Back at Pitzhanger Manor & Gallery

Sheila is leading two half term workshops for children at Pitzhanger Manor on 31st October based on their current exhibition Out of the Shadows: MacDonald Gill and the historic house itself. She is looking forward to being back there again! Details below:

"Who's there?" 10am - 12pm (ages 5-7), 2 - 4pm (ages 7-11)

Use maps, find clues, use your imagination and cunning to help solve the puzzling riddles of who and what is hidden away in Pitzhanger Manor. What has been left behind? And why?...

In the rose garden at Pitzhanger Manor in the summer

More Performing Medicine Teaching

At the beginning of 2013 Sheila led a Selected Study Course for third year medical students at King's College London for Clod Ensemble's Performing Medicine project helping them to reflect on their medical practice through performance.  Now, Sheila is back at King's leading a ten week course for fourth year medical students as part of a new Performing Medicine Academic Support Programme.

Students will be working towards a 5 minute presentation which could take the form of a dynamic lecture or performance. During the course Sheila will also be leading a session that focuses on appreciating identity and difference in clinical practice. The course runs September - December 2013.

View fullsize

Covet Me Care For Me wrapping paper

Undercurrent Artist in Residence

Sheila is currently artist in residence at Undercurrent in Shoreham by Sea.  Whilst in residence Sheila will be working on Ramble 2 of Rambles with Nature. There will be a public sharing of the results at some point in November/December. To keep up to date with how the residency is unfolding take a look at Sheila's blog: sheilaghelani.blogspot.co.uk 

Shoreham Beach

The Good Neighbour

The Good Neighbour is back!  Last year Sheila made Presence! for Battersea Arts Centre's very successful The Good Neighbour and this Xmas it's back.  The room is undergoing a slight re-vamp though, so watch this space for further developments. Tickets for the piece are already on sale on the Battersea Art Centre website.

The Good Neighbour

Artist's Group Weekend away

The artist group Sheila is part of had a weekend away in August and it was so great she thought she'd mention here!  Each of the members came prepared with a few images about their work and something they'd like to talk about.  These were presented and then long discussions were held over two days - something not normally possible at monthly meetings.  The group also spent a lot of time cooking, drinking wine and catching up generally. Sheila has been a member of the group since 2006. Here's an image of some of the group taking a walk in a nearby barley field.

Artists Group, Barley Walk

Rambles with Nature has begun

Sheila recieved public funding from the National Lottery through Arts Council England for Rambles with Nature. Hurrah!  So, the project has officially begun kicking off with Ramble 1 in Cambridge.  To keep up to date with project progress read Sheila's blog at www.sheilaghelani.blogspot.co.uk

Rambles with Nature

3 Month residency at Ealing's Pitzhanger Manor & Walpole Park

Sheila was Artist in Residence at Pitzhanger Manor and Walpole Park between May - July this summer. Whilst in residence Sheila developed a new piece of work called A Place for Dreaming, undertook research towards Rambles with Nature, led two workshops with over 65s at The Michael Flanders Day Centre, led another two workshops with local teenagers, opened up the Lodge to the public for a series of free Lunches and Open Studio Events and volunteered in the park's kitchen garden (amongst other things)!

Pitzhanger Lodge

Conversation Starters

As part of Rajni Shah Projects Beyond Glorious symposium Sheila was commissioned to lead a Sunday Brunch Session that would create a space for conversation.  So, Sheila made a series of conversation starters in the form of paper flowers. Participants were encouraged to each take a magnifying glass and:

"Become like Botanists, Study your specimen, See if anything about it opens up a conversation. A word, A colour, A desire to crush it. Be playful. Don't edit". 

Sheila has used the conversation starters since and will more than likely make them a regular part of her workshop repertoire now.

Conversation Starters

4 Week Schools project

In tandem with developing Rat Rose Bird at Chelsea Theatre Sheila has run a series of workshops with 9-10 year olds from local school Ashburnam Primary.  The workshops kicked off with the children visiting the Rat Rose Bird set.  They then went on to develop their own stories and mini sets informed by this first encounter and eventually ended up making a short film documenting the fragments of their stories and ideas. 

In amongst the Rat Rose Bird set

Rat Rose Bird Performances coming up!

Sheila is showing Rat Rose Bird in two spaces over the next month - at Chelsea Theatre as part of their Spring/Summer Sacred season on April 25th, 7.30pm and at Z Arts as a double bill with Michael Pinchbeck’s ‘The Middle’ as part of Word of Warning's Summer Collection on May 31st, 7.30pm.

The piece has been given a facelift, so is worth catching again, even if you've seen it before...

Rat Rose Bird, Photograph by Adam Levy

From Me To You With Love

Sheila has been awarded a Clod Ensemble Extravagant Acts For Mature People commission so will be working with two London day centres. One in Camden and one in Tower Hamlets.  Sheila will work on an 'exchange' project with the two centres - taking objects, letters, audio etc from one group to the other.  At the end of the project Sheila will produce an artistic response of some kind - containing elements of the project as a whole.  The project will run from January - June/July 2013  

From Me To You With Love

Performance Labs

In 2012 Sheila was involved in the teaching of two performance labs.  The first was a two week pilot ArtSchoolLab at The Barbican (based on their exhibition about the Bauhaus), and the second was a module with MA performance students at King's.  The module at King's ran between September and December and culminated in a final showcase of the student's work whereas the Barbican's ArtSchoolLab was a two week intensive. Both were fantastic teaching opportunities with Sheila learning as much from the other tutors participants and students as they did from her!