Erinn Dhesi reflects on her Nestival Residency with Talking Birds
Writing doesn’t suck as much when you’re not writing from a hovel. Not that where I live is a physical hovel. Just a creative one.
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Navkiran Kaur Mann reflects on her Nestival Residency
I started my Nestival Residency with a sense of apprehension. Do I call myself an artist? As a person I am many things. I asked myself, does this label fit me? Do I belong in the arts? As a Brown woman I rarely see people who look like me in the arts.
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Filmmaker Adrian Dowling reflects on his Nestival Residency
It took me more than two months to apply to do the residency. I kept putting it off because I find those kind of things very difficult, but after attending one of the F13 meetings I felt quite comfortable in the space. Duncan Whitley [a former Talking Birds Resident] was pushing me, saying “Why don’t you do it? I think it would be good for you.” So I recorded a voice application with the help of my daughter, Kady, who’s doing all the technical stuff while I’m reading off some paper because I find it quite difficult to write things down.
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Anne Forgan reflects on her Hatching Residency
A place of permission.
I shouldn’t need it, but still I do.
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Matt Rheeston reflects on his Hatching Residency
For my Nest Residency I spent time exploring my creativity in a therapeutic way, through drawing, music, song writing and production.
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Nicola Richardson and Marianne Taviner reflect on their Hatching Residency
We are Nicola and Maz, the Directors of Vortex Creates. Vortex is a Coventry based organisation who for nearly 15 years have specialised in igniting the imagination of audiences through transforming spaces and creating showstopping costumes.
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Selina Masih reflects on her Nestival Residency
I had a great time at The Nest, A two-week art residency in the studio ‘Helloland’. It was painted in a cheerful yellow which made me instantly smile. Two whole weeks to fully immerse myself in this project, I was super excited! For over 2 years I’ve been waiting to find time to explore ‘paint carving’ an art-form I came across during lockdown, created by the Australian artist Hannah Jenson.
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Co-AD Janet reflects on today’s NPO (National Portfolio Organisation) announcement from Arts Council England.
The short version of today’s news is that Talking Birds remains in ACE’s portfolio at standstill funding which is, of course, both welcome and a huge relief.
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Kim Hackleman reflects on her Nest Residency
“Language is a life raft.”
Amanda Gorman
The Nest is a home base and shared workspace for Talking Birds, a company of artists based in Coventry, England, known for their “gently provocative projects which explore, and seek to illuminate, the profound and complex relationships between people and place”(1). This week I completed a two-week, funded residency inside The Nest, in the wonderful studio called ‘Helloland’.
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In June and September of 2022, B.O.O.K took part in a two-week residency at Talking Birds focusing on access riders.
B.O.O.K (Building Our Own Knowledge) is a working group of Black artists, curators, and researchers based in the West Midlands which re-distributes resources via artist residencies, commissions, and projects – with an emphasis on building sustainable ways of working/living and nurturing the development of ‘slow art’ practices.
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Corinne and Daisy reflect on their Remote Nest Residency.
I’m Corinne, a disabled self-portrait artist. This year marks my fifth year of spending almost every day confined to the same 2 by 1.5 metre space, my bed. During my residency my only childhood and imaginary friend Daisy helped me transform a vintage dolls house into our childhood home. I’m Neurodivergent and was never encouraged to read as a child, but at the age of 15 read my first book Charles Dickens’ ‘Great Expectations’. It was a struggle and both my family and teachers discouraged me.
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Olugbemi Moronfolu reflects on her Nest Residency
I started writing poetry as a child, mostly because I was confused.
There were many things that I did not understand.
I didn’t understand why I had to practice my pronunciation when other children did not.
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