Little Blue Hut
Little Blue Hut Artist Residencies
Little Blue Hut sits on Tankerton Slopes, offering inspiring sea views and tranquil creative thinking space to our resident artists.
A series of beach hut residencies started in April 2009 and will see artists and creative practitioners from all areas of practise using the hut as a creative space to develop their work.
Emily Yates
Thursday 19 August - Thursday 30 September 2010
Emily is a singer/songwriter who is passionate about music and its ability to connect and unite people. She has been singing professionally since 2001 and has performed in various contexts and groups from rock bands to gospel choirs.Currently she performs regularly both as a solo singer/songwriter and fronts the Canterbury based band, Belleville.
"I aspire to give time to reading and thinking in the quiet and tranquil space that the Little Blue Hut offers, in order to let creativity develop naturally and to fuel new ideas which I may not have had time to discover or develop previously."
Follow Emily's creative journey on her blog.
Laureate Squad
Danny Rhodes, Andrew McGuiness, Vicky Wilson and Gary Studley
Wednesday 14 July until Wednesday 18 August 2010
The Laureate Squad's residency in the Little Blue Hut is a chance for them to reflect and work on their own individual practices.
Drop in to meet them during the Oyster festival on Monday 26 July at the Little Blue Hut or you can even have dinner with them in the evening if you like! Further details on how to book is available here
Watch this space for more information on their blogs!
Kate Phillimore - Curator of Biennale Satellite programme
The Endless Seminar
June until July 2010
Kate Phillimore, organiser of the Biennale Satellite Programme, will be holding hourly seminars on each Sunday of the Whitstable Biennale to discuss contemporary curatorial practice, theory and challenges. Guest curators will be joining each Sunday to contribute their unique insight and lead discussions. These seminars are open to everyone. (Emerging curators are especially invited to attend).A reader made up of a compilation of texts, thoughts and images will be prepared beforehand for all visitors.
For further details on the seminars visit the website
Patricia Debney
Little Blue hut residency
Wednesday 21 April - Wednesday 2 June 2010
Patricia Debney was born in Texas and now lives in Kent. She is the author of a collection of prose poetry, How to Be a Dragonfly (Smith Doorstop Books, 2005), the overall winner of the 2004 Poetry Business Competition; and a novel, Losing You (bluechrome, 2007). Her short stories and poetry have appeared in various anthologies and journals, including New Writing, Tales of the Decongested, and the Forward Anthology of Best Poems, as well as online. She has written libretti for opera as well as for solo voice, and is a frequent contributor to Kent and Sussex arts festivals. She has taught creative writing for eighteen years across all levels and stages: for Arvon, adult education, in prisons, and in schools. She is currently Senior Lecturer in Creative Writing at the University of Kent, where she teaches on both the undergraduate and MA programmes, and organises the university reading series. She lives in Canterbury with her partner, a composer, and their two children. In 2007 she was appointed Canterbury’s first Laureate.
Rob Turner
Little Blue Hut residency
Wednesday 14 October to Wednesday 25 November 2009
"I'm a local artist with a long track record of working with many different communities in many different environments. I've never worked in a beach hut, though, and the idea really inspires me.
What I'd love to do is use the hut residency to take digital images of the wind farm on a regular basis form the same viewpoint. Different times of day mean light conditions vary dramatically in conjunction with types of weather to produce a very varied series of images, with a constant core"
Rob will be telling us more about his experience in the Little Blue Hut blogs.
Check back soon!
Find out more about Rob's work by visiting his website
The Canterbury Laureate Squad:
Andrew McGuinness, Danny Rhodes, Gary Studley and Vicky Wilson
Little Blue Hut residents from 21 August to 7 October 2009
Literature is being brought into the limelight through the Canterbury Laureate scheme. Pioneering poet and performer Patience Agbabi is the new Canterbury Laureate, working with the Laureate Squad of four acclaimed writers based in the Canterbury district, to produce the 'Laureate Line-Up' of exciting events and activities throughout the year, that will get the Canterbury district into writing!
The Laureate Squad are: novelists Danny Rhodes, author of Asboville and Soldier Boy (both Maia Press) and Andrew McGuinness, author of The Portrait of the Arsonist as a Young Man (Bluechrome), together with Vicky Wilson, who was named Canterbury Festival Poet of the Year in 2007, and Gary Studley, who has contributed to numerous publications including The Stubborn Mule Orchestra. As well as their own work they have all been active in encouraging new writing amongst the community. Find out more about the Canterbury Laureate Squad visit www.write-here.net
Little Blue Hut is a fantastic first stop on the journey!
Read the Laureate Squad's Little Blue Blog
Nina Atkinson, Artistic Director, Loop Dance Company
Little Blue Hut Resident Artist from 29 July to 19 August 2009
After completing 3 years training at the Laban Centre, Nina went on to form Loop Dance Company. As Artistic Director of Loop, Nina has worked with many well know choreographers including Filip Van Huffel, Jonzi D and Yael Flexer. She has created many works for Loop including site specific and has led and overseen many community, youth and educational dance projects.
Alongside Nina's work with Loop she has also worked as a freelance choreographer, teacher, and dancer. She has taught many dancers at a variety of levels and ages, was artistic director of Medway Youth Dance Theatre from 1993-2002.
In 2004 Nina returned from a two-year sabbatical in New York studying Limón technique at the Limón Dance Foundation. In addition, Nina taught at Peridance Center, participated in open classes and studied Low Flying Trapeze with Fly-By-Night Dance Theatre.
Liz Knowles 
Little Blue Hut Resident Artist from 26 May to 1 July 2009
Our second Little Blue Hut resident is Liz Knowles, a creative practitioner based in Whitstable. Liz is currently experimenting through a wide range of creative outlets.
"My work tends to orbit a variety of themes. Elements of interest that have cropped up in the past include structure, sound, landscape, energy, meandering, wondering, time, glimpsing, grasping, pondering, stillness, texture to name but a few. You may find me in the midst of re-examining one of these subjects, or having been knocked sideways and into another realm of inspiration entirely by a Little Blue Hut visitor. I hope this residency will end up being a rich mixture of both."
Bryony Harrison
Little Blue Hut Resident Artist from 1 April to 13 May 2009
Bryony Harrison is a visual artist, she works with wire and plaster sculpture, mono printing and sketching to produce contemporary art.
"I find the materials I work with are inspiring and fill me with ideas which simply flow, one from the other and space to work on each of these ideas would help me see many concepts through to fruition. I will be exploring the concept of evolution as a way of belonging in the world, evolution as an alternative to creationism. It is important to me to be close to nature and to be able to go out sketching or collecting items that could potentially become a part of my work. When sculpting I find that natural forms are inspiring and on days when I find it hard to get started, a wander outside usually results in some new ideas."
Read Bryony's Little Blue Blog
