followed by RE ASSEMBLY – a quickfire presentation evening for artists with the help of Patter Scatter and DIS-ASSEMBLY a networking evening for the wider N-E-W network to celebrate the close of the project, share thoughts on the value of this type of engagement project.

At the core of the project was the idea that localised power structures are the key for flourishing communities. Conceived and curated by Rob Manners, ASSEMBLY used a passage from ‘The Total Economy’ by Wendel Berry as a seed for dialogue and invited various local artists and groups including a school to bring together their creative practises and observe the spontaneous emergence of connections –and community.

The exhibition venue itself, the historical St. Lawrence Chapel, invited questioning over education and hierarchic power structures. Now a heritage, cultural and community centre, the Chapel building was a grammar school for over 600 years; the wooden tables and benches where former students carved out their names as ‘graffiti’ are a permanent installation on-site, keeping alive stories of non-compliance. ‘Assembly’ added to this, re-imagining the space and setting up a dialogue through projections, sculpture, painting, music and performance. The project consisted of a variety of interactive events and on each exhibition day the audience were invited to join the ‘Assembly’ – a lively, non-hierarchical discussion and presentation of ideas where the boundaries between improvised performance and dialogue were blurred.

“It was important. Thought provoking and engaging – it encouraged conversation and participation and thinking in and around subjects of environment, social history, process and connection… this kind of assembly … should be at the heart of all communities and not extracurricular.” ASSEMBLY participant

Artists included This Ain’t Jazz, Katie Upton, Sophia Clist, Alex Murdin, Robert Manners, Mark Jessett, Andy Stacey, The Uplifter. Flavia Pinto and students from South Dartmoor Community College who collaborated to re-imagine and re-awaken the Chapel as a site of community education.

Thanks to funders and supporters: All the individuals who have donated time and money to N-E-W, Arts Council England through the National Lottery, Arts University Plymouth Research & Innovation, South Dartmoor Community College, Little Big Town Festival, The Guild of St Lawrence and Ashburton Arts Centre