KArtsCon2024: An Overview
The 2024 conference was hosted by Music & Audio Technology, School of Arts, University of Kent at the Historic Dockyard in Chatham, Kent with the theme of “Art as Legacy“.
We partnered with Medway Council, the University of Kent’s Department of Music and Audio Technology (School of Arts) and Halpern Charitable Foundation to make KArtsCon2024 happen.
Children's School Art Competition
The preamble to the Arts Conference was held on Tuesday, 9 July 2024 at the Sunlight Development Trust, where competition entries were exhibited. The Mayor of Medway, the Worship Cllr Marian Nestorov and his wife attended the event and congratulated the participants on their excellent work. Shortly, he presented the prizes to the winners. Another 20 pieces of artwork were exhibited from the Creative Art Examination Board collection, featuring artwork from children around the world including Malaysia, Indonesia, Thailand, Hong Kong, China, South Korea and Taiwan.
Day 1 - 10 July 2024
Day 1 kicked off with a welcome by Dr Julian Ng of the Warnborough Foundation and Dr David Stokes of Nucleus Arts. The first speaker, Bill Lewis, thrilled everyone with a deep dive into the Stuckism movement which began in the Medway area with artists such as himself and Billy Childish. This was followed by Bryan Hawkins who looked at how archaeological finds combined art, history and legacy.
Dr Juliana Mainard-Sardon and her colleague, Prof Innocent Abubakar from Mozambique discussed how digital storytelling can help reclaim legacy from colonialism. Tamsin Fox-Davies did a workshop on the importance and effectiveness of marketing for artists, before KArtsCon regular, Valeriya Korchagina, blew everyone out of the water with her special FX work on Hollywood blockbusters.
After lunch, Annette Kramer had a thumping workshop session on creating legacy immediately, which significantly raised the level of energy post-food. This was followed by Esther Watts from the NHS who spoke about how creative health can be nurtured and protected. The day ended with a Creative Health panel led by Dr Julian, with Bryan Hawkins, Dr David Stokes, Dr Ruth Herbert of the University of Kent, Dr Annette Kramer and Esther Watts.
Day 2 - 11 July 2024
The second day of the conference started with a bang in the Beats Room with sound, music, and animation as Gabi Almeida introduced Mini Gabi World, a character created to navigate through healing after a traumatic injury. Continuing on, Soo Han Chua talked about how to innovate the future of table top gaming. Over in the Clocktower Lecture Theatre, Stephanie Fuller delighted participants with colour and sculpture.
KArtsCon co-director Dr David Stokes explained a radical new approach to evaluating the effectiveness of social proscribing as far as the arts and creative health are concerned. Gouhar Pirzada zoomed in from Pakistan with a discourse on preserving cultural heritage and legacy through textiles, interior design and fashion. Dr Pamela Hatton then challenged the audience on what is legacy and what is art.
Logging in from Kyrgyzstan, Dr Maria Dremina introduced her unique style of neurostyling using artistic approaches. Dr Sumita Chauhan from India presented her unique project of using photography to work with elderly people, particularly those suffering from dementia. Krisilda Kastrati led an art workshop in the Beats Room.
Jasmine Ng made everyone laugh, act out, and cry with her poignant but incisive look during her workshop about working with children with special needs. Lisa Lobanova gave the audience interesting nuggets to ponder with a presentation on artificial intelligence (AI) and how it might revolutionise the art industry (or not). Over in the Beats Room, Mirela Bardoshi and Miranda Brati instructed (via Zoom) delegates on how to create Albanian-style beadwork.
Dallendyshe Metalia and Elva Tobli took participants on a trip to Albania, and as is wont at KArtsCon, even managed to initiate an impromptu traditional dance and singalong, with willing volunteers from the audience. Dulcie Alexander spoke about the Arts Council England’s Creative Health Plan funding, and provided one-to-one sessions with interested parties.
Jamila Zanna Muhammad had the delegates in stitches before transforming the whole room into a dance party and a conga line. Simon Gregory Partridge gave an interesting talk combining existential questions by way of Hamlet with acute observations of the arts and literature. To finish off Day 2, Bryan Hawkins ran a workshop entitled ‘Legacy is Now’.
Day 3 - 12 July 2024
The events of the third day took place at the Galvanising Workshop. After the initial introduction, Nekomaru Okita brought tradition, culture and music to Chatham with her Okinawan folk instrument, the sanshin. Together with her friend, Keiko, she contrasted the traditional with the modern and even invited the audience to sing along to the Beatles’ Let it Be. This was immediately followed by Bill Lewis who performed some of the poems from his latest book. After a short break, Lana Arkhi talked about the importance of the eyes in portraiture.
Jay Patel got everyone’s creative juices flowing with a simple workshop – creating a legacy for the Historic Dockyard Chatham. This was followed by another unique masterclass demonstration by Madoka Davis who showed participants how to create Japanese creative and colour food art (bento). After a short lunch break, participants got to hear Danielle Williams play 3 songs.
Day 3 was rounded off by Nadia Perrotta who had reinvented herself as a steampunk Android with performances from her new adventure as well as the previous comic books. Robyn Gibbs led the delegation on a manga-creating spree which was thoroughly enjoyed by everyone, and Dr Julian Ng led a workshop to create ways forward for the KArtsCon legacy in terms of community creative health.
Finally, a short formal closing event was held where all participants were presented with their certificates of participation, and photographs were taken by everyone before the end of the event of 2024.
Acknowledgements and Thank Yous
Big thanks go out to The School of Arts at the University of Kent for hosting us on their amazing campus; the Historic Dockyard Chatham for being an awesome venue; also to Peter Maher, Frank Walker and Dr Ruth Herbert for all their assistance at the University; Medway Council for arrangements including the attendance of the Mayor of Medway; Sunlight Development Trust for hosting our schools art competition; Chilston Park Hotel for hosting our CAEB exhibition and showcase; Siesta Crafts in Canterbury for donating a prize, and the Warnborough Foundation and College staff for organising everything and for donating all the main prizes for the school children.
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