July Round-Up: The Bank Arts Awards and Looking Ahead to August

Hello all!

July brought some very exciting times for The Bank, including our first ever showcase of young artistic talent from East Anglia and beyond. The Bank Arts Awards featured some beautiful works, and four awards were given to the best pieces.

And here's a small selection of the work we've been featuring throughout July...

This piece, by Joseph Daniel, was awarded 'Best in Show'. The panel loved the concept, and the fantastic detailing of the figure. 

Sophie Chittock's fantastic piece was awarded with best use of technical skill.

Ella Odams's pastels won 'Most Promising Artist'. Absolutely stunning!

And finally, our award for 'Best Use of Imagination and Concept was awarded to Joff Bullock for his two imaginative films, one of which has been embedded below: 

The judges loved his beautiful Suffolk night sky time lapse. It not only showcases Joff's skills as a filmmaker, but also the stunning night sky we have in this county. 

As well as our award winners, several other artworks have been featured during July - our Facebook album features many examples of the work we've featured. 

Our next exhibition is currently being curated, and we'll be back with updates very soon (and a small look at some of the artworks/poetry we'll be featuring on our walls. 

Also, we have published our programme of events for August. It can be accessed here.

We have also joined Twitter recently, so do follow us if you're a Twitter user (@bankartscentre)

More updates coming soon, so keep a watch on our upcoming events and performances!

The Bank

A Boat in The Bank

Here at The Bank, we love a broad range of artworks. Now we have curated our largest piece ever featured in any exhibit. 

Created by a student of Hartismere High School in Eye, this boat has graced the waters and now graces the main hall of The Bank - with it's mast four inches away from the ceiling! It's impossible to get the whole thing into a picture, due to it's vastness, but it really does need to be seen. 

It's safe to say we raised the bar with this piece (and the sails). It's featured as part of the The Bank Arts Awards, and we hope you will love it as much as we do!

And to round off this post, a little look at the boat in action before it reached us...

(h/t to Richard Bullock for this fantastic picture)

The Bank

Upcoming in July 2013

Hello everyone,

July has brought with it some sunshine (finally) and Andy Murray's win at Wimbledon. And upcoming at The Bank this month, we have some fantastic events and exhibits heading to Eye!

Exhibits
The 'Fabric in the Building' exhibition has come down, and we're currently curating the 'The Bank Art Awards' showcase, which will be hung very soon. It's a fantastic opportunity to come along and see the upcoming artistic talent we have in Suffolk and surrounding areas. We'll be offering a sneak peek right here on The Bank Blog once the exhibit is finished, so watch this space for this feature! The showcase will run until 28th July, so come and check it out!
Other Newsworthy Things
The Bank has recently been featured in the Wortham and Burgate newsletter, available here (scroll down to page 16 to read our piece).  Also, Carl Goldspink has begun a new radio show on our community radio. We are also in talks to get more content brought to the radio, and are always open to suggestions. So if you have anything you'd like to hear/broadcast, we are willing to hear what you have for us. We have recently set up an Instagram profile and you can follow us @thebankgrams We'll be back in a few days time, with our feature on the new exhibition. In the mean time, keep enjoying our lovely arts centres offerings and keep checking back for further updates.  The Bank

A sneak peek at...Fabric in the Building!

Our second exhibition, Fabric in the Building, is hanging in The Bank for you to feast your eyes upon! We'll be giving you a quick peek at some of the artworks we're featuring until July 7th.

If you've walked past, or viewed from afar the stunning Green Girl glimmering in the window, here she is in her beautiful glory. Even on the rather overcast day in which this photo was taken, it's a beautiful piece of glass. And on the days when the sun does make an appearance, the colours shine! 

This piece was created at Phoenix Glassworks, based in Denham, Suffolk. Specialising in stained glass panels, this piece is an example of their fantastic crafts.

This beautiful sea scape is one of our artworks from Ely-based artist Melanie Missin. Another one of these hangs in the main hall, this one is next to the coffee station. 

These impressive hangings are placed next to the stage. The main hall allows us to exhibit these vast pieces and show them the way they are intended to be seen. 

This stunning dress forms part of the Strongroom exhibit downstairs, which also includes a short film on the projector. 

And finally...

Some crochet flowers have snuck themselves into our table vases! They make a gorgeous addition to our usual table displays, adding a lovely fabric touch to each. 

This is just a sample of our exhibition - so if you have yet to view this beautiful showcase, why not come along and see for yourself!

The Bank

Our Concerts: Brooke Sharkey & Dove and Boweevil

Once a month, The Bank finds itself transformed into a cafe-style concert venue. Using our fantastic acoustics and stunning surroundings, we have held some wonderful performances over the past few months.

Our opening performance by folk singer Brooke Sharkey was a huge success. Filling The Bank with French-English gyspy and blues influenced songs, our opening night couldn't have been better. 

In May, we played host to Dove and Boweevil, who brought an electric show to The Bank with their fantastic blues sound. 

If you're liking what you hear (and who wouldn't?), we have several more concerts upcoming - these are currently listed on our Music Events page. Come and check it out!

The Bank (videos courtesey of Ian Harvey)

Introducing: The Bank

About Us

The Bank is the trading name of Eyes Open CIC, a community interest company dedicated to bringing arts to the town of Eye and it's surrounding areas. The Bank acts as a space for creativity, performance and inspiration for a wide range of arts including - fine art, sculpture, music, theatre and literature/literary arts. During the day time, we run the centre as a cafe and exhibition space for the public. Art classes also run throughout the day. Every month we run regular concerts and performance events, featuring artists such as Brooke Sharkey, Dove and Boweevil and Vagaband.

Every six weeks, we run themed exhibitions. We feature artworks from local, national and international artists.

We also have our own recording studio and digital projection space in the old Strongroom, which is available for public use. We also hold film screenings in the studio, often as part of our exhibits.

In addition to this, we have our upstairs treatment rooms, which can be booked out for use.

The cafe is open six days a week, offering our delicious Bank Breakfasts and lunches, as well as our very own Bank Coffee Blend (made exclusively for us), tasty tea selection and creamy hot chocolate. We also sell an array of gorgeous cakes and biscuits. We have many gluten and dairy free options, and hot drinks can be made with dairy alternatives on request.

Our Story

The Bank, as it is today, grew out of a group idea (which later became Eyes Open CIC). Drawing together the expertise of four different individuals, the aim was to create a community space with different arts uses. The first thing was to find a building that would best suit the requirements. We eventually settled on a derelict building, the former bank in the centre of Eye. Once a huge part of the community, it had since closed and not reopened for five years. Whilst it would need a vast amount of work, it was agreed that it did have some huge potential.

In the old counters and screens, we saw the potential for somewhere the community could be proud of, and a place artists would be honoured to exhibit and perform in. In a period of a few weeks (and with the help of our fantastic volunteers), The Bank was turned from this...

To this...

We gave the building a new lease of life and the community a new space to enjoy and create art.

The Future

We will be holding further events, including our exciting Under 18 Art Awards and Art is the Word. As a community space, we welcome suggestions, comments, artworks and collaborations.

Above all, we'd like to thank the local community,visitors to The Bank and the artists/collaborators for their continued support of this fantastic project. And to new visitors, a very warm welcome awaits, with beautiful art and inspiring surroundings!

The Bank aims to become an intergral part of the community and add to the growing arts scene in East Anglia as a whole.

Thank you for reading and supporting us, and you'll see some more updates very soon - including more features on our fantastic performances and exhibits. Be sure to check back soon!

The Bank